We discuss capital stewardship and capital campaigns for church funding pretty regularly in our free i3 webinars. Today, we would like to dig into some of 5 foundational thoughts to help your church have a successful capital campaign.
1. Strong Leadership Gets Great Results
Church leaders should not be afraid to spearhead a campaign for church funding, and that includes being the one to actually ask for the funding. This can feel uncomfortable, but publicly being the church architect of both the project and the funding lets donors feel close to the heart of the project, and therefore, truly understand where their money is going.
2. Trusted Leadership
Being the leader of an effective capital campaign is only possible if you’ve paved the way with effective leadership before now. In the church, we always want to walk our talk and be credible leaders, as representatives of God. Church funding led by a trusted leader, can help your church achieve incredible results.
3. It’s About The People
Next to being a good leader, the most important part of a church funding drive is to humanize your vision. When you’re showing your potential donors the pictures of your future church, for example, make sure to show the people the projects will be helping. Add smiling faces, because in the end, the project you’re raising funds for is all about people.
4. Know Your Audience
Make sure you know the audience you’re addressing for your church funding. As givers, what profile do they fit? Are they giving from abundance, or giving from sacrifice? You do not want to either pressure those who give from sacrifice, or insult those who give from abundance, so do your research before speaking out.
5. Hiring a Pro Gets Immense Results
Many churches shy away from the notion of hiring a capital campaign consultant because the fees can seem scary. Churches just aren’t used to dealing with those sorts of numbers, and running a capital campaign seems so easy at the outset. But I can tell you after having spearheaded half a dozen capital campaigns, that a professional consultant is invaluable. It was actually a capital campaign consultant who taught me my best lesson about obtaining church funding by defining “success” for me. Success in a capital campaign, they said, is not about the dollar figure, when too often that’s all we focus on. Really, capital campaigns and church funding are more about participation, because if most of your congregation contributes to a project, whatever the amount, that shows you have broad support, and can move forward with confidence.
We discuss these lessons and more about capital campaigns and church funding in our free i3 webinars. Register today to start planning a phenomenal capital campaign of your own.