Reflections on God and Money: Giving & Funding (20)

The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair… And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

Then all the congregation of the people of Israel…came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects… Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution. And everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it… All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.

And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, ‘The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do’. So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, ‘Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary’. So the people were restrained from bringing…

Exodus 25:1-8, 35:20-29 & 36:3-6

The above passages describe the first example in the Bible of a leader asking his people for funding. I would like to draw your attention to three points.

First, the task to be funded was something that God wanted done: it was not Moses’ idea but God’s and the people responded enthusiastically – so enthusiastically that Moses had to ask them to stop giving!.

Second, Moses made a straightforward appeal for resources and the early part of chapter 35 shows that he did just what God asked: he gave the reason and described the benefits. Moses was not in any way manipulative. He did not seek to send anyone on a guilt trip over their past behaviour or their sin in making a golden calf to worship; they were to give voluntarily – ‘every man whose heart moves him’.

Third, there was no overt peer pressure to give. Although the way the funds were given it would probably have been obvious in anyone had given nothing, that does not account for the people’s overwhelming generosity.

Fourth, building the Tabernacle was a shared community project. The people did not give in some dispassionate way to a remote project they had no emotional commitment to; they gave of their wealth, time and skill.

To what extent does this resemble your experience of fundraising?

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Handling money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here. You are invited to put a link on your website to these Reflections. You are welcome to copy these Reflections for personal study or for circulation to family and friends on a non-profit basis. For any other purpose, whether or not for profit, you will require written permission in advance from the author before copying, reproducing or transmitting extracts in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or using any information storage and retrieval system.

Saturday, 4 May 2013

Giving & Funding (20)