By Brendan Manson / President of Fellowship Development
What Is a Church Capital Campaign?
Are you looking to build a new church, reduce debt or tackle maintenance you’ve been putting off for years? A capital campaign may be the solution for your church.
A church capital campaign is defined as an intentional, intense fundraising effort that a faith community conducts to achieve one or more specific project goals, such as constructing a new facility, major building repairs or retiring debt. Giving to a campaign goes above and beyond typical giving. It is an extraordinary ask amount from your church community to help make a big dream into a reality.
At some point in the life of every church, the organization’s leadership will recognize the need for a capital campaign. A campaign is an opportunity for the organization to take the next step in its development. A successful campaign spurs growth in areas such as facilities, programs, ministries, financing or constituents served, allowing the organization to more fully achieve its vision and mission.
We recommend partnering with capital campaign consultants when you choose to launch an effort like this. While you may think it is something you can handle internally, having an experienced consultant keeping the campaign on track all through the process can make the difference between achieving your goals and falling short.
Biblical and Theological Foundations
On initial thought, asking for additional funds may feel counter to biblical and theological considerations. But that is a short-sighted view of fundraising.
A well-run church capital campaign will be rooted in the biblical principles of stewardship, generosity and will inspire community support. There are numerous examples from scripture of faith-based giving. These touchpoints provide a foundation for the importance, value and inherent spirituality of a church capital campaign.
Is Fundraising Biblical?
Yes! Fundraising and capital campaigns are rooted in biblical teaching. A church capital campaign should emphasize faith, stewardship, generosity and careful planning. Christian churches should create a spiritually enriching experience while meeting their financial goals.
At Fellowship Development, we believe that it is a church’s duty to invite its members to be stewards of all that God has provided. That includes fundraising to support the church.
“Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze.” Exodus 35:5
“Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord.” 1 Chronicles 29:9
The Bible contains examples of God’s people contributing to build houses of worship. Additionally, King David fundraised for the temple and the people responded with joy.
Don’t let the discomfort of asking for support stop your community from being true stewards of the Church.
Faith, Prayer, and Trust in God’s Provision
A central tenet of Christian believe focuses on God as the source and summit of all creation. He is the creator and, ultimately, supplies us with all that we need to serve the world in his name.
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
Biblical text emphasizes that all resources ultimately come from God, and believers are called to trust in His provision throughout the entire scripture.
This particular verse reminds us that our financial and materials needs will be met by God’s abundance. And that statement applies individually but also for your church community. A church capital campaign is a natural extension of this believe.
Understanding Stewardship vs. Fundraising
Fundraising is not inherently Biblical. In our society, secular organizations fundraise for worthy community support. Politicians fundraise for electoral campaigns.
But stewardship is rooted in Biblical teaching. We are meant to be true stewards of all that God has given us. The best example of this is the cheerful giver from 2 Corinthians.
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Christian giving should be joyful, but not done out of obligation. Inviting your church members into greater stewardship by encouraging a culture of cheerful giving will lead to more successful fundraising but, more importantly, a happier, more engaged community.
Purpose and Common Goals
The purpose of a church capital campaign is to conduct an extraordinary fundraising effort in order to achieve goals that can not be funded through annual giving or weekly support. A small project, like replacing your HVAC system, could be achieved through more typical fundraising measures. But common goals of a church capital campaign include much larger tasks, such as building projects, facility renovations, eliminating or reducing debt or expanding ministries and outreach.
Some common goals for a church capital campaign will be more appealing than others. For example, debt reduction campaigns, while important, can be difficult. Although, with a creative case for support, you can share all that your community will be able to enjoy without debt to worry about.
Other campaigns are much easier to generate excitement for such as constructing a new church building or renovating the sanctuary space.
Building Projects and Renovations
Building projects or facility renovations are the most common goals we see for church capital campaigns. Even if your church already has a beautiful building or campus, you may need a campaign to help take care of deferred maintenance or renovate an older facility.
Here are some examples of building or renovation goals from our recent campaigns:
- After many years of holding services in borrowed facilities, one community needed to construct a new church building to serve as a permanent home.
- Another needed to renovate the restrooms, improve the sprinkler system and open the chapel into the narthex to increase capacity for social functions.
- Building a new fellowship hall was important for one community, providing a space to better come together outside of church service.
Debt Elimination and Financial Stability
Financial stability may not seem like an exciting topic, but it is vital to church communities. And one of the biggest hurdles for financial stability is lingering debt.
Even with a successful church capital campaign, it is not uncommon for a community to accrue some debt during the process. Maybe construction costs rise. Or campaign pledges are unfulfilled.
Ideally, a church would be able to pay off the debt over time from weekly and annual giving. But that is not always the case!
Conducting a debt reduction or debt elimination campaign provides a church the opportunity to educate its community on its debt and the challenges it creates. Often, retiring debt allows a church to invest more fully into ministries or address deferred maintenance projects.
Ministry Expansion and Outreach
Another common goal for a church capital campaign is ministry expansion and community outreach. That could mean an influx of funds for a ministry or it could mean expanding facilities to better allow space for ministries to meet and fulfill their missions.
Gathering for service each week is vital to keeping a faith family together. But ministries also are important. They allow your church to grow tighter as a community.
In the past, our campaigns have raised funds to support ministries in a variety of ways:
- One church was desperately short on space for ministries. The choir was meeting at someone’s house. Bible studies were being held at odd hours in order to find space. A campaign raised funds to expand the gathering space for the community, allowing ministries to flourish.
- Another organization expanded its kitchen space to better allow its community members to serve those in need around the church.
Strategic Planning Process
The planning stage of a capital campaign is incredibly important. One of the biggest barriers to a successful campaign that we see is when an organization does not do the proper planning before even launching the feasibility study. You must understand the vision for your community and clearly define the goals you hope to achieve.
Clarify Vision and Goals
The first step in the capital campaign process should be sitting down with leadership from your church to clarify the vision for your congregation. This could be a five-year plan or a vision board or a mission statement for where the church is going.
Some churches may want to conduct internal research for this process. That could include a facility assessment, a ministry evaluation or a proper look at the debt of the church.
Once you have met with leadership and conducted your internal research, it is important to crystalize the goals you hope to achieve through a capital campaign. Make sure to be specific. Don’t just say “church updates.” Define clearly what those updates include.
Conduct a Feasibility Study
Once you have clarified your vision and goals, it is time to hire a church capital campaign consultant to conduct a campaign feasibility study.
A professional feasibility study will engage donors throughout your community, provide them with a voice in the process, test which goals are most achievable, and gather information about your donors, including giving capacity, preferred communication methods and planned gifts.
Form a Leadership Team
A big benefit of a feasibility study is identifying members of your community who can serve in a volunteer or leadership capacity for a campaign. Buy-in from a pastor and staff are vital to a campaign’s success, but the reality is that volunteers and leadership team members will be doing a lot of the heavy lifting of the campaign.
The study will provide the foundation for forming this important team.
Create a Campaign Plan and Timeline
We use the term campaign planning study to refer to feasibility studies. Our studies are more than just testing the feasibility of a campaign. The information is key to forming a campaign plan and creating a timeline for your church campaign. Each campaign should have a customized campaign plan and timeline to best fit the needs of your community and your campaign goals.
Building a Strong Leadership Team
Discuss who should be on the team, the roles they play and how to develop effective campaign leadership.
Team formation and leadership development are crucial to campaign success. And this will pay dividends down the road as it inspires some of your biggest supporters to become even more involved within the church community.
A typical campaign leadership team should include your pastor, any key staff members, your general campaign chair, honorary chairs and a few volunteer leaders. This team will be your church’s go-to source for all things capital campaign. Your campaign consultant will lean on them heavily and church members will come to the for questions about the campaign.
When forming the team, make sure to find people who are fully on board with all of the campaign’s goals. They will be a champion for the campaign. Your leadership team will also be your first fundraising ask. They should all be willing to fully support the campaign vocally, spiritually and financially.
Staff and Volunteer Roles
During a campaign, your church staff will play the important role of organizing everything. We typically tell clients to expect about 10 hours of staff work per week. They will work with leadership and the campaign consultant to schedule meetings and volunteer training, track pledges, gather photos and other information for communications, send mailings.
Your volunteer team will be responsible for contacting donors and securing pledges for the campaign. Volunteers will meet with donors in person to discuss the campaign and ask for the donor’s support. Your campaign consultant should conduct multiple volunteer training sessions to prepare the volunteers for the important job of asking supporters for pledges to the campaign.
Leadership Development and Training
In addition to training your volunteer team, leadership should also be trained in the art of the fundraising ask. Your pastor and other core leadership team members should be the ones tasked with asking major donors for support.
Campaign Communication and Congregational Engagement
A campaign will not find success without a strong communication strategy. In order to receive broad support from your community, you must keep them informed every step of the way.
- During the feasibility study, that means sharing the campaign goals being tested and the importance of each of these goals.
- During the capital campaign, that means crafting your case for support, creating a case statement, building momentum with digital engagement and events, and maintaining transparency through clear communication throughout the process.
Crafting a Case for Support
A church should only embark on a capital campaign when they have needs that go beyond the scope of weekly or annual giving.
The good news is that if you’ve followed the steps mentioned above, you should be able to craft your case for support with relative ease because you’ve already:
- Worked with leadership to clarify your vision and goals.
- Tested the goals with your community during the feasibility study process.
- Analyzed the results of the study to see which goals resonated the most with your congregation.
You will want to take the feedback from your community and craft your case for support to speak directly to the needs the community supports most.
Creating Communication Materials
Now that you have your case for support, it is important to create communications to express this to your community.
Some materials that we use in a campaign:
- Case statement brochure
- FAQ sheets
- Bulletin inserts
- Flyers
- Prayer cards
- Pledge cards
- Event invitations
- Posters
- Campaign Thermometer
Events to Build Momentum
A typical church capital campaign begins with a silent phase. During this phase, the fundraising will occur behind the scenes. This is when you will ask your major donors for support.
This allows you to start the public phase with a campaign kickoff event. The event itself will generate excitement, buzz and momentum. But, more importantly, you will be able to kickoff the public phase by announcing the amount you have already raised during the silent phase. This provides momentum for the general appeal as the campaign thermometer does not begin at zero.
Other campaign events and celebrations can help build and sustain momentum throughout the campaign.
Digital Engagement
In our modern world, you must engage with donors where they are most likely to see your communications. For most congregants, that is online.
Some possible digital engagement tools include:
- Email updates
- Video updates from the pastor explaining the progress of the campaign
- Campaign page on the website
- Posts on social media channels
Fundraising Strategies and Giving Options
We pride ourselves on conducting church capital campaigns with high participation rates. Our focus on stewardship states that each member of the church community should make a sacrificial gift. The goal shouldn’t be equal giving but, instead, equal sacrifice. The $1,000 donation from one donor is just as important as a six-figure pledge from another
Personal Asks and Major Donors
People give to people. That has been a simple motto throughout our company’s history. Our data shows that personal asks lead to higher fundraising totals.
This is why campaign leadership and volunteers are trained on making personal appeals for support. A major donor is more likely to give an extraordinary amount in a meeting with the pastor than through a mailing sent to the house with a form letter and a pledge card.
Prioritize asking as many of your major donors in person as you can. You will see direct results from this extra effort.
Peer-to-Peer and Congregational Giving
Your volunteer team should be asking others, beyond the major givers, for support as well. Because this will be a larger list of donors, some of these conversations may take place over the phone instead of in person. But the power of a church member asking another church member for support is strong.
Getting all of your congregation to support the campaign will lead to more funds raised and help bring your community together. The bonds formed through asking support can lead to new connections throughout the congregation.
Recurring Gifts, Pledges, and Matching Gifts
Most gifts to a capital campaign come in the form of multi-year pledges. Most campaigns have a three-year pledge period. Others may use a five-year pledge period. Using pledges instead of one-time donations is better for the donor and for the organization.
For the organization, it allows you to receive a larger overall donation. Spreading out the donation over three years allows a supporter to make a larger contribution. For the donor, it allows them to budget in the donation to their overall financial picture.
Another way to boost participation in a campaign is through a matching gift. A matching gift challenge is when a major donor pledges to match the donations from other supporters. For example, a donor may offer to match $250,000 in donations during a critical period of a capital campaign. This motivates smaller donors to support because their gift is essentially doubled.
Online Giving and Text-to-Give Tools
During a campaign, you should be utilizing all of the tools at your disposal to make giving as easy as possible for your donors. That includes having an easy-to-use online giving portal and offering text-to-give opportunities.
Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Every church capital campaign will face challenges. Sometimes it is global challenge like a pandemic or recession. Or it could be a community challenge, such as a change in leadership.
Donor Fatigue or Economic Challenges
Donor fatigue is a common challenge that all nonprofits face. Both in a campaign and in general fundraising. This can occur for a few reasons, including too many campaigns in a quick succession, too many nonprofits also fundraising at the same time in the same area, or a larger issue like a recession.
This is where the feasibility study again plays an important role. Donor fatigue will show itself in the study. That allows us to adjust the campaign strategy to either lower fundraising expectations or to better tailor the message to inspire donors to push past their fatigue.
Lack of Clear Vision or Internal Alignment
The quickest way to sink a campaign is through internal strife and lack of leadership. If the pastor isn’t fully behind a campaign, it will struggle to succeed. Without leadership, donors will struggle to see a reason to support in a sacrificial manner.
Additionally, a lack of a clear vision will stifle campaign support. If donors are unsure of the benefits to a campaign, it will inspire more tepid support.
Unexpected Costs or Delays
We suggest that our clients most straight from a feasibility study into the planning stages of a capital campaign. Any delay runs the risk of slowing momentum. Our internal research shows that clients that delay the start of the campaign raise less funds than those that go straight into a campaign.
Delays and unexpected costs from construction are also commonplace. These can be accounted for in the campaign process by asking for donors to make a larger initial donation, which will provide the church with an initial burst of funds up front to purchase materials.
Measuring Success and Long-Term Impact
Obviously, as campaign consultants, we care deeply amount the amount that our clients raise. We are proud of the financial success of our campaigns. But, as devoted Christians and church members, we believe that there is more to a campaign than just the dollars raised.
Our focus on stewardship and high participation brings the community together. Our campaigns are rooted in faith and spirituality so that donors not only feel joy from supporting their church but also grow deeper in their faith.
Tracking Giving and Participation
During a campaign, it is important to track giving and encourage everyone in the community to participate.
Tracking pledges allows the church to make sure that all donors are fulfilling their commitment to the campaign. If a donor moves or can no longer fulfill their pledge, you could consider asking major donors or newcomers to the community to take on the remainder of the pledge.
Low participation can leave a community feeling disappointed in a campaign, even if the fundraising goal is met. It hinders momentum and can place a larger burden on the donors that do participate.
Celebrating Milestones and Donor Appreciation
A church capital campaign is a complex and overwhelming task. It can be easy to forget to celebrate the wins – big and small. But we recommend that you take the time to do so.
A few ways you can celebrate milestones and show appreciation to donors:
- Keep the campaign thermometer up to date.
- Hold a party when one of the tiered goals is achieved.
- Send thank you notes to all donors.
- Make thank you phone calls to major donors.
- Hold a groundbreaking ceremony when construction begins.
- And follow it up with a grand opening ceremony when construction is complete.
Post-Campaign Momentum and Ministry Outcomes
We have found that our clients see an increase in giving following a capital campaign. While that may seem surprising, a campaign often inspires a deeper connection to the church.
Case Studies and Real Church Examples
Share stories of successful campaigns and key takeaways.
What Worked — and What Didn’t
We have conducted hundreds of successful church campaigns. Those that trust the process find the most success. And end up with a happy, stronger church community.
Skipping important steps – especially clarifying your vision and goals, doing a feasibility study, hiring the right campaign consultant – is a sure fire way to fall short of your fundraising goals. A lack of leadership is another key indicator for a lack of success.
Quotes from Pastors
“When our congregation decided to move forward with a capital campaign to complete renovations to our building, there was a lot of apprehension. After all, we had not had a campaign like this at the church in about 30 years,” said Rev. Cory Burma, Lead Pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Columbus, Nebraska. “No one really knew where to start or what to do, causing paralysis in moving forward. And then we partnered with Fellowship Development to coordinate the campaign for us. And I am so glad we did! … I also particularly appreciated Fellowship Development’s focus on spiritual aspects of the campaign, not just the financial. Stewardship is part of each person’s discipleship journey, and this campaign helped each person to grow as a follower of Christ.”
“With your help and encouragement, we were able to present a professional appeal and cultivate a level of support that exceeded our expectations,” Rev. Dr. Daniel A. Hahn Jr., Member, Board of Directors at Redeemer Lutheran School in Verona, Pennsylvania. “As we near the completion of our campaign, we are not only able to begin the construction of our new gymnasium, we have been blessed with a gift that will fund a Development Office for the future growth of the ministry of our school.”
Conclusion
Launching a capital campaign can be intimidating and overwhelming. We hear this from pastors all the time. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and meet your goals. Hiring the right campaign consultants and proper preparation can set your church up for a successful campaign.
