Happy New Year!
As we begin a joyous new year, I have been thinking about the issues your church may be facing. The recent election and the looming fiscal cliff may have caused you to hold back on your capital campaign planning. Or, your campaign may be trapped in the pitfalls of planning.
In this issue, I provide a case study explaining how Church Campaign Services helped a client succeed in uncertain times. Then, we will navigate the pitfalls of planning together.
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Uncertainty is the enemy of philanthropy...
A Case Study: Creating opportunity from adversity
At the beginning of 2008, I was working with a major church in the Southeast. We all know the political and economic events of that year - it was a critical election year, financial bailouts and bankruptcies caused panic, and the stock market crashed. Every church and every church member was challenged to stay calm in these turbulent times.
CCS had just started the Leadership Phase of approaching major donors when the economy fell apart. We called a campaign leadership meeting and put the campaign on hold, informed the congregation and key leaders of our decision, and planned to resume this $11 million campaign at a later date.
In less than a year, when the election was over and equities markets settled down a bit, my campaign chairperson called to say, "I'm a person who always finds opportunity when most people go the other way. The environment is somewhat stable. We think the cost of the project has fallen enough that even if we raise less money, the project can still be accomplished."
Onward we went! We fell short of our original goal by almost $2 million, but we anticipated that outcome. Where did we end up? We raised $9.5 million and bought the entire project under that goal. We created opportunity from adversity!
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The Pitfalls of Planning
How to plan a successful capital campaign
Are you planning a building project even though your membership is declining? Have you given your members enough details to get behind your project? Are you considering the wishes of the new members not yet occupying your pews?
Learn how to avoid these pitfalls and plan a successful campaign in our newest blog post - The Major Pitfalls of Planning a Capital Campaign.
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