Letter from Jay Tenbrink, Christian Missionary to Mexico
“For the past 8-plus years my family and I have worked here in small villages in Mexico as missionaries. As missionaries one of our biggest challenges has always been raising and maintaining our financial support.
For years we were struggling through the cycle of returning home to itinerate and promote our ministry and present our needs only to return to Mexico and find that a portion of the promised support never came. When one of our supporters, health club owner George Eusterman presented the idea of creating a way for our supporters to give electronically I was excited, yet a bit skeptical. In my own mind I came up with numerous objections why our supporters would not want to sign up. I didn’t want to lose a supporter because they were wary of the electronic system.
With encouragement from George we eventually decided to try the system and made the decision that we would only give other options if and when a supporter objected to giving electronically. Putting our doubts aside, we began presenting Egiving as our preferred channel for support. After sharing our needs at one church George asked me if I had given anyone options in the ways they should support us, I replied, “No way! That would be a lower commitment; I don’t need a lower commitment.” Since going to Egiving the dependability of our support has been dramatic. We have never found that people don’t want to give, but they do forget to, and if they don’t forget sometimes it is one of the first things to go when it is decision time. Now that we are using Egiving our supporters are signing a paper saying that they are committed to us.
To be honest at first I questioned how many “normal” people would want to sign up for Egiving support, but I have found that the vast majority embrace it if we present it right. If we confidently explain that we need their support and the best way for us is that they use Egiving, no one thinks twice about it. Well, actually I have a relative that does not use Egiving! We have the same number of supporters we have always had, now we consistently get the money they pledged, and that makes a big difference.”
– Jay Tenbrink, Christian Missionary to Mexico
Letter from a Pregnancy Choice Director:
“Dear Fellow Care Net Affiliate,
My name is Emily Schaap and I am the Executive Director of Pregnancy Choices in Mount Vernon, Washington. Due to unforseen circumstances, I was unable to attend the Care Net Conference with you all. I hope and pray you are learning and growing at the Care Net Conference. I know it will be a wonderful time of fellowship and spritual growth.
I want to share with you how much Pregnancy Choices has benefitted from working with George & Louise Eusterman of Egiving Systems. Since we began offering the option of Egiving Systems to our donors, we have seen tremendous growth in our donor base. With Egiving, everybody wins! Our donors are happy, our ministry is growing, and we’re spending less and less time working on fundraisers.
There is a distinct difference between setting up electronic funds transfer through your bank and setting it up through Egiving Systems. The Eustermans have a deep desire to see your ministry grow, and they will bend over backwards to help make that happen. Your bank won’t do that. George and Louise are available for support and encouragement along the way. They provide us with e-giving updates and helpful tips on gaining more e-givers. They also pray for our ministry on a regular basis. (I’m guessing your bank won’t do that, either!)
Egiving is the number one best way to keep our center in operation. Knowing we have a steady flow of income each month helps us be more effective in ministry to our clients. I want to encourage you to be in prayer about making Egiving an instrumental part of your ministry. I know it will bless your center as it has ours.
Please feel free to contact me anytime if you have further questions about EFT and how it can help your ministry.
May God bless you and your ministry team as you continue to make a difference for the Kingdom.”
– Emily Schaap, Executive Director
Letter from a Pregnancy Choice Board President
“As both the board chairman and technical support of the Care Net Pregnancy Center of Rockland (NY), I can say without question that Egiving and George Eusterman’s guidance have revolutionized our ministry’s financial support foundation. We have successfully begun to re-focus our ministry leaders and supporters to think of the many blessings to our ministry of making a monthly commitment through electronic giving. Our goal is to raise over 80% of our budget through Egiving and we are well on our way to that goal thanks to George’s wise and experienced guidance, and the simplicity and power of the Egiving internet-based system. Thank you George, and God bless all Centers you guide this way.”
– Bob Daino
Testimonies
“Visit www.egivingsystems.org for an AMAZING, Godly ministry that uses credit card & automatic transfer tools to fund God’s work. We just began our relationship with egiving after the October Heartbeat Conference, and it has been wonderful. The founder, George Eusterman, has coached me one-on-one every step of the way. I can call him ANYTIME, email him ANYTIME–he’s so helpful and he knows his stuff. He has helped us to present egiving to our donors in a way that has gotten their attention. Prior to this year, we had people sign up at banquets to give monthly pledges, but there was little follow-through. This year, we KNOW that the pledge money will come through. It’s not a question. We can count on that money just like we can count on the cash & checks in hand. It’s such a blessing, and it’s WAY more affordable than other similar organizations. Plus, I get to work with a Godly man who believes in what we are doing. That’s priceless…
SO, check it out–if you’d like to call George directly, his number is 1-888-780-GIVE or check out www.egivingsystems.org”
– God’s best to your ministry,
laura
“Hi Ann, we started EFT 2 years ago through EGIVING SYSTEMS. It goes through CheckFree and it is very user friendly for our org. This is still a hard thing for some to want to do. But, we are picking up donations that are consistent. These EFT’s that started in Nov 2003 are still giving through this avenue. I recommend it. ”
– Sherry Berger
Choices Pregnancy Resource Clinic, Inc.
Russellville, AR
479-967-2255
cprc394@earthlink.net
“We use www.egivingsystems.org The founder is George Eusterman, & I met him at the Heartbeat conference last fall. We are VERY pleased–he gets us an awesome ministry discount with CheckFree, the largest automatic transfer company there is, and the customer service with George and with Checkfree is second to none. I’d encourage you to shoot George an email at george@egivingsystems.org(I’m copying him into this message also). He’s a great help, and his heart for our ministries is unparalleled.
Let me know if you have any questions–we’ve been up & running for about 8 months now, so we’re still working out the kinks, but it’s going well. ”
– Laura M Knox, MPA
Resource Coordinator,
The Pregnancy Support Clinic of Valdosta (GA)
229.333.0080
From PCCTalk
“George,
Your email was exactly what I needed. I am one of those directors who is a bit nervous about public speaking. Your email truly helped me to focus on the important things. I read it several times before the big fundraiser, and I spent more time in prayer and focusing on our mission than I usually do when preparing to speak. You are right… the ED is definitely the best one to articulate the vision for the ministry, especially if she deals with the clients and volunteers every single day. Instead of dreading the speech I began to see it as a joy, and an opportunity to share my heart and vision for the center with those who are eager to support us! ”
– Thanks for your words of encouragement to us all!
Emily Cook
CPC Hillsdale, MI
From Jay Tenbrink, missionary to Mexico
” As missionaries to Mexico one of our biggest challenges has always been raising and maintaining our financial support. For years we would we were struggling through the cycle of returning home to itinerate and promote our ministry and present our needs only to return to Mexico and find that a portion of the promised support never came. When George Eusterman presented the idea of creating a way for our supporters to give electronically I was excited, yet a bit skeptical. In my own mind I came up with numerous objections why our supporters would not want to sign up. Putting those objections aside, we began presenting Egiving as our preferred channel for support. We decided that we would only give other options if and when a supporter objected to giving electronically. At present more than 90% of our supporters give through Egiving. After more than a year now we have only seen our support continue to increase. Egiving has allowed our supportes to stand by their commitment and be an integral part of what God is doing in Mexico. I would recommend Egiving to any individual or organization who relies on consistent donations.”
Another letter of referral from Jay to a potential client of Egiving Systems
” Grant,
Thanks for the email! I am always glad for the opportunity to share with others who are in the support raising business about Egiving . For the past 8+ years my family and I have worked here in small villages in Mexico as missionaries. For the majority of that time we collected our support through our church in the normal fashion. Since going to Egiving the dependability of our support had been dramatic. We have never found that people don’t want to give, but they do forget to, and if they don’t forget sometimes it is one of the first things to go when it is decision time. Now that we are using Egiving our supporters are signing a paper saying that they are committed to us. To be honest at first I questioned how many “normal” people would want to sign up for Egiving support, but I have found that the vast majority embrace it if we present it right. If we confidently explain that we need their support and the best way for us is that they use Egiving, no one thinks twice about it. Well, actually I think one couple decided not to use Egiving! We have the same number of supporters we have always had, now we consistently get the money they pledged, and that makes a big difference.”
As for George, I have know him through our church and business dealings for quite a number of years now. I have found George to be a great partner, honest and driven. His encouragement and resources have enabled us to change our finances from a struggle to a success. I hope I didnÕt ramble on too much, like I said I am very excited what Egiving can do for those of use who rely on raising support. Please let me know if you have any other questions.”
–Thank you
Jay TenBrink
Alternative Missions
Cofradia, Mexico
George,
” Just wanted to say a big Kudos to you for your comments. You are consistently on the money (double meaning for you, I suppose.) Our center is just 5.5 years old and our budget is just over $600,000 this year. God has helped us do the things you have been verbalizing since I’ve participated in PCC Talk. Frankly, many centers in our state haven’t been able to get their boards on track or been able to get out of their comfort zone in this area.
We saw 974 new clients last year and without the money, we would have had to turn people away. We do need to be smart about constantly reevaluating what we’ve done and how we’ve done it. Our Christmas direct mail in 05 brought in a sad $6,000 which was down by more than $10,000 from the previous year. We changed a couple of things on the letter and sent it at a different time – someone’s bright idea! We tried to fix what had been working – a big disappointment. We changed it back to the original format and sent it in mid December this year as we had in previous years. This year it brought in more than $25,000.
It takes a lot of energy, drive, determination, and reliance on God to grow funding. But with bits of encouragement and education that you provide the PCC Talk participants, I believe you are having a strong impact. I am blessed by your words and I know others are as well.
Thanks for investing your time and wisdom so that others can reach funding success!”
–Cindi Boston
ED
Pregnancy Care Center
1923 S. National Ste C
Springfield, Mo 65804
417-877-0800
George-
” We love eGiving and are transitioning as leaders of the ministry, into a more proactive approach to communicating the monthly eGiving as our most preferred method of giving for most donors.
Just the other day we ordered 20,000 brochures for our long-standing monthly giving club, the 1-HOUR CLUB, wherein a very strong appeal is made to become an eGiver.
We will begin stuffing these into many receipts, as well as do a very targeted appeal twice per year with one of these brochures included.
I’ll mail you a brochure just FYI…”
–Thanks.
In Christ, Josh Harber; CICPC; 317-280-2635
“Over the past several years that we have known George and Louise Eusterman, we have found them to be both professionally helpful and consistently encouraging. As a small start-up 501(c)(3), we had large learning curves. They were available at every bend in each curve with wise, godly and encouraging advice. Thanks again George and Louise!
We love you guys! Angela & Mike Light to Israel.org
On a personal note, I could be an Egiving poster child. God has used it to so change our lives here. We are now free to do what we’re called to, instead of spending time worrying (which is sin, by the way!), planning out of fear, etc. Each month, as you well know, God’s provision neatly is deposited into our banking account, and we’re able to go forward. Thanks so much for believing in us and being a wonderful nudnik (pronounced nood-nik, and it means a pest).”
– Much love,
Angela & Mike
“Working with George to develop our monthly giving program has been an absolute gift. His understanding of Kingdom economics is invaluable and keeps us focused on the Big Picture. His knowledge and experience working with ministries is a great resource. He is a tremendous encouragement, and just plain fun to work with!”
–Heather McClure
Community Relations Director
Pregnancy Resource Center of Charlotte
“Dear George,
It was a blessing to see you and your lovely wife at the Care Net Conference. I trust it was meaningful for you. You asked me to write what I told you regarding Egiving and our Banquet. Egiving has been a blessing to our ministry. Each year at our Banquet people make a faith promise and never give a dime. Some of them with good intentions, I am certain, do the same year after year-commit with no follow through. We introduced Egiving at our 2005 Banquet. I am pleased to say that some of those who had not followed through with previous promises signed up to participate in EFT. It has worked beautifully! We are receiving their donations on a monthly basis through Egiving. Thank you so much for making it available to ministries such as ours. God bless you.”
–Blessings,
Carolyn Clarke
Executive Director
Care Net Pregnancy Resource Centers
Manassas, VA
“This is an PRC director writing to PCCTalk, an online center forum, Oct. 23, 06.
We had our best banquet ever! Even our mayor called me to tell me that it was the nicest banquet she had ever attended and she plans to help us get many more people at our banquet next year – And she said “Your speaker was the most amazing message I have ever heard a banquet speaker make! He was great!” Way to go Henry Jernigan! She wants to help me contact the pro-life people in town so our next banquet is even larger!
Henry Jernigan (Nashville Speakers Bureau) quickly moved us from tears to laughter during his heartwarming message about putting life into perspective and knowing the plan God has for each of us. The audience was hanging on to his every word. We had the best banquet we have ever had in our 16 years of existence. The Lord used Henry to move into the hearts of the people and we acquired a 12,000 sq. foot building that evening! God used Henry in a powerful way. I highly recommend you getting Henry to speak his powerful message at YOUR banquets! Please check him out at www.henryjernigan.com
Also our E-Giving Systems “Friend for Life” was also a hit. So far, due the banquet appeal that George Eusterman helped me write by critiquing my message for me… we now have $1000 GUARANTEED electronic monthly giving! Far cry from what we need each month but it seems to be going over well. I look forward to continuing the message of Friend For Life. Check it out directors. Well worth the time! George is great to work with. www.EgivingSystems.org”
–Laurie A Jones
Executive Director
Abigail Ministries
22 West Main Street
Norwalk, OH 44857
419-668-9500
“Another from PCCTalk
I recently posted about needing a 3rd party processor for credit card donations, and I thought I’d tell you that I decided to go with eGiving Systems, owned by George Eusterman. george@egivingsystems.org
Why?
1. So many of you recommended it.
2. His service is fantastic. He is warm and friendly.
3. He believes in pregnancy centers and is like-minded.
This might have been the mitigating factor in my choice.
4. The product is reasonably priced and looks to be really powerful.
I can’t wait to get it started and he is expediting my application for my convenience.”
–Blessings,
Catherine Arnsperger
Executive Director
Loving Choices
www.lovingchoices.org
catherine@lovingchoices.org
479-530-8893
“To George Eusterman of E-Giving Systems:
My dear brother, thank you for the wisdom you impart on our behalf for God’s glory. You are an inspiration from God Himself and a constant reminder that we are told to “Go” and do not fear. My prayer is that God would continue to speak through you and that your words would continue to challenge believers into Godly service with NO fear. (from Guys for Life email newsletter Thanksgiving 2006 Kurt Rampspott, ED”