Church Capital Campaign White Papers

Two Proven Approaches to Selecting the “Right” Goal for Your Church’s Capital Campaign

There are many decisions to be made when planning a capital campaign at your church. A few are so critical that they can make or break the success of your campaign before you even get started. For most people, success or failure boils down to one question: “Did we meet our goal?” Hence goal-setting is one the most important decisions you will make. Selecting an appropriate goal can be tricky, however. Set it too high and you risk falling short. Set it too low and you run a risk that people may not be motivated to give to their full potential and you may sacrifice the excitement, momentum, and abundance of resources that come when a community collectively stretches to reach a bold vision. This article outlines two proven approaches to selecting the “right” goal for your capital campaign, as well as some time-tested tips about how NOT to do it.

Four Fundamental Factors to Figuring Out
the Ideal Timing for your Church Capital Campaign

Churches today are busier than ever. When it comes to figuring out the timing of your church’s next capital campaign, a church calendar jam-packed with year-round activities is only one of the challenges you will encounter. The question of “timing” is in fact not just one question but four, wrapped together into that one simple word:

• What time of year should we launch our church’s capital campaign?
• How much lead time will we need to plan and prepare in advance?
• How long will it take to complete our campaign?
• How far ahead of commencing construction should we begin?

Timing is one of the most challenging issues churches face in planning a capital campaign, and this whitepaper article unpacks each of these four fundamental questions one at a time to help you figure out the ideal timing for your church’s next campaign.

Five Common Mistakes Churches Make in Conducting Capital Campaigns

Is there a capital campaign in your church’s future? Sooner or later every church faces the need to raise money for facilities–whether to expand, renovate, or repair. On one hand the opportunity to shape the future of your church can be a blessing. When it comes to assuring the future of your church, few activities yield as significant an impact as a capital fundraising campaign. At the same time, a capital campaign is also a great responsibility and one misstep can set plans back years, or lead to disagreements that can divide congregations. It is important to get it right. This article outlines five of the most common mistakes churches make in conducting capital campaigns, and how to avoid them.

Three Important Trends That WILL Impact Your Church’s Next Capital Campaign, Whether You Realize It or Not

When was the last time your church conducted a capital campaign? “The times they are a’changing!” was a well-known anthem of the sixties that could just as easily have been written today. If you are considering a capital campaign now, then it’s probably been at least a few years, maybe as many as five, ten or more since your last campaign. Whether you realize it or not, a lot has changed since then. Our firm has three decades of experience helping hundreds of churches of every size and type raise hundreds of millions of dollars for their campaigns. For most of those thirty years–other than what technology afforded–not a whole lot changed in the way churches conducted capital campaigns. That’s no longer the case. In recent years we have observed three trends in particular that WILL have a significant impact on the way you conduct the next capital campaign at your church. This article explores those trends and explains what you must do to navigate them successfully.

Should We or Shouldn’t We? Everything Your Church Needs to Know About Congregational Readiness Studies

Sometimes it can be difficult for a church to reach consensus on a campaign. Sometimes it is unclear whether the congregation fully supports the project. Sometimes the leadership simply wants more objective data to help make an informed decision. Even if you know that there is consensus on the need for a campaign, setting a realistically achievable financial goal for a campaign can be tricky. In these cases a Congregational Readiness Study can be a very helpful tool. This white paper walks through what is involved in completing a Congregational Readiness Study, and will help you decide if you should complete one in advance of launching a capital campaign at your church.