Organisation Website: Part 1: Online Donations

Your website is the tool which takes you across the world to people who have never met you and are browsing the web and hoping to make a difference in the lives of orphans - and then they find you or not?

There is so much to cover on this topic that I will continue to do it in parts.  Each part can be implemented with the right skills (if you have a content management system like Joomla!, Drupal, Wordpress, Chasimba and Plone - these are not the only ones but they all have a very similar functionality) or if you have the right person (a web designer) or you can compensate with alternatives which we will discuss too.

Websites are funny things, owners want them to be "pretty".  Now there is nothing wrong with a well designed, graphically appealing website but if you can't be found by the search engines and there's no life on the site - potential donors/ volunteers/ funders will lose interest very quickly.  Placeholders or sites that contain just enough information to get by and whose information never changes will not bring any return.

Online Donations Option

In my experience 50% of our donations have come through random acts of kindness. (of course also on the fact that the public is able to find our website easily and then likes what they read - which we will cover later - like I said there is a lot to learn).  It also means that when volunteers have left us/ on the way to us or someone hears about us - without having to pick up the phone or log into their bank account, they are able to make a donation.  80% of people, according to statistics ( and I don't know how accurate those statistics are) want to pay with a credit card online.  After all what person who is based in Canada wants to arrange an international transfer?  This way in the comfort of their home they can then make their payment.

With an online donations option  - you can refer people to your website for donations even on social networking sites like Facebook.  You can use the same technique in your newsletters or any online Internet based options.  It doesn't mean that you take off your bank details but you want to make it as easy as possible for individuals to make a contribution.

Now I DO NOT advocate any of these products or get a commission from them, I am purely listing them for information purposes only.  Some online payment systems include the following:
Paypal
Monsterpay
Payfast
Setcom

There is some administration involved like verifying that the bank account actually belongs to the organisation, normally some identification documents, but once its done - you have a tool of fundraising that happens with very little effort.

Let me know what type of online payment system you use and what your experiences have been.

Questions to guide your discovery?

The monumental task of trying to analyse where your organisation or ministry is at,  can at times be overwhelming and confusing.  We have created a simple online form which you can fill in and based on your responses, we will be able to assess prior to our arrival what we need to be aware of.  The more information you can share prior to our arrival, the more we are able to plan ahead and prepare ourselves.

You can view the form here.

How it started?

We are often asked how all of this started and I have been slow to write purely because sometimes these type of experiences happen in the privacy of our hearts and not in the public arena – however for many people, they want to understand our motives, understand who we are and mostly find out whether we are truly people of integrity. So this is our story.

This was not a project that happened overnight but was birthed years ago when Sean and I read a book on George Mueller – a remarkable man who transformed a country’s orphan crisis. Our hearts were stirred in the same way and as we talked we realized that something irrevocable had been done to our world perception.

In the years that followed, it kept resurfacing, dreams of children dying in their mother’s arms, poverty and the devastation in the lives of these special children.   It wasn’t until we had our daughter Savannah that we heard the call loud and clear. She was born with a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18. In fact we were told that she would not live longer than 48 hours. We spent 9 special months with her. In fact during that time, though we never knew when, we knew we would lose her.

What I found though was that as I held her, I thought to myself ‘this is what a mother feels like when they have a baby with an incurable disease – you know the most precious gift in your eyes could slip away at any moment’. We loved beyond the physical (her body was misformed and was a tiny 2kg – in fact she never got much bigger) and we loved her without restraint. We finally said goodbye to her 9 months later.

As we read newspapers about orphaned and abandoned babies our hearts cried for them as we considered these precious lives who deserved to be loved and cared for as much as any other child. Who needed the love and care of a mother’s arms, who deserved to be protected and seen as precious.

We started researching how to go about setting up a home for orphaned and abandoned babies (iKhaya LikaBaba) with the support and encouragement of 2 very special people – Alex and Michelle van Laren (our then lead elders of the church Thandaza where we fellowship). They encouraged us to run with this project. After all the research, setting up a committee and meeting with other organizations we decided to take in our first baby in December 2007. This was a big decision as it would be into our own home. We had no finances, no staff, and could not wait any longer. Our first baby arrived and was the most precious child. In fact I had to restrain myself from adopting him myself.

Baby no 2 arrived in March as did baby no 3. By the time we took in baby no 4 we realized that this was no longer sustainable and was affecting our family life in a big way. With 3 boys of our own, homeschooling and running our own business, we were finding the pressure too much. We had at this point, hired one full time staff member and one part time one to help us at home.

Wanting to help us , Thandaza Covenant Church offered us a piece of their newly acquired land. It was a small 2 roomed house which needed LOTS of work but it was something we could work with, something that gave us a chance to regain some of our family life back. We built, we fixed, we painted – we moved all the babies and staff into the home in July 2008.  From then this ministry has just grown from strength to strength.

Under the new leadership of Mark and Cindy Neumann who took over from Alex and Michelle (who planted a church in Holland), they have gathered support and built a team who have been truly remarkable in increasing the capacity of the organisation, accountability and momentum.  We know that in their capable hands, God's heart will continue to be reflected through iKhaya LikaBaba.

As we prepare to leave Empangeni and head to Cape Town, there is a new building which can care for many babies, a volunteer house and a fantastic leadership team who will take this ministry further.  Our purpose was always to pioneer this home and hand it over to the church - which we did. Our season has now drawn to a close and we know that we have been called to be more effective and help others do what we have done and so much more.  We know that iKhaya LikaBaba will always be our "baby" but this relationship does not end here.  We are establishing an International Orphan Network (ION) which is about mentoring and equipping the church to take care of orphans.  Its will be built by invitation, relationship and support.  We do not believe in sharing information but sharing God's heart and the expression of that heart in everything we do from recruiting volunteers to how we interact with our communities.

The Principles of Multiplication

After having established iKhaya LikaBaba - home for orphaned and abandoned babies in Empangeni , 3 years later - the church has taken ownership of this ministry and we have moved from being Sean and I to a ten strong management team who carry the heart of God for orphans and have a vision and desire to run and grow and establish even greater things than I could ever do.

Sean and I have spent many hours talking about our new season in God and we have realised that there is still so much to do.  The deposit that God put in my heart 3 years ago is a permanent one, not one that I can run from or supress but use for God's glory.

God has been speaking to me about "mobilizing the church" .  We have learnt so much in the process and have made many mistakes and in God have had fantastic successes and so this new season will be one of mentorship and equipping.  It was suggested that I would be some kind of consultant but the term "consultant" sounds so much like a marketing term and so for my own peace of mind I would prefer to use the word - mentor.  I know that God is calling me to draw alongside churches and offer the rich deposit of skills, experience and insights.   After all, isn't that what our gifts and talents are to be used for - the edification of the church.

This is an exciting season of changing gears and a real sense of God increasing our influence and extending our tent pegs.  I know that this blog is necessary for those of you who would read this and be thinking "yes our church is feeling stirred to care for orphans but how do we do this?", or "we have a ministry that touches the lives of orphans but we need help, we need training, we need equipping".  By blogging hopefully you will catch the Father's Heart and you will get to know me just a little bit - and maybe even build up a little credibility along the way;) I am passionate about saving lives and changing destinies and I want to help others do the same.