Development officers across the Asia Pacific Conference recently gathered in Seoul, Korea to share experiences and discuss plans for the coming year.
Fundraising is a key part of the work of the development offices and the topics discussed covered annual reports to donors, direct mail campaigns, capital campaigns, familiarising donors with Ignatian spirituality and handling unconventional donations. A sizeable portion of the meeting held from April 8 to 10 was spent on grant seeking, with a session on “grant-seeking writing” conducted by Fr Herb Schneider SJ of the Philippine Province.
It was stressed to the group that with more and more agencies seeking funds, donor agencies and governments are becoming more selective in the projects they fund. This makes it important for Jesuit development offices to try to adopt best practices in ethical and successful fundraising.
“For Ignatius, governance involves discerning service, clear decision making and friendship. His famous phrase ‘friends in the Lord’ applies not simply to the Jesuits among themselves, but describes a style of Ignatian ministry. He encouraged ‘En todo amar y servir’ – ‘In all things love and serve’. Our service should be a service of love,” said Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
“The role of the development officers is to promote and sustain this quality of friendship, extending the circle of those who share in the same mission. As Fr Luis Ruiz, a famous Jesuit servant of the poor in Macau said ‘I don’t raise money. I raise friends’. Emphasis has been given to the role of the development officers in Asia Pacific in recent years in order to invite a greater number of collaborators to share deeply in the mission of the Society.”
The development officers from Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia-Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Timor-Leste were joined by Fr Jorge Serrano SJ, Assistant Treasurer for Development Resources, who is based in the Curia in Rome.
The group also heard from two Korean organisations – Happybean Foundation and Beautiful Foundation – about their efforts to get donors to look beyond local boundaries. These case studies complemented the points made by Fr Schneider and Fr Lorenzo Yom SJ in their presentations, and made the participants more aware of the possibilities of untapped resources closer to home.
“I was taken up by the efforts of the Provinces of Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines, and the Malaysia-Singapore Region to raise funds locally,” said Brother Noel Oliver SJ, development officer for the Region of East Timor. “The efforts made by the Province of Vietnam to seek assistance from Vietnamese settled in USA, Australia and other countries are also commendable.”
