First Mondays

Fundraising and board development are key components of most organizations these days. Among those organizations are the campus ministries of the church. While supported for many years by benevolence streams from regional and national offices, today campus ministries in all Christian denominations are facing survival and the necessity of raising funding and support to continue the vital work that they do on college and university campuses across the country. Benevolence streams simply will not sustain these ministries today as they have in the past. In a struggling economy, giving is more local and targeted to fewer recipients. Individuals struggle. Congregations struggle. Regional/synod and churchwide organizations struggle. Consequently, campus ministries struggle. Ministries are expected to raise more and more of their support. Staff and boards feel pressed to take on this necessary work, while continuing to provide the essential components of ministry in higher education. If fundraising is a requirement, the best choice is to do it well, efficiently, and thoughtfully. In the end, fundraising is a ministry alongside everything else that is a part of a healthy, vital campus ministry.

From 2001 to 2010, Campus Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has sought to provide training and resources to its local ministries. One of the consistent resources has been a monthly publication titled, The First Monday Report. It was written and edited to place in the hands of local staff and board members the best insightful information from a broad spectrum of sources, including the nonprofit world. Based on the understanding that “all fund raising is friend raising” and that stewardship in the life of the church undergirds all of what we would know as fundraising, The First Monday Report brought together the best secular and ecclesial thinking and focused it on the particular mission of campus ministry.

At the completion of this work, it was decided that this compendium of ideas and resources should not be lost, but rather edited and refined, so as to make a more permanent resource available, not only to the ELCA, but to other Christian denominations as well. The three portfolios posted on this site are, therefore, topical collections around the themes of fundraising, board development, and cultivation of a positive climate for ministry. It is our hope that what can be learned from reading and sharing these articles will continue to enhance the important work and mission

• Fund-raising
• Supporting and Encouraging Ministry
• Board Development