In this episode, Vance and Zoe do a deep dive on how taking 10 Silicon Valley startup principles can be equally leveraged to 10 fundraising principles that will multiply your fundraising efforts, derived from a chapter out of Vance's book "High Growth Fundraising The Silicon Valley Way".
To purchase Vance's book, click HERE.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
We always want a community where our vision
(00:03):
exceeds our resources. That'scalled the generosity gap. We
want a vision that completelyoutweighs our current resources.
That is when we give ourcommunity an opportunity to
partner to fill that generositygap.
Past pastor turn tech leader anda millennial churchgoer,
exploring the intersection oftechnology, culture and faith,
(00:26):
equipping you with innovativestrategies to support you as you
live out your calling leaderchurches with confidence to step
into the future together. Thisis the give it up podcast. So my
friend here Vance wrote a bookcalled high growth fundraising
the Silicon Valley Way yourfriend, thank you. No, I just
said it for the podcast. Wecan't lie, though. No, you are
(00:47):
my friend. But I love the book,because it's actually a really
helpful tool and resource. Yes,for fundraisers across the
board. We're here to help. Andone of my favorite parts of the
book was where you summarized 10principles love lists that can
radically transform come onlisticles. I think that's a
word. No, it's a big list. Yep.
All right, listicles. I'll chatGPT this afterwards, whatever
(01:10):
that is. But it's all abouttransforming your fundraising 10
principles that will do it. So Iactually want to run through
these 10 principles. In thisepisode. We're just getting
our free content out here at theoverflow pod. I know we won't
have to buy the book, you'rejust gonna get a whole chapter
right now.
Let's go here to serve. Okay. So10 principles, we're starting
off with V for Vance. No, justkidding. This one's for vision.
(01:33):
Yes, hell that is so important,right? We say this at our
church, that we always want acommunity where our vision
exceeds our resources. That'scalled the God gap. That's
called Let's Make it reallypractical, the generosity gap?
Yes, you want to make sure thatyou are communicating a vision
(01:55):
that is compelling. So this isfrom the Silicon Valley tactic
of even how you raise funds hereon Sand Hill Road in San
Francisco from some of the topventure capitalists in the
world, right? VCs Actually,don't just index on the
credibility of the team. That'simportant. But that's not the
(02:18):
only component. They don't justindex on the quality of the
product that you have. That's acomponent. But that's not the
totality of how they make adecision. One important
component that they consider iswhat's called Tam. total
addressable market. Why? Becausethe way the math works out for
(02:42):
venture capitalists, is that ifthey invest X amount of money to
get 10 to 20%, of your company,and they do that 10 times over
with nine other companies,likely eight or nine of those 10
companies that they invested in,is likely going to go to zero,
they're literally going to loseall of their money, right? And
(03:04):
so what needs to happen to beable to what they call return
their fund, one or two of themhave to go big. Yeah, they can't
be mediocre. So if they investeda million dollars, they're not
looking for $2 million dollarsback, they're not looking for to
X. Minimum, they're probablylooking for $10 million back at
10x. But what a lot of them arelooking for is 100x back, right
(03:29):
$100 million back for that $1million investment. That is the
VC game. And that's why it'svery risky. But it works out
mathematically because a coupleof times, statistically, if
they're doing their investinggame, right, they are going to,
quote unquote, hit it big.
Right. So, you know, tooversimplify it, what does it
(03:50):
mean to hit it big? Well, basedon the way that the valuations
work, provincial capitalists,whether they get it get in at a
$10 million valuation, or a $20million valuation, all of that
really are just details, becausewhat they're looking for is a 1
billion to $10 billion plusoutcome. So what does that mean?
(04:11):
Yeah, even if you have the mostprolific founder, the most
prolific team, the most epicproduct, but they don't believe
that this is going to be able tobe a billion dollar company, or
if it's a consumer product reach100 million people, a billion
people, they literally cannotmathematically invest. Wow,
(04:35):
okay. Why am I saying that?
Because in the same way, achurch obviously, we're not
providing people a return oninvestment. Yeah, but our
mindset should be, we'reproviding people a return on
impact. Do you have a billiondollar idea? Do you have an idea
(04:55):
of vision? Yeah, a call to arms,that is on the magnitude Have a
billion dollar impact. And thatdoesn't necessarily need to be
measured monetarily. But thatcan be measured in your reach
and community that can bemeasured by your influence in a
society that can be measured byways that you want to
(05:15):
fundamentally change and shiftcertain policies, and certain
programs and certain ways toreach people for the gospel of
Jesus. That's the realm it needsto be if you're going to truly
unlock unprecedented amounts ofgenerosity. And so that's what
(05:36):
we say we want a vision thatcompletely outweighs our current
resources. And that is when wegive our community an
opportunity to partner to fillthat generosity gap. I love
that, would you say that visionand mission are synonyms? Are
they two different? Yeah, ina lot of ways it is. I mean, you
know, to delineate it, if that'shelpful, a mission is kind of
(05:57):
like your, your, your mantra,your operating principle. It is
the core of why you do what youdo, right. And so at overflow,
our mission is simple to inspirethe world to give, we're going
to continue to exist as acompany, as long as there's
people to inspire to give of itin America, only half of
(06:18):
Americans give $1 or more.
There's so many more people toinspire, to give even $1 Yes,
right. And so that's kind of ouroperating principle, we will
continue to exist, it's, it'sour mission, it's our quest,
right? A vision is slightlydifferent in the sense that you
are projecting a picture for thefuture that you want to see.
(06:42):
Right, and some of the mostcompelling visions project, a
future that doesn't yet exist,that you will now need to
create. Yeah. And so our visionis to build the infrastructure
that makes generosityfrictionless, across every major
asset class, that future is notcurrently a present reality. And
(07:02):
so we are continuing to executeevery single day to make that
future vision, a currentreality. And so in a lot of
ways, mission and vision worktogether. Obviously, the
infrastructure that makesgenerosity, frictionless, is
connected to inspiring the worldto give, they go hand in hand,
but they are slightly different.
The vision is wanting to projecta picture, a destination, you
(07:25):
know, where are we going? Andthen another part of that mix,
right is the culture. I thinkpeople underestimate that. Yeah.
And so if you have a communityand your mission is to go and
make disciples, okay, that'd bea good mission for a church. And
your vision is to when the wholebay area or when a whole region,
(07:48):
you know, or whatever that is,and that's the destination, you
want to see Santa Fe, for Jesus,you want to see Kansas City,
yeah, be be run by the ways inthe principles of Jesus so that
humans can flourish you, youwant to see XYZ city, right?
Predominantly be impacted by themessage of grace and love.
(08:10):
Right? Then, if you areprojecting that as the
destination, the vehicle inwhich you drive towards that
destination is actually culture.
Right? And so, you know, if yourvision is to build the most
(08:30):
generous community the world hasever seen, then you need to then
build a vehicle. That is yourculture, you have to build a
culture of generosity. Yeah, soculture is everything from
language to little things thatreinforce what your values are.
(08:52):
And so those are some of thebuilding blocks. And all of that
is connected to if you're tryingto cultivate a generous
community to try to achievecertain goals, really vision,
but all of those other pillarsaround vision is very important
to achieve that.
Yeah, no, I love that. And thesecond one we talked about is
timelines, which I think is soimportant. Nothing gets done
(09:13):
without a deadline. Come on.
That's like the the SMARTacronym that we learned in like
leadership classes. The M is formeasurable. Yeah, that's that's
actually the only part Iremember from the acronym
because that was the mostimportant tangible.
Yeah. So you know, the thing isthat probably by August,
September, you should be settingyour calendar for the next year.
(09:35):
Hmm. Next year, the next fullyear do you have your vision
godless set? Do you have yourKingdom Builder events set?
Right? Do you have these builtin deadlines in your calendar?
Because if you don't have thosein you're not going to be
keeping yourself accountable towork backwards from them right
(09:57):
to plan it out. The reality issome times we are not getting
the outcomes that we wantbecause we are not prepared or
planning for the outcomes thatwe need. And so ultimately, this
whole idea of timeline anddeadlines is making sure you
schedule generosity. You createinflection points, you create
(10:20):
seasons, you create moments,within a year to facilitate
catalytic giving. You get cleverabout it, you understand the
ebbs and flows of how yourcommunity gives, maybe not just
how your community gives howpeople humans given general.
Yeah, we know in America, a lotof people give naturally, at the
(10:43):
end of the year, why would younot do some sort of year end
giving campaign? Sure, right. Weknow that naturally, especially
for the church space, peoplefeel a little bit more generous
are on Easter, because thingsare full. Attendance is up,
people are getting saved, peopleare seeing visually the impact
(11:03):
of the church. Why would you notprovide opportunities and
seasons within the spring? tocatalyze giving, right and so
timelines, deadlines, planning,preparation, all key to
maximizing generosity.
Awesome. The third one we haveis impact. Explain what impact
actually entails. Yeah,so, you know, charity, water
(11:25):
really kind of pioneered thiswhere they were able to tie your
dollars or a set amount ofdollars, to literally a specific
Well, Compassion Internationalhas done this for decades, where
they tie your $17 a month to aspecific child, and that child
you build a relationship withbecause they're literally
(11:47):
writing you letters. Yeah. Thatinstills recurring giving that,
you know, basically minimizeswhat we call in the Silicon
Valley churn. Right. So a lot ofchurches actually should
probably learn from SAScompanies. Because SAS companies
think maniacally about thingslike customer acquisition cost,
(12:10):
and net dollar retention. Okay,what do I mean by that? Well,
there's a certain amount ofmoney that and you could
probably measure this for yourchurch that it takes to convert
a tie there. And I know I'mbeing really crass in my
language about how I'm talkingabout church, but this is
reality, that there's a certainamount of money that billboard
that you bought on that highway,those Google ads, those Facebook
(12:34):
ads that you're doing thoseYelp, you know, promotions that
you're doing to try to funnel inpeople to your church, and, you
know, we flower up the languagein church, or, Hey, this is our
outreach budget. This is howwe're reaching out to people and
things like that, yes, fine. Youcan define it however you want.
But ultimately, all of thatcarries a cost. And with the
right data, and with the rightinsights, you can back into how
(12:55):
much it costs to get a newmember, and how much it costs to
get a new giver. In your church.
Right. Yeah. And so or for yournonprofit. So if it costs, let's
say, 20 bucks, right? And a newgiver, on average, is $25.
(13:18):
Right? a month? Yeah. You have agreat funnel. Absolutely. And,
and so that's how I think weshould, you know, start to
deepen our insights, as seniorchurch leaders as pastors as
executive pastors, CFOs, it goesback to stewardship. Right, it
goes back to stewardship,yes. which then brings the next
point into frame and that'sexecution. Yeah. This is
(13:42):
something that I feel like thechurch at large struggles with,
and it comes back to doing whatyou say you're gonna do. Yeah,
but what does excellentexecution look like for you?
Well,I think a lot of times we say,
at least from the top right. Wewant an excellent team. Sure. We
want an A team. Yeah. Goddeserves our excellence. Right?
(14:05):
Which he does. But then weempower people with that vision.
We empower people with thatculture. But we don't have the
mechanisms in in place toinspect to come around. And to
actually, from the user'sperspective, take inventory of
(14:27):
if that excellence is beingactually executed. Right. And so
for example, when's the lasttime you drove in? Five minutes,
10 minutes or maybe even righton time at a service and
experienced what a new guestwould experience? Great boy,
right? And actually, like, youknow, because a lot of times,
(14:51):
you know, if you're on a seniorchurch leadership team, you're
coming in early through the backdoor. through a very unique
path. And when's the last timeyou actually went through the
path where hundreds or even1000s of people are going and
just inspecting? Hey, are thingsbeing executed the way in which
I want it excellently beingexecuted? Yeah. You can apply
(15:14):
that to every other aspect ofchurch building, especially with
your givers. Have you actuallythought about how a giver is
receiving communication? Haveyou put yourself in the giver
shoes of how they got invited toa kingdom builders event? Or to
a vision? God, Allah? Yeah. Doesyour communication how does that
(15:40):
come off? Right? Did you justoutsource a bunch of things? And
you don't actually know? Andthen you're frustrated? Because
Why is nobody signing up? Forthe Kingdom Builder event? Why
didn't anybody show up for thevision Gala? Do you know how
they were communicated to maybethere was some rogue
communication that went out? Andit was all well meaning, but you
just didn't know thatmisrepresented your voice? Yeah.
(16:01):
Yeah. And so when I talk aboutexecution, when I talk about
excellence, it's, it's a SiliconValley principle, it's having a
user mindset. It's beingcustomer obsessed. How is the
actual person that's using so atoverflow, for example, we could
be so focused on just wanting tocater to a lead pastor. And for
some churches, that's the rightperson to cater to. But at the
(16:23):
end of the day, for a lot ofchurches that we serve, it's
actually the CFO, or theexecutive pastor, or a campus
pastor or a financeadministrator, that's actually
using our product on a day today yeah, we're building
relationships with those people.
We're obsessed with how they'reinteracting with our platform,
so that we can also cater tothem. Yes.
I love that. And you're talkingabout language kind of being
(16:45):
misrepresented when it comes togiving? Can we just speak to
that for a second? What type oflanguage is good to use when it
comes to giving andcommunicating that?
Yeah, so we do this teaching apassage is a brilliant teaching
on saying thank you, and how wedo that too much in the church.
(17:06):
That thank you is actually notKingdom language. Thank you, and
especially the tone in which yousay thank you, is almost as if
you're drawing attention to yourself like you go around every
Sunday profusely thinking, thankyou so much to my volunteers.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. We used to do theseThank you awards at our church,
and we would do these epic, likequarterly. Thank you awards to
(17:29):
the top volunteers. Guess what?
After we gave them the award, wenever saw them again. Huh? It's
like, they were only doing thisfor the approval of man. Oh,
wow. And then they got therecognition. And they didn't
need to serve anymore. What'smore Kingdom language? Actually,
the Bible says, well done. goodand faithful servant. Yeah. Well
(17:54):
Done is better language. It'ssaying, well done recognition.
But keep going. Right? Well donerecognition. You're never doing
this for man, you should havebeen doing this unto God, keep
going. Right. And so that's justone example of how you should
think through language, youshould think through what
(18:15):
language is in alignment to thetype of community that you're
trying to build. Early on in ourchurch. We used to, because
we're trying to build a church,we only had a few dozen people.
We're trying to, to, you know,get as many people into the
church as possible. And peoplewould say this, especially
(18:35):
church shoppers, they would say,We're just checking you out. And
we're like in the backfield,like, Oh, you're shaking, so we
need to perform. We're likeclowns, trying to like, do a
dance, you know. And then wejust like arrested that culture.
And we started posing back topeople when they said, Oh, we're
just checking out we say, oh,no, no, we're also checking you
(18:56):
out. I don't know if you'regonna like it here. It's
expensive to go to five. Webelieve in the tie. Whoa. So you
know, it's like, okay, firing,you know, this is again, a
really crass term, good speakingbusiness terms, but in the
business world is called firingyour worst customers. Those that
are just drains on thecommunity, but don't contribute.
(19:18):
Yeah.
Wow. I love that. And you know,as I'm thinking about language,
people may still have somequestions like, can you just
give me like a couple sentencesto say, we're actually going to
share more about this on ouroverflow insider page. So just
head to overflow dot C O, like,insider live hangar? That's
right. You need to be part ofoverflow insider zone, tell them
a little bit more about whatthey should expect. We are
(19:38):
actually building an epiccommunity with overflow Insider.
I mean, the thing is, theexcitement just continues to
build, you're going to getexclusive access to specific
content that is for fundraisersCFOs. Basically, we want to make
the content that you actuallywant, how do we do this because
we give you access to havecommerce Patients with Vancil
(20:01):
ask us questions so that it'snot just generic like, oh, man,
I listened to this podcast and Igot this tidbit. No, why get a
tidbit when you can get a wholemeal? And that's what overflow
insider is going to be able toprovide you with? Let's go.
Yeah. Should we keep going? Howlong do we have? Okay, oh, wait,
I'm going to do more than okay.
What are these principles? Okay.
(20:25):
So we're talking about giving,which then brings the next
principle into frame which isrecurring giving? Yes. About
that.
Yeah. So in the Silicon Valley,we call it especially for
software as a service SaaScompanies, we call it annual
recurring revenue. Arr, right.
And so a healthy SAS company,they are very focused on growing
(20:48):
ARR on a month over month, yearover year basis. In the same
way, churches should not just befocused on the top line of
givers, they should be focusedon how you're converting the top
line as much into recurringgivers as possible, why your CFO
is going to love you for this,because now you have
(21:10):
predictability around yourgiving, you have predictability
around budgeting, predictabilityaround forecasting, with
predictability, you can nowalign your tasks towards your
purpose a lot better, you know,when you're going to have what
money at what time to be able todo, what type of vision element
(21:30):
to be able to extend the kingdomforward in, you know, XYZ way.
And so that's why recurringrevenue is so important. Arr
recurring revenue recurringgiving in the church base, it's
eating up the world. I mean,everything that you're doing
right now is attaching some sortof a subscription to it. Amazon
Prime, yeah, Netflix and thingslike that. And we are not busy
(21:53):
defying the church. But we aretaking some of these principles
that the Silicon Valleycompanies have been successful
with to create sustainablegeneration defining companies.
Yes. Because of the sound thingsthat we can now leverage and
learn from. And so I would bevery focused. And you can use
overflow for this to understandokay, not just my top line
(22:14):
givers, but what are thedifferent things that influence
a top line giver, to thenconvert into recurring, yeah,
that then becomes a veryresilient portion of the
resources coming into yourorganization, which then builds
a very healthy church to be ableto do big things.
(22:35):
I love it. So the next one, Ican't wait to hear answer
because we get this question alot. And it's people asking, How
often should I be talking aboutgiving? I don't want people to
be like, help. We're desperatefor money. But the next
principle is cadence ofcommunication. Yeah.
Yeah, you want to again,schedule in your generosity, you
(22:57):
want to schedule in the wayyou're going to communicate to
your generous donors. You know,one thing that I've seen work
really, really well, is thatwhen you have an annual cadence
of vision dollars, when you getto the vision gala in November,
or something like that, thatshouldn't be the first time
you're communicating with thosegenerous givers within the year,
(23:20):
right? Yeah, it probablyactually should just be a
culmination of a bunch ofstrategic meetings you've had
with them over the course of ayear, you could do it on a
quarterly basis, that's probablya good time. And then within in
between quarters, maybe one highimpact email, before some of
those quarterly events at thosequarterly events, what are you
(23:41):
doing okay, at these quarterlyevents, you are bringing all
your generous people together,that in and of itself is
electric, to be able to getpeople that already bought in
tithers people that have alreadybought into committing to giving
above and beyond the tide all injust one room and like a
breakfast environment, crossconnecting, encouraging each
(24:01):
other, you know, some of thesepeople, sometimes their high
capacity in their careers,they're not making it every
Sunday. So this is like theirone time to really cross connect
and build community and makesome connections. You're setting
that environment, then you arecelebrating everything that
God's done already year to date.
And then you are communicatingexclusive information that the
(24:23):
even the church hasn't heardyet. That creates a buy in and a
sense of ownership that willcreate and cultivate more
generosity.
Yeah, that's excellent. And thenobviously, a really powerful
piece is the next principle,which is story and testimony.
Yeah.
I mean, especially when you getto these events. People love
(24:46):
stats, but even more they lovestories. That's why Hollywood
will always have a place inbeing one of the most
influential regions in the worldbecause stories move people.
Yes, right. And so you don'twant to miss moments. Tell
stories as much as you'retalking about stats, you should
be pairing it with a story oflife transformation, literally,
(25:07):
like, if you're the church,you're in the business of
helping people going from deadto living. That's literally the
business that we're in. Yeah,we're not even in the business
of behavior modification or lifeenhancement. There's a lot of
other organizations that, youknow, transparently do a lot
better than the church at thosetype of things. Yes, we're in
(25:28):
the business of people literallybeing dead in their trespasses
because of the wages of theirsin. And now being alive in
Christ. What does that looklike? Hopefully, that's
happening by dozens by hundredswithin your community. Pick one,
pick one to be able tohighlight. Yeah,
I think that's a greatdistinction. Because if we look
(25:50):
at it through the lens of wasdeath imminent, but then life
was brought, oh, my gosh, thatstory is going to move 100 out
of 100 times. Yep. So the nextprinciple is brand.
Yes. I mean, I would sayprobably 87.5% of churches, and
don't quote me on this. I justmade it up. But most churches,
(26:13):
don't even probably have a BrandBook. Don't even have a basic
style guide. Don't even haveconsistent typography that's
well thought out, don't haveconsistent colors that they use,
don't have tight guidelinesaround how their logo is being
used and things like that, whata great first step. Okay. Why is
(26:34):
that important? Because again,going back to excellence, there
are certain people in yourcommunity that look at these
details. And so when you say,hey, we want to create a YouTube
channel that's going to reach,you know, millions of people,
but then your brand is sloppy,hmm. That's an example of the
(26:56):
credibility that you're buildingwith your givers. And so these
investments into these type ofdetails actually matter?
Well, okay, so we got to do thefinal two in two minutes as
quickly as I can, for eachculture of generosity,
culture of generosity, that'swhat we're talking about, you
want to create the vehicle, youwant to create the, the the
(27:18):
mechanism that gets you to thatplace. And so it's not only
showing people impact from theirgiving, it's giving people a
picture of their identitythey're giving. And so there's
going to be more episodes onthis in the future. But
ultimately, you want to create,whether you call it Kingdom
(27:40):
builders, Legacy builders,Vision builders, whatever you
coin it, whatever you call it,it has to then become an
identity of it. It has to becomesomething that somebody aspires
to want to be. Yeah,I love that. The final 10th
principle, your team,the team is so important. The
team is the speed in whichyou're going to accomplish the
vision and the culture, right.
(28:03):
And so, at the end of the day,everything that's in your head
that you want to achieve. Ifyou're doing it on your own,
you're going to struggle withactually achieving what you are
projecting to achieve. You needto get the right people in the
right place aligned to theright, focus. If you are going
(28:24):
to achieve a culture ofgenerosity, I think
that's amazing. And the bestpart is, this is only one
chapter of Vance's book, whichyou can buy now, wherever books
are sold. And also, if you'reone of the first 50 to sign up
for overflow insider, youactually get this book for free.
Let's go sign copy with lovefrom Vance. All right, so we'll
see you over there. Thanks somuch for listening to the give
(28:45):
it up podcast if you want toreceive even more insights on
church innovation, culture andgiving now you can sign up for
free to be an overflow insiderwhere you'll receive exclusive
content discounts direct accessto Vance Roush to get your
questions answered. And alsoinvite only access to our
monthly fundraising leadershipforums, head to overflow.co
(29:08):
backslash insider, or just clickthe link in our bio to sign up
for free today. In order to getthis podcast in the ears of even
more church leaders. Could youplease subscribe and leave a
review for the show. This tellsthe podcast players what people
are enjoying and want to hearmore of and we are adamant about
providing maximum value to evenmore church leaders. Thanks so
(29:30):
much. We'll see you next time.
We always want a community where our vision
(00:03):
exceeds our resources. That'scalled the generosity gap. We
want a vision that completelyoutweighs our current resources.
That is when we give ourcommunity an opportunity to
partner to fill that generositygap.
Past pastor turn tech leader anda millennial churchgoer,
exploring the intersection oftechnology, culture and faith,
(00:26):
equipping you with innovativestrategies to support you as you
live out your calling leaderchurches with confidence to step
into the future together. Thisis the give it up podcast. So my
friend here Vance wrote a bookcalled high growth fundraising
the Silicon Valley Way yourfriend, thank you. No, I just
said it for the podcast. Wecan't lie, though. No, you are
(00:47):
my friend. But I love the book,because it's actually a really
helpful tool and resource. Yes,for fundraisers across the
board. We're here to help. Andone of my favorite parts of the
book was where you summarized 10principles love lists that can
radically transform come onlisticles. I think that's a
word. No, it's a big list. Yep.
All right, listicles. I'll chatGPT this afterwards, whatever
(01:10):
that is. But it's all abouttransforming your fundraising 10
principles that will do it. So Iactually want to run through
these 10 principles. In thisepisode. We're just getting
our free content out here at theoverflow pod. I know we won't
have to buy the book, you'rejust gonna get a whole chapter
right now.
Let's go here to serve. Okay. So10 principles, we're starting
off with V for Vance. No, justkidding. This one's for vision.
(01:33):
Yes, hell that is so important,right? We say this at our
church, that we always want acommunity where our vision
exceeds our resources. That'scalled the God gap. That's
called Let's Make it reallypractical, the generosity gap?
Yes, you want to make sure thatyou are communicating a vision
(01:55):
that is compelling. So this isfrom the Silicon Valley tactic
of even how you raise funds hereon Sand Hill Road in San
Francisco from some of the topventure capitalists in the
world, right? VCs Actually,don't just index on the
credibility of the team. That'simportant. But that's not the
(02:18):
only component. They don't justindex on the quality of the
product that you have. That's acomponent. But that's not the
totality of how they make adecision. One important
component that they consider iswhat's called Tam. total
addressable market. Why? Becausethe way the math works out for
(02:42):
venture capitalists, is that ifthey invest X amount of money to
get 10 to 20%, of your company,and they do that 10 times over
with nine other companies,likely eight or nine of those 10
companies that they invested in,is likely going to go to zero,
they're literally going to loseall of their money, right? And
(03:04):
so what needs to happen to beable to what they call return
their fund, one or two of themhave to go big. Yeah, they can't
be mediocre. So if they investeda million dollars, they're not
looking for $2 million dollarsback, they're not looking for to
X. Minimum, they're probablylooking for $10 million back at
10x. But what a lot of them arelooking for is 100x back, right
(03:29):
$100 million back for that $1million investment. That is the
VC game. And that's why it'svery risky. But it works out
mathematically because a coupleof times, statistically, if
they're doing their investinggame, right, they are going to,
quote unquote, hit it big.
Right. So, you know, tooversimplify it, what does it
(03:50):
mean to hit it big? Well, basedon the way that the valuations
work, provincial capitalists,whether they get it get in at a
$10 million valuation, or a $20million valuation, all of that
really are just details, becausewhat they're looking for is a 1
billion to $10 billion plusoutcome. So what does that mean?
(04:11):
Yeah, even if you have the mostprolific founder, the most
prolific team, the most epicproduct, but they don't believe
that this is going to be able tobe a billion dollar company, or
if it's a consumer product reach100 million people, a billion
people, they literally cannotmathematically invest. Wow,
(04:35):
okay. Why am I saying that?
Because in the same way, achurch obviously, we're not
providing people a return oninvestment. Yeah, but our
mindset should be, we'reproviding people a return on
impact. Do you have a billiondollar idea? Do you have an idea
(04:55):
of vision? Yeah, a call to arms,that is on the magnitude Have a
billion dollar impact. And thatdoesn't necessarily need to be
measured monetarily. But thatcan be measured in your reach
and community that can bemeasured by your influence in a
society that can be measured byways that you want to
(05:15):
fundamentally change and shiftcertain policies, and certain
programs and certain ways toreach people for the gospel of
Jesus. That's the realm it needsto be if you're going to truly
unlock unprecedented amounts ofgenerosity. And so that's what
(05:36):
we say we want a vision thatcompletely outweighs our current
resources. And that is when wegive our community an
opportunity to partner to fillthat generosity gap. I love
that, would you say that visionand mission are synonyms? Are
they two different? Yeah, ina lot of ways it is. I mean, you
know, to delineate it, if that'shelpful, a mission is kind of
(05:57):
like your, your, your mantra,your operating principle. It is
the core of why you do what youdo, right. And so at overflow,
our mission is simple to inspirethe world to give, we're going
to continue to exist as acompany, as long as there's
people to inspire to give of itin America, only half of
(06:18):
Americans give $1 or more.
There's so many more people toinspire, to give even $1 Yes,
right. And so that's kind of ouroperating principle, we will
continue to exist, it's, it'sour mission, it's our quest,
right? A vision is slightlydifferent in the sense that you
are projecting a picture for thefuture that you want to see.
(06:42):
Right, and some of the mostcompelling visions project, a
future that doesn't yet exist,that you will now need to
create. Yeah. And so our visionis to build the infrastructure
that makes generosityfrictionless, across every major
asset class, that future is notcurrently a present reality. And
(07:02):
so we are continuing to executeevery single day to make that
future vision, a currentreality. And so in a lot of
ways, mission and vision worktogether. Obviously, the
infrastructure that makesgenerosity, frictionless, is
connected to inspiring the worldto give, they go hand in hand,
but they are slightly different.
The vision is wanting to projecta picture, a destination, you
(07:25):
know, where are we going? Andthen another part of that mix,
right is the culture. I thinkpeople underestimate that. Yeah.
And so if you have a communityand your mission is to go and
make disciples, okay, that'd bea good mission for a church. And
your vision is to when the wholebay area or when a whole region,
(07:48):
you know, or whatever that is,and that's the destination, you
want to see Santa Fe, for Jesus,you want to see Kansas City,
yeah, be be run by the ways inthe principles of Jesus so that
humans can flourish you, youwant to see XYZ city, right?
Predominantly be impacted by themessage of grace and love.
(08:10):
Right? Then, if you areprojecting that as the
destination, the vehicle inwhich you drive towards that
destination is actually culture.
Right? And so, you know, if yourvision is to build the most
(08:30):
generous community the world hasever seen, then you need to then
build a vehicle. That is yourculture, you have to build a
culture of generosity. Yeah, soculture is everything from
language to little things thatreinforce what your values are.
(08:52):
And so those are some of thebuilding blocks. And all of that
is connected to if you're tryingto cultivate a generous
community to try to achievecertain goals, really vision,
but all of those other pillarsaround vision is very important
to achieve that.
Yeah, no, I love that. And thesecond one we talked about is
timelines, which I think is soimportant. Nothing gets done
(09:13):
without a deadline. Come on.
That's like the the SMARTacronym that we learned in like
leadership classes. The M is formeasurable. Yeah, that's that's
actually the only part Iremember from the acronym
because that was the mostimportant tangible.
Yeah. So you know, the thing isthat probably by August,
September, you should be settingyour calendar for the next year.
(09:35):
Hmm. Next year, the next fullyear do you have your vision
godless set? Do you have yourKingdom Builder events set?
Right? Do you have these builtin deadlines in your calendar?
Because if you don't have thosein you're not going to be
keeping yourself accountable towork backwards from them right
(09:57):
to plan it out. The reality issome times we are not getting
the outcomes that we wantbecause we are not prepared or
planning for the outcomes thatwe need. And so ultimately, this
whole idea of timeline anddeadlines is making sure you
schedule generosity. You createinflection points, you create
(10:20):
seasons, you create moments,within a year to facilitate
catalytic giving. You get cleverabout it, you understand the
ebbs and flows of how yourcommunity gives, maybe not just
how your community gives howpeople humans given general.
Yeah, we know in America, a lotof people give naturally, at the
(10:43):
end of the year, why would younot do some sort of year end
giving campaign? Sure, right. Weknow that naturally, especially
for the church space, peoplefeel a little bit more generous
are on Easter, because thingsare full. Attendance is up,
people are getting saved, peopleare seeing visually the impact
(11:03):
of the church. Why would you notprovide opportunities and
seasons within the spring? tocatalyze giving, right and so
timelines, deadlines, planning,preparation, all key to
maximizing generosity.
Awesome. The third one we haveis impact. Explain what impact
actually entails. Yeah,so, you know, charity, water
(11:25):
really kind of pioneered thiswhere they were able to tie your
dollars or a set amount ofdollars, to literally a specific
Well, Compassion Internationalhas done this for decades, where
they tie your $17 a month to aspecific child, and that child
you build a relationship withbecause they're literally
(11:47):
writing you letters. Yeah. Thatinstills recurring giving that,
you know, basically minimizeswhat we call in the Silicon
Valley churn. Right. So a lot ofchurches actually should
probably learn from SAScompanies. Because SAS companies
think maniacally about thingslike customer acquisition cost,
(12:10):
and net dollar retention. Okay,what do I mean by that? Well,
there's a certain amount ofmoney that and you could
probably measure this for yourchurch that it takes to convert
a tie there. And I know I'mbeing really crass in my
language about how I'm talkingabout church, but this is
reality, that there's a certainamount of money that billboard
that you bought on that highway,those Google ads, those Facebook
(12:34):
ads that you're doing thoseYelp, you know, promotions that
you're doing to try to funnel inpeople to your church, and, you
know, we flower up the languagein church, or, Hey, this is our
outreach budget. This is howwe're reaching out to people and
things like that, yes, fine. Youcan define it however you want.
But ultimately, all of thatcarries a cost. And with the
right data, and with the rightinsights, you can back into how
(12:55):
much it costs to get a newmember, and how much it costs to
get a new giver. In your church.
Right. Yeah. And so or for yournonprofit. So if it costs, let's
say, 20 bucks, right? And a newgiver, on average, is $25.
(13:18):
Right? a month? Yeah. You have agreat funnel. Absolutely. And,
and so that's how I think weshould, you know, start to
deepen our insights, as seniorchurch leaders as pastors as
executive pastors, CFOs, it goesback to stewardship. Right, it
goes back to stewardship,yes. which then brings the next
point into frame and that'sexecution. Yeah. This is
(13:42):
something that I feel like thechurch at large struggles with,
and it comes back to doing whatyou say you're gonna do. Yeah,
but what does excellentexecution look like for you?
Well,I think a lot of times we say,
at least from the top right. Wewant an excellent team. Sure. We
want an A team. Yeah. Goddeserves our excellence. Right?
(14:05):
Which he does. But then weempower people with that vision.
We empower people with thatculture. But we don't have the
mechanisms in in place toinspect to come around. And to
actually, from the user'sperspective, take inventory of
(14:27):
if that excellence is beingactually executed. Right. And so
for example, when's the lasttime you drove in? Five minutes,
10 minutes or maybe even righton time at a service and
experienced what a new guestwould experience? Great boy,
right? And actually, like, youknow, because a lot of times,
(14:51):
you know, if you're on a seniorchurch leadership team, you're
coming in early through the backdoor. through a very unique
path. And when's the last timeyou actually went through the
path where hundreds or even1000s of people are going and
just inspecting? Hey, are thingsbeing executed the way in which
I want it excellently beingexecuted? Yeah. You can apply
(15:14):
that to every other aspect ofchurch building, especially with
your givers. Have you actuallythought about how a giver is
receiving communication? Haveyou put yourself in the giver
shoes of how they got invited toa kingdom builders event? Or to
a vision? God, Allah? Yeah. Doesyour communication how does that
(15:40):
come off? Right? Did you justoutsource a bunch of things? And
you don't actually know? Andthen you're frustrated? Because
Why is nobody signing up? Forthe Kingdom Builder event? Why
didn't anybody show up for thevision Gala? Do you know how
they were communicated to maybethere was some rogue
communication that went out? Andit was all well meaning, but you
just didn't know thatmisrepresented your voice? Yeah.
(16:01):
Yeah. And so when I talk aboutexecution, when I talk about
excellence, it's, it's a SiliconValley principle, it's having a
user mindset. It's beingcustomer obsessed. How is the
actual person that's using so atoverflow, for example, we could
be so focused on just wanting tocater to a lead pastor. And for
some churches, that's the rightperson to cater to. But at the
(16:23):
end of the day, for a lot ofchurches that we serve, it's
actually the CFO, or theexecutive pastor, or a campus
pastor or a financeadministrator, that's actually
using our product on a day today yeah, we're building
relationships with those people.
We're obsessed with how they'reinteracting with our platform,
so that we can also cater tothem. Yes.
I love that. And you're talkingabout language kind of being
(16:45):
misrepresented when it comes togiving? Can we just speak to
that for a second? What type oflanguage is good to use when it
comes to giving andcommunicating that?
Yeah, so we do this teaching apassage is a brilliant teaching
on saying thank you, and how wedo that too much in the church.
(17:06):
That thank you is actually notKingdom language. Thank you, and
especially the tone in which yousay thank you, is almost as if
you're drawing attention to yourself like you go around every
Sunday profusely thinking, thankyou so much to my volunteers.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. We used to do theseThank you awards at our church,
and we would do these epic, likequarterly. Thank you awards to
(17:29):
the top volunteers. Guess what?
After we gave them the award, wenever saw them again. Huh? It's
like, they were only doing thisfor the approval of man. Oh,
wow. And then they got therecognition. And they didn't
need to serve anymore. What'smore Kingdom language? Actually,
the Bible says, well done. goodand faithful servant. Yeah. Well
(17:54):
Done is better language. It'ssaying, well done recognition.
But keep going. Right? Well donerecognition. You're never doing
this for man, you should havebeen doing this unto God, keep
going. Right. And so that's justone example of how you should
think through language, youshould think through what
(18:15):
language is in alignment to thetype of community that you're
trying to build. Early on in ourchurch. We used to, because
we're trying to build a church,we only had a few dozen people.
We're trying to, to, you know,get as many people into the
church as possible. And peoplewould say this, especially
(18:35):
church shoppers, they would say,We're just checking you out. And
we're like in the backfield,like, Oh, you're shaking, so we
need to perform. We're likeclowns, trying to like, do a
dance, you know. And then wejust like arrested that culture.
And we started posing back topeople when they said, Oh, we're
just checking out we say, oh,no, no, we're also checking you
(18:56):
out. I don't know if you'regonna like it here. It's
expensive to go to five. Webelieve in the tie. Whoa. So you
know, it's like, okay, firing,you know, this is again, a
really crass term, good speakingbusiness terms, but in the
business world is called firingyour worst customers. Those that
are just drains on thecommunity, but don't contribute.
(19:18):
Yeah.
Wow. I love that. And you know,as I'm thinking about language,
people may still have somequestions like, can you just
give me like a couple sentencesto say, we're actually going to
share more about this on ouroverflow insider page. So just
head to overflow dot C O, like,insider live hangar? That's
right. You need to be part ofoverflow insider zone, tell them
a little bit more about whatthey should expect. We are
(19:38):
actually building an epiccommunity with overflow Insider.
I mean, the thing is, theexcitement just continues to
build, you're going to getexclusive access to specific
content that is for fundraisersCFOs. Basically, we want to make
the content that you actuallywant, how do we do this because
we give you access to havecommerce Patients with Vancil
(20:01):
ask us questions so that it'snot just generic like, oh, man,
I listened to this podcast and Igot this tidbit. No, why get a
tidbit when you can get a wholemeal? And that's what overflow
insider is going to be able toprovide you with? Let's go.
Yeah. Should we keep going? Howlong do we have? Okay, oh, wait,
I'm going to do more than okay.
What are these principles? Okay.
(20:25):
So we're talking about giving,which then brings the next
principle into frame which isrecurring giving? Yes. About
that.
Yeah. So in the Silicon Valley,we call it especially for
software as a service SaaScompanies, we call it annual
recurring revenue. Arr, right.
And so a healthy SAS company,they are very focused on growing
(20:48):
ARR on a month over month, yearover year basis. In the same
way, churches should not just befocused on the top line of
givers, they should be focusedon how you're converting the top
line as much into recurringgivers as possible, why your CFO
is going to love you for this,because now you have
(21:10):
predictability around yourgiving, you have predictability
around budgeting, predictabilityaround forecasting, with
predictability, you can nowalign your tasks towards your
purpose a lot better, you know,when you're going to have what
money at what time to be able todo, what type of vision element
(21:30):
to be able to extend the kingdomforward in, you know, XYZ way.
And so that's why recurringrevenue is so important. Arr
recurring revenue recurringgiving in the church base, it's
eating up the world. I mean,everything that you're doing
right now is attaching some sortof a subscription to it. Amazon
Prime, yeah, Netflix and thingslike that. And we are not busy
(21:53):
defying the church. But we aretaking some of these principles
that the Silicon Valleycompanies have been successful
with to create sustainablegeneration defining companies.
Yes. Because of the sound thingsthat we can now leverage and
learn from. And so I would bevery focused. And you can use
overflow for this to understandokay, not just my top line
(22:14):
givers, but what are thedifferent things that influence
a top line giver, to thenconvert into recurring, yeah,
that then becomes a veryresilient portion of the
resources coming into yourorganization, which then builds
a very healthy church to be ableto do big things.
(22:35):
I love it. So the next one, Ican't wait to hear answer
because we get this question alot. And it's people asking, How
often should I be talking aboutgiving? I don't want people to
be like, help. We're desperatefor money. But the next
principle is cadence ofcommunication. Yeah.
Yeah, you want to again,schedule in your generosity, you
(22:57):
want to schedule in the wayyou're going to communicate to
your generous donors. You know,one thing that I've seen work
really, really well, is thatwhen you have an annual cadence
of vision dollars, when you getto the vision gala in November,
or something like that, thatshouldn't be the first time
you're communicating with thosegenerous givers within the year,
(23:20):
right? Yeah, it probablyactually should just be a
culmination of a bunch ofstrategic meetings you've had
with them over the course of ayear, you could do it on a
quarterly basis, that's probablya good time. And then within in
between quarters, maybe one highimpact email, before some of
those quarterly events at thosequarterly events, what are you
(23:41):
doing okay, at these quarterlyevents, you are bringing all
your generous people together,that in and of itself is
electric, to be able to getpeople that already bought in
tithers people that have alreadybought into committing to giving
above and beyond the tide all injust one room and like a
breakfast environment, crossconnecting, encouraging each
(24:01):
other, you know, some of thesepeople, sometimes their high
capacity in their careers,they're not making it every
Sunday. So this is like theirone time to really cross connect
and build community and makesome connections. You're setting
that environment, then you arecelebrating everything that
God's done already year to date.
And then you are communicatingexclusive information that the
(24:23):
even the church hasn't heardyet. That creates a buy in and a
sense of ownership that willcreate and cultivate more
generosity.
Yeah, that's excellent. And thenobviously, a really powerful
piece is the next principle,which is story and testimony.
Yeah.
I mean, especially when you getto these events. People love
(24:46):
stats, but even more they lovestories. That's why Hollywood
will always have a place inbeing one of the most
influential regions in the worldbecause stories move people.
Yes, right. And so you don'twant to miss moments. Tell
stories as much as you'retalking about stats, you should
be pairing it with a story oflife transformation, literally,
(25:07):
like, if you're the church,you're in the business of
helping people going from deadto living. That's literally the
business that we're in. Yeah,we're not even in the business
of behavior modification or lifeenhancement. There's a lot of
other organizations that, youknow, transparently do a lot
better than the church at thosetype of things. Yes, we're in
(25:28):
the business of people literallybeing dead in their trespasses
because of the wages of theirsin. And now being alive in
Christ. What does that looklike? Hopefully, that's
happening by dozens by hundredswithin your community. Pick one,
pick one to be able tohighlight. Yeah,
I think that's a greatdistinction. Because if we look
(25:50):
at it through the lens of wasdeath imminent, but then life
was brought, oh, my gosh, thatstory is going to move 100 out
of 100 times. Yep. So the nextprinciple is brand.
Yes. I mean, I would sayprobably 87.5% of churches, and
don't quote me on this. I justmade it up. But most churches,
(26:13):
don't even probably have a BrandBook. Don't even have a basic
style guide. Don't even haveconsistent typography that's
well thought out, don't haveconsistent colors that they use,
don't have tight guidelinesaround how their logo is being
used and things like that, whata great first step. Okay. Why is
(26:34):
that important? Because again,going back to excellence, there
are certain people in yourcommunity that look at these
details. And so when you say,hey, we want to create a YouTube
channel that's going to reach,you know, millions of people,
but then your brand is sloppy,hmm. That's an example of the
(26:56):
credibility that you're buildingwith your givers. And so these
investments into these type ofdetails actually matter?
Well, okay, so we got to do thefinal two in two minutes as
quickly as I can, for eachculture of generosity,
culture of generosity, that'swhat we're talking about, you
want to create the vehicle, youwant to create the, the the
(27:18):
mechanism that gets you to thatplace. And so it's not only
showing people impact from theirgiving, it's giving people a
picture of their identitythey're giving. And so there's
going to be more episodes onthis in the future. But
ultimately, you want to create,whether you call it Kingdom
(27:40):
builders, Legacy builders,Vision builders, whatever you
coin it, whatever you call it,it has to then become an
identity of it. It has to becomesomething that somebody aspires
to want to be. Yeah,I love that. The final 10th
principle, your team,the team is so important. The
team is the speed in whichyou're going to accomplish the
vision and the culture, right.
(28:03):
And so, at the end of the day,everything that's in your head
that you want to achieve. Ifyou're doing it on your own,
you're going to struggle withactually achieving what you are
projecting to achieve. You needto get the right people in the
right place aligned to theright, focus. If you are going
(28:24):
to achieve a culture ofgenerosity, I think
that's amazing. And the bestpart is, this is only one
chapter of Vance's book, whichyou can buy now, wherever books
are sold. And also, if you'reone of the first 50 to sign up
for overflow insider, youactually get this book for free.
Let's go sign copy with lovefrom Vance. All right, so we'll
see you over there. Thanks somuch for listening to the give
(28:45):
it up podcast if you want toreceive even more insights on
church innovation, culture andgiving now you can sign up for
free to be an overflow insiderwhere you'll receive exclusive
content discounts direct accessto Vance Roush to get your
questions answered. And alsoinvite only access to our
monthly fundraising leadershipforums, head to overflow.co
(29:08):
backslash insider, or just clickthe link in our bio to sign up
for free today. In order to getthis podcast in the ears of even
more church leaders. Could youplease subscribe and leave a
review for the show. This tellsthe podcast players what people
are enjoying and want to hearmore of and we are adamant about
providing maximum value to evenmore church leaders. Thanks so
(29:30):
much. We'll see you next time.
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