How to fundraise effectively for capital projects?

Your church or Christian ministry is growing. More people are coming every Sunday. Your ministry initiatives are expanding and bearing more fruit.

You might have outgrown your church space or your initial vision for your mission. So, now you want to undertake a capital project, like expanding your church building or launching new initiatives to reach more unreached people, maybe building a new school or hospital.

To turn capital projects like these into reality you need to launch a capital campaign. 

By definition, a capital campaign is a focused initiative that can run over one or several years, aiming to raise a significant amount of money for a building project or for scaling up a Christian ministry’s operations.

Simply stated, if you are to expand your mission and increase your impact over time, you need to invest in growing your support base.

This is a significant step for your church or your ministry, which is why we are hosting a workshop on 7 September for helping church or ministry leaders like you to learn the basics of running a capital campaign.

Here are just three reasons, (and there are more), why you should attend this workshop if you are thinking about raising funds for a capital project for your church or ministry:

 

1. Fundraising for a capital campaign is different from doing stewardship in the local church or from fundraising for everyday activities.

Typically, a capital campaign focuses on raising funds from three sources: current and major donors, grant making trusts and the wider community of supporters (i.e. your congregation members, your ministry’s supporters, members of the local community). 

The bulk of the money in a capital campaign comes from major gifts and many small contributions help to fill the gap. Learning how to get those significant contributions from current and potential major supporters will save you a lot of time and anxiety in the months to come.

At the upcoming workshop I will map out the different phases of the campaign and share plenty of biblical and practical tools and ideas on how to engage with high value supporters and philanthropists.

 

2. Capital campaigns are not for the faint hearted. To succeed they require a lot of work behind the scenes, focused attention, financial investment, fundraising expertise and energy.

In my role as a fundraising consultant to Christian charities and churches I have met many leaders who thought that preaching inspiring sermons or sending letters to their support base would rally major support for their projects.

Although sermons and speeches or letters have their place in the capital campaign process they are not the sole motivators for generating significant contributions needed over a period of time.

Therefore, before you are launching a fundraising campaign for a capital project it is necessary that you come to grips with:

•  The why and how to conduct a feasibility study that can determine whether your church or ministry can run a successful capital campaign;
• How to create a campaign strategy with robust goals, a powerful campaign message and a case for support that can be used in discussions with major supporters and trusts;
• What are the key qualities and skills needed from volunteers and a capital campaign team, including experienced campaign consultants and fundraisers;
• The kind of budgets, systems, and activities you need to undertake to be successful, and much more.

 

3. Because supporters who can make significant contributions play such a major role in a capital campaign, you need to learn how to identify them and how to make the ask.

Over the last 18 years I have coached and prepared many church and Christian ministry leaders to ask and get significant contributions for their capital campaigns.

Learning what to share and how to ask is not difficult if you are open to receiving some training and instruction on this subject.

And this is exactly what I am going to offer at the upcoming workshop – during one of the sessions I will share with you some steps and ideas on how to present your capital campaign project to a new prospect or a current supporter, how to address any questions they might have and then invite them to join in what God is doing through your church or ministry.

In Summary:

• Fundraising for capital projects is different from any other type of fundraising you might have undertaken before and needs to be carefully planned and implemented.
• If your new building project or major ministry initiative really matters to you and your team, then you need to invest in learning how to reach your financial goals by running a successful capital campaign.
• If you need help in in how to do this come along to our training – through Christian Fundraising Consultancy I have taught other church and ministry leaders like you to launch effective capital campaigns, and I can help you too.

 

Click here to book your ticket for 'How to fundraise effectively for capital projects?'