Hey y'all. This is my first week in GDI and my first post on the forum. This particular topic is near and dear to me. I've worked with non-profits both in the US and abroad for 12 years and currently serve a small, struggling urban Native American parish in the upper midwest.

I think the fund raising option certainly deserves more consideration. Bill Shore, founder of Share Our Strength, has argued for years that it is essential for all non-profits to create profit centers within their organizations. This is truer today than it was when Shore first started proposing the idea. Look at your community directory of non-profits, they are all fighting for shrinking slices of the charity pie. You have a low cost option with the potential to reap huge benefits for them. See who on their board of directors might be interested in the program and make your pitch. Don't know how to do that? Volunteer at the homeless shelter or serve on the food line at the soup kitchen, you'll make the right contact.

To those that think Churches will be offended by how you might profit from their efforts. Believe me, resource development is a huge business within the church world and you're offering a much lower cost item that can potentially bring in thousands of dollars (translate that into "blessings"). You might want to offer to buy half the DVDs for the church campaign if you're feeling guilty about benefiting from a church or non-profit. But believe me, there are professional fund raisers who will be charging much more and delivering much less.

If I were to approach the church market, I would first want to approach some of the less formal denonminations, maybe a non-denominational congregation with a pastor open to "prosperity theology". Assembly of Gods might also be a field worth mining.

This is something I must do as I've just found out that my mission board is cutting funding even further, my parisioner's pensions are not meeting their basis needs which translates into less money in the collection plate, and I've got to find $10000 for a new boiler in the church basement between now and next winter. You can bet I'm ready to work this non-profit market.

Go get em!