First name / Hello friend,

 

Welcome to my first newsletter. In a world oversaturated with content, why start something else to put in your inbox? Well, I believe community, redemptive storytelling, and wisdom are becoming increasingly scarce. Yet, they’re all needed to build the future we believe in. They’re needed to build the dream God has given you.

 

Countless distractions are clawing at your dream. I want to help you protect it. I want to help you stay the course as you work hard to bring your dream to life. Every month, I’ll share the stories, insights, and hard-won wisdom shaping how I lead as a father and founder. I hope it encourages you to keep building the dream.

Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, divided the strike zone into 77 small cells. He knew exactly where he performed best and where he didn’t. Even within the strike zone, there were pitches he refused to swing at. He only swung at pitches in his “sweet spot.”

 

Warren Buffett took that same principle and applied it to investing. While the market throws a thousand “pitches” every day, Buffett waits for the ones that are in his sweet spot. He calls this your circle of competence.

 

Let’s apply this to your team. When you’re building a big dream with bold people, countless opportunities can come your way. Good ones, too. But swinging at all of them often leaves your team exhausted and your audience confused. The most effective teams clearly define their circle of competence. Because more swings don’t create better results. Better swings do. 

 

I believe the grander the vision, the greater the need for clarity. The Global Pastoral Training Alliance (GPTA) launched with a massive vision: a world where every church has access to trained pastoral leadership. But they needed support in shaping a clear strategy.

 

Our team at Future City Now worked with GPTA to build a collective impact model that aligned nine organizations around a single goal: 240,000 trainers by 2035. Specificity like this is what high-capacity donors crave.

 

Once we developed a clear target, we designed a major donor experience from the ground up: pre-engagement, narrative arc, ask structure, and follow-up. Because most of these donors would never visit the field firsthand, heavy pre-cultivation was essential. The most important work happened before anyone walked into the room.

 

 

When GPTA could share exactly what they were building and why, we saw donors give with more confidence. I’ve seen it so often: a clear strategy fuels fundraising. That's why Clarity Sessions are part of our framework at Future City Now. During these sessions, we help teams hone in on their mission and their invitation to donors before we plan a single moment of the event. Clarity is the cornerstone of your fundraising moment. Without it, everything crumbles.

If you have a fundraising moment coming up, reply to this email letting me know. I’d love to help you gain the type of clarity that drives results.

 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I’d love your feedback. Please hit reply and let me know what resonated or what you’d like to see more of. 

Keep building,
AC