12 TIPS ANNUAL FUND CAMPAIGN RESULTS. for better. Joel Mikell & Bill McMillan

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2 12 TIPS for better ANNUAL FUND CAMPAIGN RESULTS Joel Mikell & Bill McMillan

3 INTRODUCTION Most church leaders end their fiscal year with great anticipation for the coming year. The previous year provided a glimpse of what your church is capable of doing. Based on that data, the planning for the new year begins. Though annual planning is complex, there is a common ingredient resources. Church leaders must be realistic about the human and financial resources available for the coming year. That s why an annual fund campaign is so important. The annual fund campaign is not a box to be checked but an opportunity to invite your congregation to co-create and collaborate together on the next year of local church ministry. This is your way to evaluate the resources you have available and to share the excitement you have about the future of your church. When people know the vision and needs of the church, they are much more likely to invest their time, talent, and resources. So, if you are planning for the coming year, here are some tips to energize your annual campaign. 3

4 tip 1 Define your ministry and financial goals. Many church leaders plan for the coming year by adding a small percentage across the board to all budget categories. This process assumes that your church will continue doing what it has been doing and doesn t plan to start anything new. Don t just increase it by the obligatory 3 percent. Know what God is calling your church to do and understand the costs associated with accomplishing it. You can do this by analyzing the previous year s ministry and identifying 15 to 20 percent of the activities that you will discontinue in the coming year. Then your team can begin to plan new initiatives they would like to add to their ministries. This kind of planning keeps a church from becoming complacent, doing the same things each year. Don t be afraid to discontinue events so you can reallocate those resources to other ministries. If you don t know why you are doing something, it s worth putting it on the endangered species list. Enlist a consultant or other forward thinkers to help your church develop ministries that are needed in your community but not being handled. If every church does the same things, they will attract the same people. Meanwhile, a large portion of the community will be unreached. Plan to reach the unreached and look for creative ways to make it happen. 4

5 tip 2 ESTABLISH A PLAN. Hope is something we should all have, but it becomes problematic if it is our only plan to fund the annual budget. It s hard to make strategic decisions about mission projects, budget allocations, or even personnel unless you confidently know how to get from where you are today to where you are headed in the next twelve months. Most leaders in your church will be encouraged and excited about an annual plan that details the bulk of your ministry objectives. The more time you have to plan an event, the better that event will be. So, leaders who know that student camp will be the second week in June can begin developing their ministries toward that specific event. At the same time, funding the ministry plan becomes more crucial the better planned you are. This might explain why some church leaders prefer to fly by the seat of their pants rather than formulate a plan. They fear a lack of funding will result in their being unable to deliver what was promised. 5

6 tip 3 INVITE YOUR KEY STAKEHOLDERS TO OFFER FEEDBACK. These are volunteer and financial leaders who have already demonstrated they are invested in the future of your church. Allow them the opportunity to speak into your plan. It will also give you a chance to test your ideas and build a support base early on. Like it or not, today s church must be operated with sound business principles. There are balance sheets to be discussed and payroll taxes to be handled. Seminary doesn t provide the financial tools needed to operate a multimillion-dollar organization. That s why it is important to tap into the resources available in your church and let those financial leaders provide wisdom and advice regarding the ministry plan and allocation of financial resources. Churches sometimes need wisdom from key people regarding land acquisition, capital improvements, incurring debt, and so forth. The people you need are probably already in your church, so tap into their expertise and let them help you identify and pursue your ministry goals. 6

7 tip 4 CRAFT A COMPELLING STORY AND THEME. Don t just print numbers in the bulletin. Few people are motivated by numbers. Most people respond to the stories behind the numbers. The better you tell the stories of life change that are taking place in your church, the more responsive people will be. Today s churchgoers are donating to organizations that are making a difference in the community. Your church might be left out if a family sees the work taking place at the local homeless shelter as making more of a difference. It s one thing to tell stories; it s another to be manipulative. Don t cross the line because people in your congregation will quickly see through the manipulation techniques. When every church announcement or sermon includes a mention of money and giving, people become skeptical. The best way to motivate long-term givers is to establish life-changing ministries. Then the stories will spread virally throughout your community. 7

8 tip 5 BE SPECIFIC ABOUT MINISTRY OBJECTIVES. Know what ministry you will accomplish in the next twelve months. In addition to great storytelling, you need to establish expectations that will build trust and confidence. People respond more generously when they know how their giving will make a measurable difference. Ministry objectives should always be stated in terms of effectiveness, not in how the organization will benefit. In other words, share specific goals by highlighting how your church will minister in the community. Don t talk about increased receipts, record attendance, and statistics that can be easily interpreted as ego-focused. If your leadership team knows what it wants to accomplish in the coming year, it will be easier to generate excitement and buy-in from the congregation. Each ministry area should have objectives related to reaching people who are outside the church as well as ministering to those already in the church. Make sure your ministries project a healthy balance between caring for the people you already have and reaching those who are not yet believers. It is easy to settle for transfer growth since we tend to attract people who are like us. Our biblical mandate, however, is to reach those that society shuns. Your ministry should target people others have neglected. When this ministry focus is shared with the congregation, they will recognize the importance of being doers of the Word and not just hearers. 8

9 tip 6 PREACH A STEWARDSHIP SERMON SERIES. While most pastors dread talking about money, people need context in order to give. The practice of regular, systematic giving to your local church is optional for a growing number of Christians. They aren t opposed to giving to their church, but it shouldn t be taken for granted. Calling people to a lifestyle of biblical stewardship through their time, talents, treasures, temples, and testimonies is an important part of discipleship. It will also allow you to define why funding local church ministry is essential to building the Kingdom. A preaching series on stewardship doesn t have to be limited to financial things, but at least one message in the series should directly speak about money. Because supporting the local church is biblical, calling people back to those standards is one of the main responsibilities of the church. A church that has a dynamic discipleship initiative will probably find it less necessary to talk about money in the worship setting. Because people aren t always growing in their relationship with God, they don t feel it s necessary to give to the local church. They are content to be religious consumers. They want convenient parking, childcare, comfortable seats, a short worship service, and a police presence to help them exit the parking lot. If you meet their expectations, they will return next week. If you don t, they will go somewhere that will give them what they want. This situation causes church leaders to pander to the crowd by doing anything to keep them coming. Those statistics that leaders highlight as evidence of their effectiveness might indicate something far less flattering. 9

10 tip 7 PROVIDE PLEDGE CARDS ONLINE AND IN PRINT. Make it easy for your membership to respond in a way that is convenient for them. Also, some churches have had success changing the term pledge cards to promise cards. This tool should be used to call people to action. Think carefully how it will be presented, because that will influence how people respond. The pledge/promise card is not an object of guilt but an opportunity to respond generously to the grace of God and the desire to help fulfill the ministry goals and objectives you ve already revealed. You have already discovered that volunteers are more likely to serve if they know what is needed and expected of them. The same is true for financial resources. Communicate with your church that the promise cards help the church plan its ministries. Stress the importance of fulfilling the promise or pledge. Let people know when pledges are not meeting the projected totals without making them feel guilty. Guilt will drive people away from the organization. It will never motivate people to be more invested in it. 10

11 tip 8 PROVIDE MULTIPLE GIVING METHODS OR OPTIONS. This includes offering envelopes, online giving, and special giving options such as stock transfers or large gift facilitation. Your annual campaign is a great way to encourage automatic giving through an online giving system you provide or by encouraging people to use their bank s bill pay option. Either way, systematic giving overcomes irregular attendance habits. People need to know that the ministries of the church continue even while they are away on vacation. By providing online giving options, automatic drafts, and onsite giving kiosks, attenders are more likely to see their giving as important. Look for subtle ways to stress the importance of giving. If you do this well, you won t have to address the issue more blatantly. Providing other ways for people to give might not have an immediate effect. It will, however, grow over time. There are many ways to handle online giving without incurring a large ongoing expense. Consider using a service that is free or offers a per-transaction fee. Once people begin using the service, switch to a monthly fee service. 11

12 tip 9 CELEBRATE THE END RESULT. We don t celebrate enough in church. Celebration doesn t mean you drop balloons and a disco ball from the rafters. But public displays of enthusiasm around the response of your members is a great way to build momentum. It also gives you a chance to review the ministry objectives, plans, and expected outcomes of the coming year. If we are going to be quick to point out when people aren t meeting expectations, we must be equally as quick to recognize when they contribute to the overall health of the church. Celebrate incremental achievements such as fully funding a mission trip or student camp. Highlight the money that is being sent to relief efforts in other parts of the world. Show pictures of the new playground, audiovisual equipment, copier, or exterior signage. In other words, when you let people know where their money is going, they will be delighted to give more. 12

13 tip 10 SAY THANK YOU. Never underestimate the power of saying thank you. Consider organizing a volunteer team for a thank-a-thon, where volunteers call everyone who has made a pledge to tell them, Thank you for helping fund our ministry. Send handwritten thank-you notes. Try a combination of the two. People want to know their pledge was noticed and that it matters. Take time in a meeting to have staff members write personal thank-you notes expressing how their ministries are benefitting from the continued generosity of the congregation. When givers recognize the significance of their contributions, they will be encouraged to keep giving and give more when possible. Many church leaders take the generosity of their congregation for granted. Their lack of personal appreciation makes givers more likely to give to other causes. 13

14 tip 11 PROVIDE REGULAR MINISTRY UPDATES. Progress reports are a great way to demonstrate movement toward larger ministry goals that the annual campaign intends to fund. It also builds trust and confidence within the giver. Measure your progress and report back not just numbers but stories of life change through your ministries. This is something that must continue once started, because the absence of a report communicates that nothing is happening. Before you start providing updates, be sure to assign the responsibility to someone who will follow through. The larger the church, the more communication there is... and the more likely people are to view another from the church as background noise. Consolidate your communication so that it reaches the intended audience. People want to know what s going on. They want pictures and details that show their kids in action. Give them what they are looking for and they will continue to invest in the ministries of your church. 14

15 tip 12 EVALUATE YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS. At the end of the year, take some time to reflect on the past as you plan for the future. Review your experience and final results from the previous year. Take time to understand what went well and what didn t go so well. Note anything you tried that worked better than expected and other things you tried that didn t produce the results you had hoped for. This will help you make better decisions moving forward. Don t be afraid to talk about those things that didn t turn out as planned. Learn from them so you can move forward, better prepared to make wiser decisions. Take a close look at those things that did work and look for ways to improve them. Incremental improvements can move your ministries closer and closer to being exceptional, and that s what God deserves, right? 15

16 CONCLUSION Funding your annual campaign is critical to bringing vision to reality. With a renewed passion and effort, your annual campaign can become a catalyst for local church ministry and a launching pad toward sustainable ministry funding year after year. Without funding, your vision is nothing more than a list of possibilities. An unfunded vision becomes a long list of things you didn t do, and that can be detrimental to the overall atmosphere in the church. Moving forward with confidence in your plan is only part of the process. You must also have confidence in the resources needed to see the plan come to life. With proper planning, an accurate assessment of the ministry environment, and an effective relationship with givers, your church can beat the odds and have an incredible year. 16

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18 ABOUT THE AUTHORS JOEL MIKELL is president of RSI. With more than 25 years of local church ministry experience, he brings a passion for helping churches cast their vision to reach people for Christ, as only a pastor can. He has helped church leaders raise more than $400 million for kingdom projects and has had the privilege of working with some of the most well-known churches and church leaders across the country. Joel can be reached at joel.mikell@rsistewardship.com, Twitter (@joelmikell), or Facebook. BILL MCMILLAN served for more than 20 years as both a pastor and a pastoral counselor before joining RSI. He currently serves as executive vice president. Bill has led thriving stewardship campaigns in churches of many sizes and denominations, raising millions of dollars for local ministry. He is an excellent communicator and project manager, whose consulting hallmarks lie in communications strategy and major gift development. Bill can be reached at bill.mcmillan@rsistewardship.com, Twitter (@billmcmillanrsi), or Facebook. 18

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