A report came across my desk this week containing the following ominous warnings for nonprofit leaders:

“Nonprofits are bracing for a tough fundraising year as the first six months of 2023 demonstrate that donors are holding back their contributions…

2022 was one of the worst years in philanthropy history. Giving dropped 10.5 percent after inflation…

Perhaps most alarming is that giving by individuals, who typically provide the bulk of all donations, fell by 13.4 percent after inflation.”

My thoughts went immediately to the following quotes:

“Depend on it. God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. He is too wise a God to frustrate His purposes for lack of funds.” – Hudson Taylor

“God has many ways of moving the hearts of men all over the world to help us. While I am praying, He speaks to one and another on this continent and on that, to send us help.” – George Muller

And to the scene at the Red Sea in Exodus 14, where God deliberately led the Israelites into peril so that He might gain glory through Pharaoh and his army (Ex. 14:4).

Theologian C.H. MacKintosh commented regarding this passage, “The sea was before them, Pharaoh’s hosts behind them, and the mountains around them. And all this, be it observed, permitted and ordered of God.”

Where the secular nonprofit world sees ominous economic circumstances, EA leadership sees divinely orchestrated opportunities for the heightened glory of God.

Perhaps the Lord is calling you to help glorify His name by making this summer EA’s best fundraising season amid the worst of economic situations!

Regardless of His timing or provision, we will echo the words of David in Psalm 40:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog,

and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.