Over the months of preparation and execution of a church capital campaign, there are many things churches do to hinder the spiritual and financial results of their campaigns. This list is not exhaustive, as churches can be very creative in sidestepping best practices, but presented here for your edification is a list of 40 common ways to hinder your church’s capital campaign.
- Asking for too little
- Asking for too much
- Asking the wrong questions or the wrong people
- Assuming going cheap is good stewardship
- Assuming social media alone can raise significant revenue for your organization
- Assuming that your organization deserves support just because you are doing good things
- Assuming you communicate with all age demographics the same way
- Assuming you know what your donors think, what they want, or what they believe is important
- Avoiding preaching and teaching clearly, compellingly, and unapologetically on stewardship
- Believing your members truly understand biblical stewardship
- Focusing on the goals of the church instead of the benefits to your donors
- Converting all direct mail communications to digital or social media
- Expecting your committee to effectively lead the church without formal training or support
- Failing to prioritize the campaign from the standpoint of your time, effort, and focus
- Focusing too much on the tactical process and not enough on goals & outcomes
- Having a poorly designed or nonexistent web page for donations
- Having a poorly developed case for support
- Including too few facts and figures in making the case for support
- Including too many facts and figures and not enough emotion to sell your vision and mission
- Ineffective use of personal testimonies
- Making campaign decisions based on feelings instead of objective information
- Making the capital campaign about money rather than ministry
- Not being serious about your website and overall digital communication strategy
- Not having a strategic plan that spans pre-campaign preparation through post-campaign follow-up
- Not investing in staff training and development on stewardship
- Not tracking the proper metrics
- Not paying attention to long-term planned giving opportunities
- Not praying effectually about the campaign
- Not pursuing major donors strategically
- Not seeking outside professional counsel or ignoring that counsel
- Not talking one-on-one to your members frequently enough
- Not using personalization in your written communications
- Mentally prioritizing financial results over spiritual results
- Refusing to use a proven fundraising tactic because you don’t personally like it
- Running the campaign at the wrong time
- Rushing the campaign and not giving adequate time to prepare tactically or spiritually
- Thinking you have communicated often enough and well enough
Our church capital campaign services help you avoid these and other stumbling blocks to a spiritually and financially successful capital campaign. If you would like a complimentary copy of our report on the 10 quality factors that distinguish successful church capital campaigns from the other kind, please use the contact form to request your free copy.
