Conduct Successful Church Fundraisers

It's exciting to experience God's call to expand your church's ministry in the community. But it can be downright scary to figure out how to solicit the financial support you need to fulfill the call.

Here are some ways you can conduct successful church fundraisers:

• Pray. Ask God to confirm whether the project your church is considering is indeed His will, and, if so, to prepare the hearts of those in the congregation to support it.

• Adopt a positive attitude. Remember that God will always provide a way for you to do what He has asked. Don't feel as if you have to apologize for wanting to finance a project God has genuinely led you to undertake.

• Ask God to reveal a comprehensive plan to your congregation as you talk through the project. Consider how much the people in your church can reasonably give to the effort and seek God's guidance to bring the project's scale in line with what they can contribute.

• Preach sermons on giving and other aspects of financial stewardship to bring the spiritual aspects of it to the forefront of people's minds. Plan lessons and discussion about money for Sunday School classes to further encourage people in your church to think and pray about the topic.

• Thoroughly inform people throughout all stages of the planning process. Let them know what the project will be designed to accomplish, why you believe God has called your church to undertake it, what it will cost, and how the church plans to pay for it.

• Listen to and seriously consider input from every person in the church, not just the pastor and lay leaders. Remember that people need to feel a sense of ownership about a project in order to support it.

• Don't avoid debt entirely, but don't go into too much debt. Taking out loans to finance your project can be useful, but never allocate more than 30 percent of the church's regular operating budget to pay principal and interest on debt.

• Hold a pledge banquet of about two hours in length during which a speaker (your pastor or someone else chosen for this role) presents full details about the project, then encourages all people present to pray about their contributions and to fill out pledge cards indicating how much money they plan to give every month over a period of three years. Invite everyone in your church's congregation and provide a nice dinner and free childcare for the event. During the week after the banquet, follow up personally with those who were not able to attend the banquet and ask them to pledge as well.

• Announce the grand total of pledges to everyone in the church, and be sure to thank everyone. Commit to praying for the project on a regular basis until it's complete.
  

Adapted from Successful Church Fund-Raising: Capital Campaigns You Can Do Yourself, copyright 2002 by John R. Bisagno. Published by Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville, Tn., www. lifewaystores.com, 1-800-448-8032.

John R. Bisagno has spent nearly 50 years in ministry, pastoring for 35 years. Recently retired from the First Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, he continues preaching both in the United States and abroad.

What project or projects is your church currently trying to raise money to fulfill? How are you going about it? What have you learned in the process? Visit Crosswalk's forums to discuss this topic by clicking on the link below.