I had every intention of blogging each day of Launch501c3… so much for intentions.
Craig Gross (XXXChurch), Jake Larson and myself were joined by Jamie Tworkowski (TWLOHA) and Chris Dumas (DonorTools) for this small gathering of non-profit founders and launch leaders. Our hope is that each person left invigorated and better equipped for the challenges that lay ahead of them in the start-up phases of their new non-profit organizations.

Having been friends for a long time, it is always great to see Craig in his energized and creative modes. He shared lessons learned by tracking back through the years of daring ideas, provocative approaches to ministry and sharing about the personal risks he took for the vision that he has. I can’t imagine that there was a person who walked away not inspired to try some new things in their endeavors. To this day I still believe that I have not yet encountered another person who has the same amount of marketing genius and creative social entrepreneurial insights as Craig.

Not ever having met Jamie in person, I was impressed by his humility and his authenticity to bring hope and healing to those who are ready to give up on life. But beyond his incredible message and his well documented victories, it was great for each person here to be able to learn as he relayed accounts of his personal sacrifices, struggles and obstacles he has had to overcome to hold onto his initial vision.

Chris gave some insightful pointers about fund-raising. He and his partner have effectively and insightfully created an  donor management tool that really takes a lot of the pain and headache out of the admin. process related receiving donations. In fact, I would say that their tools energize us more to more actively engage with each of our donors.  Beyond this tool though, I was extremely impressed by Chris’ deep knowledge and experience with nonprofit start-ups & donor development.

We are already developing new ideas and content for next year’s Lacunh501c3 group.
Thanks to all of you who participated. We are looking forward to seeing you change your part of the world.