Mission Advocate

3 weeks ago Be among the first 25 applicants

In grateful response to God’s grace and empowered by the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments, the mission of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) is vigorously to make known the love of Christ by word and deed within our churches, communities and the world.

The Mission Advancement unit of the LCMS works closely with Synod’s Communications unit to inform and connect people to the mission and ministry efforts of LCMS National Mission, LCMS International Mission, and the Pastoral Education unit, all of which fall under the Chief Mission Officer. By LCMS Bylaw, the Chief Mission Officer, on behalf of the President, shall supervise fundraising activity of the national office according to the policies established by the Board of Directors of the Synod.

The coordination of LCMS Mission Advancement is assigned to the unit’s executive director.

• Reports to the Director of Transformative Giving (or to the executive director of Mission Advancement if this Director position is vacant).

As an integral part of the Mission Advancement team the Mission Advocate:

• Prioritizes time and effort to personally meet regularly with, serve and support 75 to 150 intentionally selected and assigned contributors (individuals, couples, families and organizations) living in a specific area of the country. The Mission Advocate devotes time and energy completing 200 to 260 face‑to‑face personal visits annually with select donors who contribute to the mission of the LCMS.
• Works collaboratively with other Advancement staff members to intentionally position contributors for incorporation into his or her assigned case load, toward a goal of effectively maintaining personal connections to no more than 75 pre‑qualified connections (based on recency, frequency, and total dollar value of contributions). This number will be fewer if the total financial capacity of the case load is higher;
  
  and higher if the total financial capacity is low(er).
• Visit consistently in person, by teleconference (Teams, Zoom, Facetime, etc.) or by telephone with assigned contributors and potential transformative‑level contributors for the purpose of understanding their personal charitable/philanthropic goals; determining “best gift” potential and giving timeline; encourage, invite and facilitate significant and meaningful charitable gifts, and capture relevant contributor information that may impact their future charitable giving decisions.
• Uses a donor‑sensitive appreciative‑inquiry approach to fostering a deep understanding of each assigned contributor, and faithfully represent the philanthropic interests, dreams, and intent of that contributor to the LCMS.
• In coordination with other team members, designs and carries out intentional strategies to connect with, strengthen awareness among, and gain clarity about the philanthropic goals of assigned household and organizational contributors currently providing or in a position to consider annual gifts to the LCMS in the upper one‑third of all contributors, typically $5,000 annually or more, and/or non‑repeatable special gifts of $50,000 or more.
• Presents to and discusses with donors specific meaningful opportunities to financially support the mission, goals and desired outcomes of the LCMS expected of the offices of International Mission, National Mission, Pastoral Education and other special initiatives. These opportunities must align with each donor’s personal goals, interests and vision for the church, and lead to “(donor) permission‑based” invitations to give or give again.
• Constantly strives to master a deep understanding of the various programmatic efforts of the LCMS as each is connected to meaningful opportunities for financial support.
• Accurately record all engagement plans, constituent contacts (interactions), steps/actions, and the results of conversations and proposals in the database system for future analysis and planning.
• Work with the unit research team and data integrity team to capture, validate, possibly correct or update, and integrate accurate information on…