12/13/2005
The Georgia Bulletin (www.georgiabulletin.org)
Introduction: What makes a capital campaign successful?
A capital campaign is an extraordinary fundraising program. Most of the time it is extraordinary in two ways: First, the project for which funds are being raised is above and beyond the daily activities of the organization (a new building or renovation, debt reduction, endowment, etc.). Second, a capital campaign is extraordinary because it normally asks donors to make substantial commitments over and above their ordinary giving and to stretch these out over a multi-year pledge period.
There are three things you have to do in order to have a successful capital campaign . . .
First, you have to develop and communicate a compelling case. That means you have to identify a genuine need, and you have to help people become personally committed (mind and heart) to making a difference in the world by helping to meet that need through this capital campaign.
Dan Conway joined the staff of RSI Catholic Services Group following 20 years of experience helping Catholic organizations in the areas of strategic planning, communications, stewardship education, and development.
The second thing you have to do in a capital campaign is to motivate and involve a large number of volunteers. You can’t conduct an extraordinary fundraising program by direct mail or by taking up a second collection.
Successful capital campaigns are the result of strong, committed leadership (for example, from the bishop, the pastor, and key lay leaders). But leadership from the top down is not enough. Successful campaigns also require the active, grass-roots involvement of women and men in many different facets of the organization – each performing important but manageable tasks within the overall campaign structure.
In the old days (15 or 20 years ago), capital campaigns achieved this broad-based involvement by recruiting teams of volunteers (usually men) who did door-to-door solicitation of their neighbors or fellow parishioners. As we all know, those days are over. The way we live today, it is extremely difficult to do this kind of volunteer-based solicitation on a broad scale. As a result, new methods of solicitation have to be developed, and, equally important, we have to find new ways to personally involve large numbers of people in the campaign.
The third thing you have to do in a capital campaign is to ask people to make substantial financial commitments at levels of giving that stretch their ability to give. This is the part of the campaign that most everybody hates – the moment when someone (the organization’s leader or a volunteer) has to ask someone else to make what is for them a substantial commitment – a sacrificial gift that is proportionate to their means.
As most of us know from experience, there is no easy way around this fundamental requirement. Someone has to ask for the gift. You can soft-pedal the ask by burying it in a letter or by doing it in a generalized way at a large gathering of people, but when all is said and done, the only really effective way to solicit substantial gifts (of whatever size) is by means of a personal invitation.
That’s the bad news about capital campaigns: someone has to ask for the gift. The good news is that with a compelling case, strong leadership and active volunteers, and the right kind of personal invitation, millions of people each year throughout the United States make substantial commitments of their time, talent, and money to meet the extraordinary needs presented to them in capital campaigns. As Archbishop Daniel Buechlein of Indianapolis, says, “No one likes capital campaigns, but the huge challenges and opportunities facing the Church today call for an extraordinary sacrificial response – on the part of Church leaders and the people we serve.” The same could be said for any religious or non profit organization that is trying to make a difference in the world today.
Capital campaigns can help teach stewardship as a way of life.
But what about the distinct religious mission of Catholic organizations – parishes, dioceses, religious communities, social service agencies, schools? Can a capital campaign be financially successful and still be faithful to the Church’s mission? Can a successful capital campaign also be an occasion for teaching principles of Christian stewardship?
RSI Catholic Services believes strongly that the answer to this question is yes! A capital campaign can be an excellent opportunity to teach principles of Christian stewardship and to challenge people of faith to make substantial commitments of time, talent, and treasure based on prayerful discernment of God’s will. Why do we believe this? Because we have seen it happen many times in many different places and circumstances. With our own eyes, we have witnessed many minor miracles, experiences of metanoia or conversion that have signified an extraordinary spiritual change in the lives of ordinary people.
Let me give you a few examples. In every RSI capital stewardship campaign, people are asked to pray this simple prayer: “Lord, what do you want to do through me to fulfill your will for our
Church?” We take this prayer very seriously. In fact, except in leadership or major gift programs, we don’t ask people for a specific amount of money. We communicate the case – including the very real financial needs – and we invite as many people as possible to become actively involved in the campaign. Then we ask everyone to pray, “Lord, what do you want to do through me to fulfill your will for our Church?”
A pastor from a financially-strapped rustbelt parish in the mid west said recently that one of his wealthiest parishioners stopped him after Mass and said, rather heatedly, “Father, don’t give me that stuff about prayer. Tell me how much I should give, and I’ll give it to you.” Considering the circumstances, the pastor’s response was courageous. He said, “That would be very difficult for me to do, because the decision about how much you should give is between you and God. All I’m asking you to do is to make your own prayerful decision out of gratitude to God for all the blessings in your life.” According to this pastor, the man paused a minute and then said, “Okay.” Afterwards he made a financial commitment that the pastor said was much larger than anything he would have dared to ask for.
The same pastor will tell you that this approach – the spiritual or stewardship approach – doesn’t work with everyone. Some of his parishioners took the easy way out. They divided the campaign goal by the number of families in the parish and made a pledge that amounted to “their fair share” – a minimal gift as opposed to a substantial gift. Others chose to do nothing.
According to this pastor, however, many minor miracles occurred in the lives of those individuals and families who chose to take the stewardship prayer seriously: “Lord, what do you want to do through me to fulfill your will for our Church?” One parishioner, a single parent with three small children who works out of her home as a beautician, decided to give her tips to the campaign (the modern equivalent of the widow’s mite). Many others made gifts that were truly sacrificial, but they made them freely – without a sense of obligation or guilt.
Bishop Robert Carlson tells the story of a family in the Cathedral parish in Sioux Falls whose young children saved coins in a large glass jar over a three-year period to pay for their family vacation at Disney World. Right before commitment Sunday, the children told their parents that they wanted to contribute their jar of coins to the Cathedral. The astonished parents said “Okay,” and they made their own sacrificial gift out of gratitude to God for their children’s generosity.
The pastor of an African-American parish in the inner city talks about the miracles that occurred there as people from diverse economic, racial, and social backgrounds came together and made sacrificial gifts to build a brand-new school building in one of the city’s most economically challenged neighborhoods. Minor miracles can happen in a capital campaign when they are occasions for teaching stewardship, and when people are asked to pray “Lord, what do you want to do through me to fulfill your will for our Church?”
A capital fund-raising program can be an occasion for spiritual growth if it remembers to place first things first. A capital campaign is never an end in itself. It is always a means to an end. The end does not have to be purely financial. It can also be a pastoral or spiritual end.
A capital campaign that is based on stewardship principles has to do what any successful capital fund-raising program does. It has to develop and communicate a compelling case, it has to have strong leadership and many active volunteers; and it has to issue a personal invitation to make an extraordinary, substantial commitment. That’s the standard operating procedure for any capital campaign – at an art museum, the state university, or a Catholic parish. A stewardship-based campaign preserves the best aspects of professional capital fund raising and adds something more. It begins, or reinforces, a process of stewardship education and formation that must continue long after the capital campaign is over, and it invites people to discern God’s will in their lives, which is always a much more challenging personal invitation than simply asking for a one-time financial commitment.
By teaching principles of Christian stewardship, by emphasizing prayer and discernment, and by providing Catholics with concrete opportunities to participate in the mission and ministries of their parish and archdiocese, an integrated approach to stewardship and capital fundraising can make a real difference – in the lives of families, parish communities and the archdiocese. It can raise the money needed to fund Church ministries while, at the same, providing opportunities for genuine spiritual growth. And yes, a capital campaign can be an occasion for spiritual growth.
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About the Author:
Dan Conway joined the staff of RSI Catholic Service Group following 20 years of experience helping Catholic organizations in the areas of strategic planning, communications, stewardship education, and development. Mr. Conway is a prolific author, with many dozens of articles and three books published. He is a sought after lecturer, and travels the world observing and documenting Catholic Church events.