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In conjunction with Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, Sagamore's Amy Sherman released in early December 2010 the findings of her study on the effectiveness of Mission Increase Foundation's (MIF) work in helping faith-based charities boost their fundraising and overall success.

Read the Executive Summary of Generating Leverage, Multiplying Impact:

“Leverage” is the single word that best describes the heart of Mission Increase Foundation.

For Dale Stockamp and Ron Post, the businessman and ministry leader who combined their passions and gifts to launch the Foundation in 2001, Mission Increase Foundation (MIF) is about multiplication: enhancing the skills of ministry leaders so that they can grow their support base and increase the number of people they serve. Unlike most foundations, MIF focuses on capacity building (as opposed to direct social services). Even more uniquely, it hones in specifically on fundraising capacity and provides a blended menu of training, consulting, and grant making. It offers its services for free.

In summer 2009, MIF contracted with the Sagamore Institute’s Center on Faith in Communities (Sagamore) to conduct a detailed examination of its activities and influence. Sagamore prepared on online survey for MIF constituents and conducted onsite interviews with staff, Board members, and nonprofit directors from two of MIF’s six branch offices. Sagamore also completed 43 telephone interviews with ministry leaders. Our study sought to gain insight into the ways that involvement with MIF had influenced participating nonprofits, and in particular, what differences such involvement had made on the ministries’ donor development performance. We also sought to understand what makes MIF unique from other foundations and training organizations.

In its early years, MIF focused initially on intensive consulting and grant making. In 2006, MIF began placing greater emphasis on providing free fundraising training (not tied to grants) for nonprofit leaders. That same year the Foundation also began expanding its services into new regions by opening new field offices. These two moves significantly increased MIF’s reach. In 2006 it hosted 11 events serving 113 unique attendees from 68 nonprofit organizations. By 2008 it was hosting 280 events serving 1,977 unique attendees from 924 nonprofits. From its inception to December 2009, MIF has made 437 grants totaling $18,556,641 to 185 organizations 1. The highest proportion of grantees is in Portland, where MIF began and is still headquartered. Overall, MIF has influenced close to 1000 nonprofits through its various services.

With few exceptions, MIF targets only Christian, direct service nonprofits of annual budgets between roughly $200,000 and $2 million dollars. Roughly two-thirds of MIF’s constituents come to them with little prior training in fundraising/donor development. Most nonprofit leaders interviewed reported that ample opportunities for fundraising training were available to them in their locales—as long as they could afford them and did not insist on training that was explicitly Christian. In almost every case, only MIF offered free training, and MIF’s programs were typically among only very few options that were explicitly faith-based.

MIF teaches a comprehensive “transformational giving” paradigm to trainees that differs in important ways from traditional fundraising instruction. MIF’s training focuses on helping nonprofit leaders to increase volunteer involvement in their ministries. It encourages trainees to provide a wide menu of hands-on involvement opportunities and to walk alongside volunteers as they become more deeply invested with the ministry. Such volunteers are coached to become champions of the organization, using their influence within their own social network to spread the ministry’s cause. In short, the model is centered on donor discipleship. It redefines traditional markers of fundraising success by placing more emphasis on the donor’s personal commitment to the cause and less on the dollar amount of his/her giving. MIF emphasizes training in new donor acquisition, teaching ministry leaders to coach current donors in bringing in new donors and to host events that introduce the nonprofit to people previously unaware of it. It also equips leaders to recapture lapsed donors.

Nonprofit leaders report that these practical strategies have been fruitful, but their most frequent praise of MIF concerns something more fundamental. Repeatedly they report that MIF has helped them to gain a totally new, and more Biblical perspective on the task of fundraising, and that this has motivated them to be invigorated, more creative, and to make more cheerful efforts.

Overall, Sagamore’s survey analysis from 450 constituents of MIF found that high levels of involvement with the Foundation, a high degree of implementation of MIF strategies, and receipt of a grant from MIF were strongly correlated with the organizations showing the greatest degree of fundraising success. In short, what MIF teaches works. Key findings from the study are highlighted below:

Read full study here.