In 2003, TWR (previously Trans World Radio) assigned me the interesting pioneer work of transferring the processes I’d developed in fundraising through “Church Ministries” in the US to “receiving” countries that were dependent on “Western” funding. The goal was twofold: to reduce the burden of global financial responsibilities in the US, and to promote the financial self-sufficiency of international partner ministries. Because foreign funding could not go on in perpetuity, the risk for the global enterprise was identified, and a scalable plan of action was established.

We started with TWR’s Eastern European partners in the former Soviet Union. It was hoped that a time-line of five or six years of my living there would be sufficient for the knowledge transfer. The middle class was rising, and churches were growing, unlike in the US and European churches, which were in decline and giving less and less to international mission work. In the end, it was me who received the transfer of knowledge from staff. What a privilege!

Nine years and thousands of hours of staff input later, the idea of “Faith Reliance” was globally implemented and considered part of TWR International’s DNA. Not every international partner participated, but those who did had God-sized stories to tell—how local individuals and churches became faithful prayer and giving friends.

Unfortunately, today many churches and Christian NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) cannot raise their own funding because of war or intense religious persecution. Each region and situation must be examined separately. However, many are still stuck in “receiving” mode: unwilling or too overwhelmed to change. Such Christian enterprise work then often revolves around searching for and accepting foreign funding at risk of their dignity, their future sustainability due to internal or external forces or crises, and sometimes even their own original calling from God.

This paper and presentation will point out historic and current risks in missions funding. Space permits pointing to several solutions. What space does not permit is commenting on cross-cultural, biblical fundraising essentials. Thankfully, there are now plenty of experts in that field.