Fundraising Failure: When a Large Donor Says No

Imagine pouring your heart and soul into a fundraising effort, only to be met with a disappointing "no." Hope you enjoy this woeful journal entry.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

So journal entry number three here behind the scenes of making a show, this is just the raw, unedited. I just got a call from a potential donor that we've been working with, having meetings with, to try and seal a large donation for the show. And sometimes in my years of raising money, you leave a pitch meeting or a phone call or a Zoom and sometimes you feel just like garbage, sometimes like wow, that was a horrible pitch. Either you don't feel like you performed well or you feel like they were just like a brick wall. Other times you feel you know like, oh, that went decent. Here's what's crazy. I've never, ever felt, um, I've never felt like the witness of the Holy Spirit on a a pitch meeting, ever in my years of raising large sums of money to produce movies and films and all sorts of kind of stuff live stage shows but with this person, about a month and a half ago now, we've been working this relationship that sounds bad. Been reaching out to invite him to partner with us. A month and a half ago, when I was on the meeting with this person, I felt like I don't know how to explain it I just felt the Holy spirit on my, my pitch, as I was sharing the vision for this musical, this Christmas show, to see soul saved, and yada, yada, yada, and it was like I remember those moments where, in real time this is weird. So I just had such a good feeling from day one with this person. I was like, oh my goodness, I felt. I told some people from our team, I told my wife I was like this, this, I have a really good feeling about this, like I felt the, the witness of the Holy spirit on this meeting as I was sharing it's, it's going to be good, it's going to be good. And then, uh, you know, you, you follow up, you know respectfully and you know. So, anyway, that's just where we're at, you know.

Speaker 1: 2:25

And I just had this, this whole what if thing come to me. I posted on my channel, uh, on a different, different playlist, but you know he's not the God of what if? What if this, this bad thing happens, what if this person does this to me? What if this, what if this, what if this? And you just end up cowering in fear. That's basically the principle of what I was sharing and I said I literally just recorded this video last night, this what if video, and I said I want to live on the other side of what ifs. What if God is really this good? And what if God is really as kind as the Bible says he is? And what if you know he the ask anything in my name, it'll be given to you. It was really, really true, you know so.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So here we find ourselves. We got a no from a potential large donor, but you know, you don't stop, you don't give into fear, you don't take your foot off the gas. You keep going, believing that he has, he has you, he has us, he has a show, he has my production company and we're we're continuing to move forward. So, again, there's all kinds of things I could pull out to you know, apply to you and hopefully encourage you and your journey. Hopefully you're gathering those things, hearing me wallow and talk about this, but you know, choosing to believe, choosing to believe faith, is not a feeling.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Faith is not a feeling. The same way that love is not a feeling, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So we're continuing to press in and continuing to believe God's word and continuing to believe that this show is going to be incredible. It is going to be incredible. Hey, thank you so much for joining me in this behind the scenes episode of this Christmas show. One Found Worthy. This thing is being produced live on stage in Kansas City, missouri, december 13th and 14th. I want to invite you to visit firelightcpcom or click the link connected to this. You can get free tickets on there, you can get premium seating tickets or you can get a special donation. Thank you so much for being on this journey with us and helping us produce this show.