Staff and Finances
Every YWAM worker, including the founder, Loren Cunningham, raises
enough funds to meet his or her own financial needs. For most people in
YWAM, these funds come from friends, family and churches who contribute
financially. Other YWAMers rely on their own savings, part-time jobs,
foreign employment, small businesses or even--in the case of some of
our older staff--pension income.
YWAM has purposely chosen to
emphasize personal support raising as the primary means of funding for
our staff. Although we recognize there are many other valid ways of
financing ministry, the way we have chosen is based on Biblical
principles and has enabled us to include tens of thousands of people
each year from over 130 countries in the task of fulfilling the Great
Commission.
It's also a financial model that enables many
important ministries to exist in our world today. Just as the staff of
a church or a community service organization relies on donations to pay
their salary, so our staff also rely on financial partners to meet
their financial needs.
We believe, and have experienced over
and over, that personal support raising provides many benefits to our
staff. It often creates a close bond between the financial partner and
the worker on the field, it helps our workers experience God's
faithfulness in tangible ways, and when combined with a commitment to
pray as well as to give, it provides powerful teamwork that results in
encouragement for our workers and supernatural blessing on our
ministries.
(excerpt from ywam.org)