Building Resources to Reach the World

Wycliffe Bible Translators launches the Last Languages Campaign.

Bob Creson | posted 2/20/2009

Two years ago, I sat across the table from a donor and listened as he told me about his passionate interest in a certain country. "I want to see that country transformed by the power of God, and I believe Bible translation is an important key," he said. "If I gave you $100 million for your work there, what would you accomplish? How would the country be different?"

Knowing that God had gifted many of our donors with wealth and vision, I had anticipated that some donor might ask that question, but I didn't have a ready answer. I swallowed hard and said, "Let me do some research and get back to you." We did our best to come up with a $100 million project, but we could not do it. We could offer him projects ranging from $20,000 to $100,000, but we could not come up with the kind of long-term, comprehensive, transformational project he was looking for. Even if we rolled up into a bundle all the currently written translation and languagedevelopment projects in this country, it still would have fallen short of the offer. Everyone agreed that the total price tag for translating Scriptures for all the unreached language communities in this country would exceed the $100 million, but no one had developed a comprehensive plan to demonstrate the need.

This donor's vision challenged and inspired us. It also highlighted important questions we as a family of Wycliffe organizations were already facing: What would it take to meet the remaining Scripture translation needs in any one country, much less the remaining language communities in all countries? What was the "resourcing price tag" for fi nally reaching the last remaining language communities on earth with God's Word?

A VISION FOR ACCELERATION

The vision to reach the last languages sooner rather than later had already inspired us. Ten years ago, Wycliffe International and its partner SIL International recognized that at the pace we were working, the last language communities would not receive the Scriptures in the language they best understood until around 2150. Convicted that this long wait was unacceptable, we committed to working differently and with a renewed sense of urgency. We adopted Vision 2025 as our mission—to see a translation started in every language still needing one by 2025.

Working differently has included the following:

• Intensifying our efforts to train and mentor national colleagues in every area, including language development, translation, literacy, and administration.

• Increasing our use of "language cluster projects" and workshops where participants from several languages work together, share discoveries and solutions, and simultaneously produce multiple translations.

• Developing new computer tools that use a completed translation in one language to produce a rough draft in a related language.

• Raising interest in oral communities by fi rst translating Bible stories, training storytellers, partnering with other organizations like the International Mission Board, the Jesus Film, and Faith Comes by Hearing to produce oral/audio presentations of the translated Scriptures.

As a result of these strategies and God's blessing, Wycliffe is now participating in the greatest acceleration in the pace of Bible translation program starts ever seen. In the past decade, over 600 translations have been started, and over 100 years have been shaved off the pace we were at in 1999. The remaining 2,300 languages are now within reach. If this rate can be sustained, this generation will see the start of the last Bible translations needed.

However, funding these new strategies and sustaining progress requires resources beyond our imagination. Cost projections have been made for all remaining projects, and we have concluded that it will take over $1 billion to start the last languages but not fi nish! This is in addition to what Wycliffe's staff raises in personal partnership development.

It was this realization that brought Wycliffe USA's administration and board to a prayerful decision—to explore the feasibility of conducting a campaign for the last languages with a huge funding component.

BUILDING THE CAPACITY TO MEET THE MISSION

In 2004, Wycliffe USA evaluated its capacity to raise annual and major gifts and determined that it was quite limited. A study conducted by Jerold Panas, Linzy and Associates, led by Jerry Panas and Paul Edwards, found multiple data systems that did not communicate with each other, a shrinking file of donors who were inclined to support smaller projects, and only modest professional capacity to raise funds. Steps were taken the following year to reorganize the fundraising team and add the competencies needed to grow donor file.

In 2005, we established the Wycliffe President's Council, inviting a group of business and community leaders to serve advise me on setting the direction and scope of a campaign. Their express purpose to serve Bible translation by identifying the people the time, talents, influence, and wisdom who could come alongside Wycliffe in this period of acceleration. The council has no governance authority, is limited to Wycliffe USA, and is led by David Dean, a Dallas businessman and former Secretary of State for Texas.

It took several years of steady improvements before we felt ready to test the waters for a campaign. In 2007, we engaged outside professional counsel to do a feasibility study and make a recommendation to undertake a major campaign. Many of Wycliffe's friends, foundations, funders, and leaders were interviewed, and at the end of last year, we received a report that encouraged us to proceed on a ten-year $1 billion campaign.

DEFINING THE MISSION IN TERMS OF IMPACT, NOT JUST ACTIVITY

The capacity to raise funds was one key issue we had to evaluate as we considered a campaign. Another was the defi nition of what we expected to do with the funds. The donor with the $100 million asked me, "How will the country be transformed?" This concern was echoed by the Wycliffe President's Council through David Dean: "Wycliffe and SIL have to show that they can work faster, design projects that change lives, and be accountable to donors."

While our projects were transformational, they were not written to show impact and outcomes, including metrics. This touched a chord with us because we recognized that longer-range comprehensive projects with clearly defi ned goals would not only attract new funding, but also bring a new level of focus to our operations.

SIL and Wycliffe International decided to develop comprehensive project plans around a results-based management framework. Results-based management is a tool used by many organizations to improve effectiveness and accountability for results. It encourages beginning a project with the final desired transformation clearly in mind. As the project takes shape, the resources (people, funds, and prayer) logically flow into activities such as translation and language development, which in turn yield measurable, useful results, such as improved literacy rates. These results can be evaluated to prove a benefi cial outcome, such as a strengthened local church. Finally, these outcomes show the impact on lives according to several measurable standards.

One of the first steps in producing these plans has been to train coaches to assist plan developers. Weeklong project development workshops are taking place in key locations around the globe. So far, we have prepared three excellent plans for the Uganda-Tanzania Scripture Access for All project, the Americas Area Scripture Impact project, and the Bangladesh Advance project. We anticipate completing fi ve to seven additional comprehensive plans in the near future.

Donors who have seen the plans are impressed. One major foundation executive director told me, "You don't receive more from us because we continue to think of you as assigning language teams who raise their own work expenses. This is a very different model, and I believe it will lead to additional giving above and beyond what you have received in the past."

PLANNING CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES

A billion dollars is so large, it's hard for most people to grasp. As one donor said, "It's up to God to provide; what we must do is pray and step out by faith."

"To raise that much over ten years means receiving about $8.3 million per month, or $274,000 per day," said Paul Edwards, executive director for Wycliffe's Last Languages Campaign. But we are not the fi rst nonprofit organization to try. According to a recent article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, in the last 20 years, nonprofi t organizations (mostly secular) have successfully completed or have under way over 60 campaigns of $1 billion or more.

While no two campaigns are alike, there are some generally accepted principles that have informed our strategies. For example, we have been advised to expect that the "90/10" dynamic may apply: More than 90 percent of the dollars will come from less than 10 percent of the donors. To that end, we are hosting campaign briefings, events that bring together 20 to 30 couples at a time for a presentation in a town hall format, sharing with them the importance of Bible translation, including the fact that the work we do is foundational for other mission strategies. This year, we expect to host nearly two dozen campaign briefings.

We have also been told to expect that many gifts will come with donor-suggested restrictions that gifts be spent to accomplish particular tasks or projects. Our comprehensive plans will provide the details that donors need in order to strategically invest their funds. They will be able to choose key capital projects or people initiatives that support acceleration. Capital projects will include computers and wireless technology, aircraft and boats to reach less-accessible and weather-challenged communities, and small buildings and dormitories to house teams of local translators as they work together. People initiatives will include training and deploying personnel, as well as recruiting and training language and translation coaches and consultants.

We also expect that as knowledge of this campaign becomes public, new donors will emerge who have never contributed before. We plan to spend up to 2 percent of the total funds raised to generate awareness in the U.S. and conduct the campaign.

STEPPING OUT IN FAITH AS THE ECONOMY TURNS DOWN

On November 22, 2008, Wycliffe USA publicly announced the Last Languages Campaign—our focused effort to reach the last languages. Together with the Seed Company, Wycliffe Associates, JAARS, the Wycliffe Foundation, and the Graduate Institute for Applied Linguistics, we committed to inviting churches, foundations, and individuals to pray, go, and give fi nancially—$1 billion—to provide the Scriptures for the last languages on earth.

From a human perspective, the timing of our campaign launch came at an inopportune time, during a major economic downturn. Investors had lost trillions of dollars in the stock market, and retirement savers, a key donor constituency, were among those most affected. Yet as I read his Word, I see that God delights in providing resources for his people and for his plans, often in times of scarcity. The God who led Wycliffe to embrace Vision 2025 and commit ourselves to reaching the last languages in this generation also holds the future and the fi nances of Vision in his hands. He has answers to prayers we haven't yet asked and friends of the last, the least, and the lost we haven't yet met. Above all else, he loves those last language communities, and we can entrust them to him.

BOB CRESON currently serves Wycliffe as president/CEO. He has worked in Cameroon and Chad, West Africa. He is a graduate of Pepperdine University and chairs the boards of Crisis Consulting International and the Forum of Bible Agencies-North America. Founded in 1942, Wycliffe Bible Translators comprises dozens of organizations and more than 7,000 people working together to make the Bible accessible to all people in the language most meaningful to them. To learn more about the Last Languages Campaign visit lastlanguagescampaign.org. To learn more about Wycliffe Bible Translators visit wycliffe.org.