3 Ways Monthly Giving Helps Drill More Wells in Africa & India

When Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment of all, his answer was simple: “Love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all you mind and with all your strength.” The second is this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Monthly giving helps Set Free drill more wells in Africa and India. It just might be the perfect way to live out this commandment.

When Set Free visits a village, we come proclaiming the love of Christ. The gift of a new water well is likely the first introduction to God’s love that the villagers have ever had. When you become a Set Free Thirst Quencher, you join a special group of people who are committed to sharing God’s love with the unreached villagers of the world each and every month. Thirst Quenchers are critical to the work that Set Free does. In fact, it is our recurring givers that form the cornerstone of our monthly drilling commitments to our in-country, pastor partners. Without these gifts, we would be much less effective at providing jobs to our drill crews and opening doors into villages for our pastor partners. Set Free Thirst Quenchers are the backbone of our ministry!

1. Better Planning

Set Free makes our well drilling goals based on our budget. These goals impact how much equipment and how many drill crews we will need to accomplish our goal of bringing clean water to unreached villages. The number of wells we drill impacts the numbers of churches our pastor partners will be able to plant.  In many of these areas, a new water well is the other thing that opens doors to sharing God’s love in their village. All of these decisions are based on how much in donations Set Free forecasts to bring in. Thankfully, we have years of data trends and a committed donor base to help us make our income projections. But at the end of it all, our budget is still just our best guess.

Having a group of committed monthly givers goes a long way to helping Set Free create our budget. And when we have a budget we can trust, our partners can better plan for their staffing and pastor needs. When the staff needs are met, they can focus their effort and energy on creating the strategy to best reach the people who need us the most. Monthly giving helps us plan to be at our best.

2. More Ministry Time & Less Fundraising Time

When Set Free has our cash needs consistently met through donations, our staff can do more of the ministry we love! Sarah will spend more time sharing the stories about the impact clean water and the love of Christ makes in an unreached village. We can share photos of the lives that are changed from the gift of clean water. Roland can spend more time giving spiritual encouragement to our pastor partners. Amy can spend her time making meaningful relationships with the donors who support us. These are the things that energize the Set Free staff the most – seeing the impact that clean water makes and sharing that impact with the world. When you make a monthly donation, we can spend more time doing that and less time fundraising.

3. Consistent Cash Flow

Set Free is not in the ministry of making money. As a general rule, we send as much money as possible to our in-country partners to drill as many wells and plant as many churches as we can. Sure, we budget on a monthly well drilling goal. But if we have a surplus of money, it is our philosophy that it will do more good by drilling clean water wells for thirsty people now instead of sitting in our bank account for later.

This theory works out pretty well for us. In fact, we had such a good December that we were able to send the money for 4 wells in addition to our monthly budget in India. We love being able to serve more people than expected! What we don’t love is having to tell our country partners that we are having to cut back this month because our bank account has run dry.

All nonprofits go through a cash flow cycle. Typically, donations are great near the end of the year and there is a big dip during the summer months. We try to account for some of this drop while still sending as much to do the needed work of bring the gospel through clean water right now. Our monthly donors ease the cash flow burdens by consistently giving no matter the season.

3 Bonus Ways Monthly Giving Benefits the Set Free Donor

1. Easier to Give in Smaller Pieces

The most common Set Free monthly gift is $50 per month. That’s about the equivalent of packing your lunches at work for a week or skipping a nice dinner out. $50 a month is something that most families can easily work into their budget. And that $50 adds up to $600 a year. It might be hard for a family to give $600 all at once. But by consistently giving each month they will reach 120 people in a year with the gift of clean water without a lot of effort.

2. Creates a Positive Habit

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Will Durant’s The Story of Philosophy

Making a donation once to give clean water is a great thing to do. The ripple effect from this single gift will spread for generations. But just like eating extra veggies and going to the gym one day will help your health, the large benefits are seen when healthy behavior becomes a habit. Giving monthly is an easy way to create a positive habit of making an impact in the world’s water crisis. These gifts will continue to make ripples that will spread farther than any one gift could ever go on their own.

3. Keeps the Donor Engaged in the Work

We get it; we’ll all busy people! Sometimes life gets in the way. And you’re not as engaged as you would like to be with what your donation is doing in the world. Making a monthly gift makes it easy! You can rest easy knowing that your donation is consistently doing good work in the world while also receiving weekly updates on villages that are being reached and semi-annual updates on progress made towards Set Free’s goals. You make your donation monthly, and we make it easy to see how it is at work in the world!