By Madeline Lunney

I’ve thought a lot about the transition from need to possibility. What shifts the conversation to possibility is someone’s willingness to give, and often the need is for material resources. As a fundraiser, I enjoy creating the opportunities for people to step up and give.

When we give—of our money, time, trust—we say this world is still worth believing in.

In every project I’ve worked on, whether in Canada or in the Global South, the people closest to the need already know what to do. They are ready. They have the plan. They live the courage, sometimes they live the desperation and often they live the pain of loss, due to poverty, discrimination, war and human-made disasters not of their making. To get beyond the plan to the action, material resources are needed.

Giving is about more than just logistics. Giving, when it comes from love, is more than charity. It’s an act of faith. Of resistance. Of communion.

To give is to love. We give not to fix something broken, but to say we belong to one another. We refuse to be indifferent.

Giving lets others do what they are already prepared to do—what they are called to do. It turns readiness into reality.

Donors are not separate from the work. A gift is what you can give. It need not be a grand gesture, but it is a sacred act of love.

In We Are Together, *Fr. Jorge Eduardo Serrano, SJ, writes that fundraising is not about persuading people to part with money. Rather, it is about helping them find their place in something meaningful.

In Jesuit tradition, fundraising is a form of spiritual conversation. We begin where the other person is—listening to their story, their longings, their values—and inviting them into a broader vision.

The shift is subtle but profound: from strategy to solidarity, from transaction to transformation. And it demands that fundraisers like me trust in the broader mission, not just the project or campaign that we are representing now.

Fr. Serrano calls this work “a spiritual ministry.” This isn’t just language for religious audiences. It’s a reminder that inviting others into mission is sacred work: work that builds community, restores meaning, and demonstrates love in action.

Scripture names love as the greatest of all gifts. I’ve come to see that real, life-enabling giving is one way love is made visible.

* Fr. Jorge Eduardo Serrano, SJ, was a Colombian priest who served  as Assistant Treasurer for Development Resources at the Jesuit Curia in Rome for more than a decade. He also served as a pastor and director of various social and international works of the Jesuit Province of Colombia , He is remembered by many as a great Jesuit whose simplicity and generosity deeply touched the lives of many. He died on July 13, 2025.