Fundraising is vital, but it’s only half the equation. As Dave Ramsey famously noted, “There are two ways to get more money in your budget: Earn more or spend less. Ideally, do both.” To be faithful stewards of the Lord’s resources (as outlined in RMI’s Stewardship Pledge), we actively look for ways to trim expenses without sacrificing our core mission.
Here are 3 significant stewardship adjustments that are in the works:
We’re Downsizing our US Office in Florida
Our Florida office has been in the same location for more than 20 years. Over the last few years, we’ve recognized that the office has more square footage than we need. Additionally, our monthly rent has continued to climb at an unsustainable pace. Therefore, we’ve decided it’s good stewardship to close this office and find a smaller place that better fits our needs and is significantly less expensive.
Our mailing address will eventually change, but for now, we’ll forward our mail. Once a change is necessary, we’ll communicate this far and wide.
We’re Downsizing our Hot Lunch Program in Haiti
This has been a very difficult decision. We never want to cut programs that have such a huge impact, but we can’t continue at the same level. Why?
First, it’s important to remember some perspective. Our Hope for Kidz program is a big part of the funding mechanism for our Hot Lunch Program. There is a direct correlation between how many sponsors a specific partner school has and the number of children we can feed at that location. As you can imagine, we can’t only feed the sponsored child. If we have a Hot Lunch program in a school, EVERY child, teacher, and school administrator eats. Over time, we’ve bridge-funded the gap for many locations where sponsorships fell short. While we love being generous, carrying these unsponsored costs at current levels is no longer financially sustainable.
Second, our shipping expenses have doubled because insecurity in Port-au-Prince has cut off shipping corridors in Haiti. In recent years, we’ve paid $7500 per container for brokerage and transportation. Now, the cost is $15,000 per container.
For the past decade, we’ve been blessed to feed 16,000+ children across southern Haiti. After a hard look at our rising costs, we must temporarily scale back. This school year, we will provide meals to approximately 10,000 children per day. While scaling back is painful, we are deeply grateful that 10,000 kids will still receive daily nourishment through your support.
We’re Exploring New Business as Mission (Tent-making) Opportunities in Haiti
RMI has significantly subsidized our Haiti expenses for years due to a lack of teams, but this is unsustainable. This reduction of teams has materially affected our support. We want to imitate Paul’s behavior in scripture by providing tent-making services to subsidize our ministry.
Therefore, RMI is actively exploring additional business opportunities to increase our funding in Haiti. We’ve already been doing this, but we recognize we can do more.
What have we already been doing? Our SunTech initiative has allowed us to offer our expertise and services to other organizations and businesses. A few years ago, we purchased a water truck. Local people often hire us to deliver water. Our expert mechanics shop is often hired by others to fix their vehicles. Each of these projects, outside of our ministry partnerships, provides income that we directly invest in our ministry.
New Opportunities? We are actively exploring multiple ideas. Arranged by one of our board members, Benjamin and Benson are traveling to China next month for a trade expo to source products we can reliably use and sell in Haiti, unlocking new revenue streams for ministry work. We are actively developing our Zanglais facility. Our Zanglais facility is integral to hosting our visiting short-term missions teams. Additionally, this facility can generate income by hosting other organizations, guests, conferences, etc.
We NEED YOUR HELP
We continue to ask for your financial assistance. Please consider a donation today to our VISION | NEXT Campaign.
If you have any questions about our stewardship efforts, please reach out to RMI President Dan Shoemaker (dan.shoemaker@rmibridge.org) or our Director of Development Rob Thompson (rob.thompson@rmibridge.org).
