Financing Big Projects: Principles for Above-and-Beyond Giving
When local church leaders embark on raising financial support for building campaigns or other special projects, there can be a delicate balance between mobilizing large-scale resources and avoiding a decline in weekly tithes and offerings. Whether it’s constructing a new sanctuary, establishing a center of influence, or upgrading school facilities, such projects simultaneously inspire excitement and consternation. In situations like that, the key challenge for leadership is to inspire “above-and-beyond giving.” That means fostering increased generosity while maintaining ongoing, annual support. Such reliable financial contributions are mission-critical in covering operating expenses like building and equipment maintenance, salary expenses, or other program and ministry expenses. In this article, we’ll delve into how church leadership can utilize best-in-class philanthropic principles that not only finance big projects effectively but also promote unity, inspire incremental giving, and cultivate a copious culture of generosity.
Keys to Effectively Financing Big Projects
The first question that church leadership should ask themselves requires organizational introspection to answer. Leadership must thoughtfully consider the following: “How ready is our church to ask members to give above and beyond their current level of support?” Congregations tend to be very forgiving if the strategic focus of the local church has been slightly hazy. Congregants are likely to continue to return their tithes and give a level of free-will offerings that adequately support recurring, annual budget needs. However, the situation is totally different when asking for the above-and-beyond giving needed to financially support large-scale special projects or capital campaigns. This is a primary reason that capital campaigns, the behemoth of campaign giving, often stall. The people perish for lack of vision, and in this instance, it is your job to cast that vision contagiously.
When we ask the church body to enter a season of prayer to consider how they might give exponentially more than they have ever given before, and when we ask members to make a moderate- to long-term commitment to sustaining a significantly increased level of giving for a campaign or project, that will most certainly prompt people to begin caring very deeply about and to earnestly yearn for—if not insist on—strategic clarity. They will ask themselves, “Why should I give even more sacrificially than I currently am giving to my church? What is so critically important that I should stretch my faith and increase my level of generosity to a higher financial commitment than I have ever thought of before? Do I really understand what's going on with this project, and am I as passionate about this project as leadership is?”
The first step in raising above-and-beyond giving is ensuring that members have both clarity about and passion for the core elements of your local church’s strategic plan. Most often, local congregations would benefit immensely from pushing pause so they can craft or refine the church’s strategic focus. That will facilitate every church leader’s and every departmental leader’s ability to sing from the same hymn sheet during a special project or capital campaign. That way the congregation hears a consistent set of messages around which they can rally and proudly be a part of.
The mission—“What are we doing, and what is our mandate?”—must be crystal clear. It will be central in building a case for incremental giving. Doing so helps financial contributors see the role they play in fulfilling the bigger picture, the central purpose their organization fulfills, and the core value they corporately deliver. Clarity in values helps the membership know why we are doing what we’re doing. Research shows that being in alignment from a values standpoint is known to be one of the strongest intrinsic motivators for doing anything, including giving generously. A compelling vision underscores and asks, “Where is God leading us?” It provides supporters with a key milestone along their discipleship journey and indicates how their financial faithfulness is actively helping the church body to get from its current state to its divinely destined future state. With those core components of your ministry’s strategy in place, you are ready to crystalize the most important component in successful fundraising—the case for support.
The fundraising case for support answers three critical questions: Why give? Why give now? And what happens if I don't give? Although deceptively simple-seeming, crisp answers to these questions empower campaign leadership to convincingly tell the organization’s story about the project under consideration. Making a compelling case for support also gives members a clear idea of what a God-inspired, cooperative future together looks like. It raises the relevance of giving because people do not give to organizations; they give to causes. And people give most generously to transformational causes. The bigger the ask, the larger the transformational impact supporters expect to see, experience, feel, and hear about. Never forget that the purpose of fundraising campaigns is to operationalize the social impact of your strategic plan. It isn’t about securing equipment or buildings; it is ultimately about transforming lives. That is what generous givers desire to hear about, the key point you need to consistently communicate: transformed lives. For example, financing a new STEM lab means creating a stimulating environment for students to discover the mysteries of Creation. Replacing a leaking roof means creating a safe, inviting environment wherein community members can come to learn God’s design for their spiritual, physical, and financial lives. Successful fundraising, especially for big projects, is not about how to manipulate people into making charitable donations. It is about growing authentic relationships wherein potential supporters are motivated to give generously to transform lives.
For Christian ministries, it is essential to take things a step further. Christian fundraising must simultaneously yield financial and spiritual fruit. This reminds me of a call I received from a conference treasurer who was aware that a member had recently inherited a large sum of money. Basically, the question posed to me was how best to structure the ask. The questions I posed in response were: What is the spiritual benefit for the prospective donor? How will they grow spiritually through the process? How does making this gift tie into that member’s philanthropic interests? There was a pregnant pause wherein we both realized that the donor exchange was heading toward a transactional focus instead of a relational focus. Fortunately, the treasurer pushed pause long enough to consider the spiritual aspects of both asking and giving. When giving is primarily seen as a transaction, with relationships on the back burner, generosity is thwarted and trust is diminished.
Trust-Based Philanthropy
Generous giving is rooted in trusting relationships, and trust is a pivotal key to unlocking congregational generosity. Although the capacity to give is an essential precursor to a propensity to give, that inclination to give is significantly moderated by trust. Above-and-beyond giving is dependent upon a high degree of trust. Building trust influences a donor’s willingness to give by assuring donors that their contributions are well-managed. Another contingent for trust is assuring donors that their donations are used efficiently and effectively for their intended purpose(s). This transparency in reporting can be done in many ways, some more compelling than others. For instance, adhering to the best practice of acknowledging gifts within 48 hours of having received them provides an opportunity to give the donor a timely receipt for their gift. It also offers a fertile period during which you can illustrate the impact of the gift and go a step further to acknowledge the donor and their role in helping move the mission forward. Something that few churches do, but many other nonprofits routinely do, is the creation of a ministry impact report.
Due to cost and convenience, ministry impact reports are usually produced in digital format. They are a great way to highlight accomplished goals, spotlight ministry impact, overview community service projects, and collectively honor ministry supporters. Through impact reports, you can affirm donors’ decisions to financially support the ministry and plant the seeds to consider increasing their level of engagement and support. You can find several examples by typing “ministry impact report” into your favorite search engine. There you will find local Christian church examples like the Reformed Church in America. You will also find creative examples of integrating ministry impact reports into campaigns like the Wycliffe Bible Translators. Through integrated marketing communications like these, you will build donor trust that convincingly shows the ministry value of every dollar raised and stimulate the trust needed to increase above-and-beyond giving, a central role in and reflection of a vibrant culture of generosity.
Cultivating a Culture of Generosity
A broad, long-term solution for increasing above-and-beyond giving is to consistently cultivate a culture of generosity. Doing so requires intentionality in developing a long-term focus on creating a fertile environment wherein generosity naturally and abundantly flourishes. This requires taking intentional, strategic steps to establish an environment that ignites Spirit-led, whole-life stewardship. It is stewardship that mobilizes multigenerational philanthropy to collectively serve communities and reflect the transforming love of Christ in and through membership. It is characterized by unbridled joy in giving (2 Corinthians 9:6, 7) and reaps the fruit of the spiritual gift of giving (Romans 12:8). It teaches the 7 T’s of Stewardship: Time, Temple, Talent, Treasure, Trust, Theology, and Testimony. It also shows the membership how to expand ministry through principles and practices of successful fundraising. And it encourages establishing a legacy of incremental giving by making a planned gift. It is an environment wherein giving inspires spiritual growth.
You will find that people’s faith in God grows exponentially with their generous giving. Married couples will have purposeful conversations about their lives, purpose, and resources. Members begin to experience God, enabling them to commit more financial resources than previously imagined. People gain greater financial freedom because they have increased financial resources available for giving. People grow their commitment to Christ and share a vision of attaining true life (1 Timothy 6:17–19). A culture of generosity culminates in the church body growing its faith in God and intensifying its commitment to the local congregation. That is the long view of funding big projects with above-and-beyond giving.
