Fundraising costs at LCMS, Inc.

A year ago, when Synodical President Gerald Kieschnick and Board for Communication Services executive director David Strand tried to make the claim that Issues, Etc. was responsible for the financial problems at KFUO — indeed, it was the only cut that could be made to salvage the financial health of KFUO, many of us thought such reasoning was ridiculous.

I would now like to draw your attention to a tidbit from the most recent board minutes covering KFUO:

“Treasurer Kuchta returned to the Monthly Operations Reports, noting the negative variance for KFUO and expressing concern regarding an apparent reduction in contributions compared to the previous year. He also noted that KFUO paid $188,000 to the LCMS Foundation for fundraising, resulting in $240,000 in revenues. Revenue received from FM station advertising remained constant compared to the previous year.”

Note:
1) reduction in contributions compared to previous year.
2) Paying $188,000 to raise $240,000. I don’t think you have to have an MBA to realize that spending 78 cents to raise one dollar is problematic. Again, industry standard is much lower than that.

I recognize we’re in a tough financial climate but when will these bureaucratic heads be held responsible for this waste of money and resources — not even getting into their lack of theological direction? These fundraising costs have been sky high for many years. This can’t all be blamed on an economic downturn.

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