If you knew how much each of us doesn’t like raising money, you’d know what a miracle it is that we love what we do. On-air fundraising supplies support for KSWP and KAVX. Of course, it’s nice for the staff to have a salary. But if turning the stations into a giant cash register were the only way to pay our salaries and keep the lights on, I couldn’t do it. None of us could. Honestly.
We do get lumped-in with the charlatans from time to time. Still, we have to raise the money to operate. And radio ain’t cheap. It takes over eight hundred thousand dollars a year to run this place. We cover over 90 miles in any direction.
We will never get over the fact that people voluntarily support the station. What? People willingly part with some of their money and because we ask them for it? It makes no sense! It shouldn’t work. It wouldn’t work unless there were something more to it than you can get from purchasing music on iTunes.
KSWP and KAVX supporters are not consumers. They are partners in the truest sense of that word with the mission of the media ministry. When they give a financial gift, they are investing in a relationship that becomes more valuable over time, yielding its profits in intangible benefits to themselves, the community and God’s kingdom.
Benefits become tangible in efforts like PrayerWorks, Sharing God Stories, Journey of Hope, Manger Network and more. These special programs and humanitarian outreaches are realized through The KSWP and KAVX partners, not just through the on-air personalities. Community support engenders trust and enthusiasm from others, resulting in partnerships with record labels, artists, businesses and individuals who buy-in to the vision of our using our strength for service.
The bigger picture of the matrix of relationships that form the KSWP and KAVX community reveals the unquantifiable effects of daily encouragement, life-support and spiritual transformation. (We could tell stories… Our Listeners Do!) We have prayed for people since 1983 (when the Founding Non-print Organization started).
If one just looks back over the last five years, the station has prayed for over 19,000 families. And over 1800 have to Christ for the first time. These numbers are climbing every year. Please note I’ve only mentioned a few ways that God works through this ministry.
In the middle of a large support-drive for the gospel to go into countries closed to the Gospel to our local communities, we like Paul anchored his appeal in the giving-grace of the Gospel into Jerusalem churches; For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. ~ (2 Cor. 8:9)
Giving is a grace – an enablement by God made possible by the poverty of His Son. When we learn how to give, we experience the riches of God’s grace in Christ. That’s why we stress the blessing of God during these fund-raising appeals. It’s real.
So, it seems to me when we ask for money, we’re really not asking for ourselves. It’s not the consumer cost-value equation. It’s a partnership to enable imitation of the life of Christ and forwarding of the vision/Mission, “bringing God’s love to all peoples” That’s why we ask.