Capital Stewardship Campaigns: Are You Ready for a Campaign?

Capital building projects can be a significant highlight in the life of the church or organization.  So, it is easy to get excited and want to charge into it.  It’s going to give us more space, maybe some new staff members, probably some outreach opportunities and a capital campaign means the church is growing right…let’s go! 

The reality is though, fundraising cannot happen in a vacuum, and you need a good plan. There are several crucial aspects of readiness that are very important in terms of overall campaign success.

Clarity of Vision

The most important aspect of campaign readiness is clarity of vision and this is true for a number of reasons.

When there is a commitment to a common cause it not only energizes leaders but draws other potential leaders into involvement. It also adds a dynamic of group involvement which becomes the foundation for overall commitment to the project.  Clarity of vision adds a discipline to planning.  It is important to set the priorities that drive building project activity. 

Clarity of vision adds dynamic to giving motivation. There is nothing that will impact giving more than a clear sense of purpose.  When people are asked to support a project one of the first questions they usually have is, “what will this accomplish?” If the perception is that it will not accomplish much, giving will only happen at minimal levels. 

Giving matches impact.

Financial Affordability & Setting Realistic Goals

It is important at the outset to answer the question, “What can we afford?”

When churches embark on a building program, many begin by engaging an architect to design a building that will meet their needs. Churches need to set the financial box so that the architect knows the parameters of cost the church can afford.  In some cases, the need may exceed affordability. 

The architect then must stay within these parameters in terms of design. If it is determined that the need is beyond the set financial parameters, it is the church that decides to enlarge the box, not the architect. Therefore, before the architect starts to design, the affordability question needs to be answered first.

Affordability can be defined as one of three things:

• As cash on hand
• As cash on hand plus what can be raised
• As cash on hand plus what can be raised and some residual debt

Church leaders need to decide what they are comfortable with before an architect begins work.  

Financial Assessment

The best way for a church to determine fund raising potential is to conduct a congregational financial assessment, or a financial feasibility study. This assessment analyzes the donor base, receives initial responses from key leaders an creates a 5-year window as to attendance, budget giving to budget, and the number of donors and congregational demographics. In addition to this analysis churches need to affirm the assets available and whether or not they are comfortable with assuming a debt load and if so at what level.

Development Feasibility Study – What Do We Need?

The next step in campaign readiness is for the church or organization to conduct a development feasibility study which answers three basic questions; What do we need? What will it look like? What will it cost?  Churches may not package it this way but, these are questions that need to be answered before you can launch a fundraising campaign or even gain congregational approvals. The development study should provide the data churches need for sound decision making for their building project.

Establishing a Critical Path and Campaign Timetable

In addition to the above, it is important to establish a critical path or timeline for the overall project for a number of reasons. A critical path will force leaders to stay with it until the project is done. It gives professionals that are engaged to assist the church a time frame for their work to which they can be held accountable. In addition, it raises the level of expectation and excitement for of members when they see continuous progress being made.

Estimating Campaign Costs

Campaign expenses are likely to break down in the following:

• 55% to personnel, consultants, campaign director and support staff.
• 15% office expenses, including supplies, stationary telephone, duplication, postage, travel and entertainment for donor cultivation and committee expenses.
• 25% promotions materials design, printing for brochures, direct mail pieces, other presentation materials and events.
• 5% contingencies and other miscellaneous expenses.

Prospects and volunteers

Every capital stewardship campaign needs a significant number of volunteers over the course of the project. Volunteers beyond the planning committee would include events, promotions, visitations, and others.  A successful campaign should aim to include as many volunteers as possible because engagement increases ownership of the vision and the project.

Prospects can be both internal and external depending on the organization.  Churches mainly draw funds from their congregations and perhaps some community user groups. Organizations like schools, camps and other non-profits like food backs, would likely have a much wider prospect pool. 

You should have a good estimate of who these people will be and how many you will need.  It is ok to be skeptical you will find enough of either. But I assure you, if you do your research and take the time to make a proper ask, you will find enough of both volunteers and prospective donors.

Conclusion

There are of course some process and infrastructure you will need in place before going into a capital project campaign. Things like a good donor database, technology to get your message out and the staffing to manage the campaign.  In the next article we will look at 10 factors that impact funding potential in a capital stewardship campaign. Things like, project clarity, campaign timing, leadership modeling, unresolved conflicts and more!