Finances are often tight for missionaries. With COVID-19 taking its toll on the global economy, it is likely our financial challenges will grow. The struggle is often more acute for national missionaries, those working in their own countries. There can be a struggle to keep food on the table, children’s school fees paid, and other basic necessities. With this comes a great temptation to use inappropriate means to raise funds.

What might work for a quick “win,” is very appealing when our struggle is great. One strategy I’ve seen people use, is to befriend strangers on Facebook, then send them financial requests. This article will help you understand why you should not do this.

In the long-term, this tactic proves disastrous. One of the most ineffective methods of fund-raising I know of is using social media as a source of new foreign donors.

It’s Unethical

You should not do this because it is unethical (dishonorable). It is not a good long-term approach to being sustained in your ministry. The kind of pity and guilt donors you might find using this approach will be short-term. They are unlikely to support you in the way you want and need to be supported. Doing this, you will lose the respect of others who are potentially the right kind of people to become long-term ministry partners. It’s not worth the trade-off.

A Violation of Trust

I felt violated. I’d befriended a young Indian pastor who seemed interested to multiply disciples in his area. He was a pushy type, but sometimes these people make good movement leaders if mentored closely. I wanted to help and believe in him. I’ve made it a practice to believe the best of people. Often I see their potential before they do. Perhaps he would be a leader of hundreds of churches one day!

At first, things went well. He seemed keen to receive my help and mentoring. I saw him show initiative, and he seemed to have a large circle of young people he was training.

There were overtones of financial motivation, but I was careful. I didn’t agree to pay for anything. If he wanted me to come train, he would need to raise most of the money for the training event. I would not pay for transportation, nor cover the participant’s expenses. The training went well, and I was encouraged.

Until a few months later, when trust was violated.

A Message From My Relative

My husband’s cousin sent me a Facebook message. “Do you know so and so? They have been messaging me, asking me for money.“

I was shocked! How in the world did this person get my husband’s cousin’s contact? I’d never given it to him. This cousin lived in the USA and had no reason to be interacting with this man.

Anger and frustration rose in my heart. I felt as if someone had come into my home, snuck around, and stolen something from me. This was wrong and dishonorable. I immediately wrote to him and shared my concerns.

“I became Facebook friends with you because I trusted you. I’ve invested in you. Now you are going into my Facebook account and contacting my other friends without my knowledge, then asking them for money! This is wrong”, I told him. “If you continue to do this, or I hear of it again, I will unfriend you,” I wrote.

The man sent me a half-hearted apology, but trust had been damaged. I would not help him further, nor invest in his ministry, neither as a mentor nor financially. In fact, if asked, I would tell others not to trust him, that he was not a good person to work with. What he lost was far more valuable than what he gained.

I said, “Plow new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, your Lord, and I will come and pour out blessings upon you.”

Hosea 10:12 GNT.

Why Fundraising Through Facebook Is a Bad Idea

1. You risk your reputation when approaching strangers this way.

Once you get a bad reputation, as someone who uses foreigners to get money, it is very hard to get rid of. It follows you. Your national colleagues will not want to work with you. Foreigners who may be interested to partner, but check you out with others, will hear of it. This is a very high price to pay in the long-term.

2. It breaks trust with your friends who are connected to these people.

Trust takes much time to develop, but can quickly broken. When you use your friends (on Facebook or elsewhere) to find people to approach for money, it violates trust. Unless you ask them first, and they make the introduction, you must always be cautious in approaching your friend’s friends. Like I did, if they find out about it, they will feel violated and angry.

3. This approach is not relational, but manipulative.

Reaching out to strangers and telling your “sad story” manipulates. It doesn’t build a relationship. God intends us to be compassionate as He is. Pity and compassion are very different things. Sending pictures of starving children, or telling people you don’t have food, makes people feel sorry for you. It doesn’t make them respect you. Ultimately, donors will invest long-term in those they have a relationship with. They will give to those whose ministries they respect. Regular communication, sharing vision and prayer needs, build long-term relationships. This is far more effective in the long run!

4. This approach does not reflect trust in God, nor confidence in your own people that they are able to give to God’s projects.

As national missionaries and foreign missionaries, we must trust God as our provider. His faithfulness, goodness, and power must be where we put our trust.

Jesus broke bread and fish and fed five thousand! This is the same God we serve. Will you miss out on a miracle? On your true inheritance, by trading it for a short-term, manipulative approach? Will you press into God, work hard to communicate your vision, and pray much until you see a release from within your own relational networks?

Do you believe your own people are also commissioned by God to give to missions? Rise up in faith that God can provide for missionaries through every kind of people. It’s often the rich we look to, but everyone can give! And as they do, God will bless and multiply their resources.

God is able to meet your needs! Stand on His Word.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Phil. 4:19 ESV.

How Do I Raise Finances?

If raising funds through strangers on Facebook or other social media is not a good way to raise the critically needed money, what is the right way? Sign up for a short 5-day email course that will provide some help to you in this.

Seek God for innovative and creative ways to generate income locally, or develop ministry partnerships. Rise up in faith my friend. He is with you and will never leave nor forsake you!