Now, don’t get too excited. We are not giving away any money. But I once heard a piece of advice that went something like this, “When you are talking to an innovative leader, don’t try to find out what they know. Try to learn how they think.”
Over the years, I’ve come to respect and appreciate the community around ChurchMag for many reasons. One of which was that it was full of people that were willing to share their expertise and give advice.
So, I’m here to learn today. If your creative team or organization was given $10,000, how would you spend it?
As you think about that and get ready to comment, I am interested in your role, the size of your team and the type of work you are involved in (local church, design firm, etc.)
There are a few rules:
- You can’t just take the money and run!
- Your response must be brief (as in, less than the length of this blog post).
Here’s My Answer
I currently lead a creative team of about 10 volunteers, all of which are college students. Some of them are writers, others are designers. We work on everything from graphic design to managing the social media of our campus ministry. Leading this time is not my primary role, but I do enjoy it and get to spend a considerable amount of time investing into this area.
For me, I think I would spend $2,000 on new equipment, allocate $500 to repairs and upkeep of that equipment, spend $2,000 in Visa gift cards (in increments of $50, I would later give these to our volunteers as they completed projects) and the remaining $500 I would put towards printing and licensing fees for upcoming projects.
Your turn. Tell us about yourself and how you’d spend the money!
[Image via compose on sxc.hu]
Ben Miller says
If someone gave your non-profit a large monetary gift, you would give away 40% of it as personal gifts to your volunteers? Is that ethical?
Blane Young says
Good question.
Well, I wouldn’t want to do anything sketchy – I more meant it as development and investment in the all volunteer team that I lead.
I would invest in tools, training and conferences for them if I couldn’t give them gift cards or iPads.
Thanks for the comment!
Any idea how you’d spend it?
Rev. Barch says
Unless I’m reading it wrong, didn’t you only use up $5,000?
Blane Young says
Wow.
Yep.
Any suggestions on how to spend that last part?
MGalloway says
Maybe I’m way off on this, but the first thing that comes to mind (after giving at least 10% back to God) would be to help stock the local food shelf for a year.