As a staff member and avid blogger, my ears instantly perked up when I heard that we were going to share stories of how lives are being changed by the relief, rehabilitative, restorative, and empowerment programs offered on our growing campus at Springs Rescue Mission. A brief moment of excitement was quickly followed by a relapse back to reality. Nobody wants to read the thoughts of an administrative expense.

In the nonprofit world, administrative expenses are the bad guys. I'm the personification of that 20% of the organization's yearly expenses viewed as a vampire bat, sucking the lifeblood out of the organization's donations for my own well-being. I'm the expense that you fear your donation is going to when you make your check out to the nonprofits you support.You envision that your hard-earned and heartfelt generosity is putting a warm meal on the plate of someone hungry and chilled by the winter air, providing job training to a man on his pathway to recovery out of a lifelong and debilitating addiction, or providing the opportunity for a caseworker to share the gospel to someone who feels that all hope has been lost. However, there's that voice in the back of your head that tells you that your $19.70 donation will probably be used to heat an administrative office building, pay for office supplies, or cover the salary of a paper pusher, leaving only a small fraction of your selfless donation to reach your intended recipient: your homeless, impoverished, and addicted neighbors.So, nobody wants to read the thoughts of an administrative expense. I get it.As an administrative expense, I can understand where you are coming from. You're not thinking of me when you write your check or enter your credit card information online. After you finish making your donation, though, I'm all you can think about. I'm the cause of your donor's remorse. You can't help but think...How much of that money is actually going to go towards changing someone's life?My name is Matt and I'm an administrative expense. My two year anniversary as an administrative expense occurred a few short months ago. Most people wouldn't expect that being an administrative expense would change someone's life, but it has had a profound impact and effect on mine. The last two years have challenged my faith and my political views as my eyes were opened to a world that I was blind to before. They've helped me form a new worldview, an improved perspective on the things many of us take for granted, and the value of every life, no matter how addicted or poor they may be.As administrative expenses go, my background is quite unique. Before I was an administrative expense at Springs Rescue Mission I spent three years working as a busser at a restaurant, six years unloading trucks on the back docks of a major retailer, and one long, grueling year hanging drywall for a commercial constructor. Following a yearlong job search after graduating college, I finally received my big break as an administrative expense. My new job was to process donations, record them in a database, and make sure that each donor was thanked and receipted for their generosity. So, how does that change a person's life so drastically?I used to spend 8 hours a day cleaning people's dirty dishes, unloading large, shiny things off of a truck for other people to enjoy, and exhaustively framing and sheet rocking walls in office spaces that some poor employee wouldn't appreciate but, rather, would view as a drywall dungeon.Now I spend 8 hours a day processing selfless love, generosity, compassion, hope, new beginnings, freedom from addictions, and pathways out of homelessness in the form of donations to Springs Rescue Mission. My job is to be overwhelmed by the philanthropy of others and watch firsthand as that philanthropy provides life transforming hope, care, and love to our neighbors who need it the most. It is this firsthand experience with the transformations taking place around me 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week that has transformed my life.

At Springs Rescue Mission, every staff member and volunteer sees the worth of every person we serve. We recognize that every person is worthy of all our love and compassion, worthy of every human dignity we can afford and provide, worthy of hearing the gospel and worthy of our prayers for a new beginning in Christ.Because at Springs Rescue Mission everyone (administrative expenses included) has seen firsthand how a person changes when you tell them that God deeply cares about them, He and we see them as beautiful and precious people, and that there is hope for whatever situation they find themselves in. The transformations we witness on a weekly basis have a profound impact on all of us.At Springs Rescue Mission, your donations are used to provide life transforming change in a grace-filled environment. Your donations go to our homeless and addicted neighbors who are struggling to overcome unfortunate decisions, obstacles, and influences in their life. Your donations provide the food and clothes they need to sustain their lives, the advocates that hear their stories and help them find services to improve their circumstances, the counseling to teach them accountability and encourage them to seek sustainable solutions, the mentors to guide and direct them towards affordable housing and financial stability, and countless opportunities for loving and courageous neighbors to share the gospel to point them to true, everlasting redemption in Christ Jesus from the plagues of sin we all suffer from.A portion of your donations are used to provide a different kind of life transforming change in a grace-filled environment. You see, our administrative buildings aren't located somewhere off campus. All of our administrative offices are on our campus and we work in the midst of and alongside the many programs scattered throughout the campus. We all have the opportunity and blessing to interact with the men going through our New Life Program as they perform jobs around campus. We all have the opportunity and blessing to smile and greet every visitor to our campus.It's impossible to work at Springs Rescue Mission without witnessing firsthand the transformations taking place in people's lives around you. It's also impossible to watch neighbor after neighbor find a new beginning without the experience transforming and making an impact on your life.A small portion of your donation is used to support a team of talented and devoted staff members who are working tirelessly to provide program staff with a worry-free environment that allows them to focus exclusively on their program's ministry. This team includes

• A volunteer coordination team that works to fill staffing vacancies around campus by utilizing the selfless dedication and devotion of our thousands of volunteers
• A finance team that provides financial stability to our organization along with accountability and transparency to our donors
• A human resources team that ensures that talented and gifted job candidates who are wholly devoted to our mission join the team
• A maintenance team that utilizes the skills of men in our addiction recovery program to care for and maintain our ever-growing campus of older buildings
• An information technologies team that keeps communication and information flowing freely and quickly between offices and buildings
• Also, a chaplain who devotes himself to sharing the means of grace with staff and visitors regularly

Another small portion is used to support a team that was inspired and took copious notes when their pastor was preaching on Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish or the parable of the talents. They take a small slice of every loaf of bread donated and multiply it into five more loaves. They take the talents entrusted to their care and invest them in opportunities that will render a significant return on their investment to enable the Mission's programs to expand.This team constantly shares stories of hope that might not otherwise be shared to every corner of the great community of Colorado Springs. Most importantly, this team devotes themselves to doing everything they can to demonstrate Springs Rescue Mission's appreciation and thankfulness for each and every donation entrusted to our stewardship that helps provide gospel centered transformation in the lives of the people we serve.And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”(Mark 12:41-44)As an administrative expense, I constantly see notes like, "I wish I could give more but I'm on a fixed income and I know the Lord can use this little bit to accomplish great things," and, "I know this isn't much, but someone else needs it much more than I do." I am reminded of Jesus' teaching on a daily basis as I witness the same generosity that Jesus highlights in Mark 12.As an administrative expense, the sacrifice and selfless love poured out with each and every gift donors entrust to Springs Rescue Mission isn't lost on me or my fellow administrative expenses. I know you want that gift to be used to provide a warm meal to a hungry soul, job training to a man seeking to provide a new beginning for his family, and the opportunity to share the gospel of grace to hopeless people who need to hear about the love of Christ and His sufficiency to redeem.You see, we don't help hopeless people at Springs Rescue Mission. There's no such thing as a hopeless person, because no man or woman is ever outside the realm ofhope. The only thing that makes these people "hopeless" is their own summation of their condition. They think they are worthless. They think they are a waste of life. They think nobody knows their name nor wants to know their name. They think that God doesn't care about them. They think that nobody sees them. They think that there is no hope for a better day. They think that there is no hope out of homelessness.That is, until they set a foot on our campus.Everyone at Springs Rescue Mission has devoted themselves to providing hope for those that deem their situation hopeless. We're in the business of providing hope and restoring lives. We couldn't accomplish our mission without the profound, selfless, and humbling generosity of all of our donors and caring neighbors. We rely exclusively on the vanguards and champions in this community whether they are individual, business, church, government or agency partners. Also, we couldn't accomplish our task without the devotion, skills, and teamwork of a diverse and talented program, administrative, and fundraising staff, and I ensure you that not a penny of your donation ever goes to waste.My name is Matt and I'm an administrative expense. I come from a long line of native Colorado Springs residents. My great great great grandfather was a contractor and built several of the original homes in historic downtown Colorado Springs. My great great grandmother graduated from the one and only Colorado Springs high school in 1893. She was followed by my grandmother and father, both graduates from Palmer High School.Every citizen of Colorado Springs can understand why my ancestors and I never imagined calling any other place home. This is the most beautiful city in the country and it is filled with the most wonderful people you will ever have the pleasure of meeting. Every citizen of Colorado Springs is worthy of this great, caring, inclusive, and beautiful community. Every citizen of Colorado Springs deserves to call this great community home and have someplace to call home within it. Therefore, nobody in Colorado Springs should experience homelessness. Colorado Springs is where the homeless can find hope and a home and that is why I work at Springs Rescue Mission. That is why I had to share my thoughts, even if they are just the thoughts of an administrative expense.