7 REASONS YOU NEED A COMPELLING VISION BEFORE YOU LAUNCH A CAPITAL CAMPAIGN. Tony Morgan & Joel Mikell

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2 7 REASONS YOU NEED A COMPELLING VISION BEFORE YOU LAUNCH A CAPITAL CAMPAIGN Tony Morgan & Joel Mikell

3 Table of Contents Introduction Your Next Capital Campaign Is Optional REASON 1 You Must Answer This Question (With a Straight Face) REASON 2 You Need More Than Good Intentions REASON 3 You Must Live By It REASON 4 You Have to Reveal a Better Future REASON 5 You Need Some Secret Sauce REASON 6 You Must Be Absolutely Certain About Your Next Step REASON 7 You Need to Demonstrate Your Unwavering Commitment Conclusion Vision Alignment Will Engage and Inspire Others to Participate Next Steps About The Authors Other Resources From RSI

4 INTRODUCTION Your Next Capital Campaign Is Optional No one feels the sense of urgency or responsibility like the leader to build and expand, but you can t transfer that simply through messaging from the platform or great online marketing. It simply won t get you to the finish line. You must engage and inspire people to join you in an effort to bring to life God s desire for your church. While you may be absolutely convinced that a capital campaign is the most logical next step, you must balance that confidence with the knowledge that this is a step you can t take alone. Not everyone in your church understands and buys into your vision yet. Sure, there are some who are 100 percent invested. But many others are simply busy or distracted. What will you say to them? How will you capture their attention? If you re going to get enough people on board to fully fund your next capital project, you can t overlook one of the most undervalued and overlooked roadblocks to ministry funding presenting a compelling vision that inspires and engages everyone. You re going to have to dive deep into the why before you start unpacking the what or how. People want to know your church has a vision, and they want to see tangible results. Yes, givers are inspired by ideas, but you need more than good ideas. What will truly captivate 4

5 the people in your church is when inspired ideas are coupled with a strategy and plan. That combination will move people to get involved and help bring a clear and compelling vision into reality. If you have a vision for the future that requires additional financial resources, you can leverage that vision to inspire people to invest their lives. When they invest their lives, their resources will come along with them. But until you present a vision that is supported by a strategy and plan, a capital campaign is... well... optional for just about everyone in your church. 5

6 REASON 1 You Must Answer This Question (With a Straight Face) The most significant question you ll ask before, during, or after your next capital campaign is: why? Why do you need a capital campaign? You need to have a concise answer to that question because people will ask it. In fact, they will ask it multiple times. Your response to the question will play an important role in the total participation in the capital campaign. There are some leaders who believe their persuasive abilities are strong enough to overcome any resistance or objection. They trust their popularity and power to influence participation. Unfortunately, that won t be enough to engage a broad base of support within your church today. The bigger the vision, the more people you ll need to bring it into reality. When people ask why, they want to hear the vision and the measurable deliverables that accompany the vision. It s one thing to have a vision; it s another thing to understand processes and have a plan to achieve the vision. People want to hear about the ministry outcomes associated with the campaign. They want to know how their participation will make a difference. You must wrestle through that. Otherwise, people will choose to invest elsewhere. Selling complexity is challenging. Without a strong why, your appeal will get lost in the fine print. Your answer should challenge and encourage people to invest their time, talents, and resources. When people buy into your vision and understand the strategy, they will be far more likely to invest their resources for the cause. Where there s ownership, there s investment. It s too easy too tempting to just jump to the ask before you fully explain why the money is needed. 6

7 REASON 2 You Need More Than Good Intentions The truth is good intentions don t create forward momentum. Vision is the glue that holds your ministry together and the assurance you have that you are moving in a singular direction. Without it, you are subject to the desires of the moment or reacting to immediate needs. Many church leaders recognize the capital needs but lack the ability to connect it to vision. Worse, the capital project they want to present never intersects with what they claim to be the vision of the church. Vision once articulated must be made achievable through a series of specific steps and action items. There must be a sequential order that enables the church to celebrate the incremental goals while creating the motivation to continue pursuing unreached goals. This is what will translate a picture of a better tomorrow into a compelling vision that captivates the mind and attention of people. Planning ensures we are good stewards. In other words, we need to pray for God s purposes to be fulfilled, but we also have to act wisely using the resources He provides. People want to know how the capital need connects to ministry objectives and what the ministry priorities are. The long -range success of the campaign will be dependent upon the stewardship demonstrated with the initial funds. People want to know if you spent the money on the things you said would be the first priorities. They want to feel as if their contributions are making a difference. If they are satisfied with the direction things are going, they will be more likely to continue giving for the duration of the campaign. 7

8 REASON 3 You Must Live By It Every church leader thinks they have a vision. Most churches even have been through a formal process to develop one. It s not enough to have a paragraph printed somewhere. A vision at least a compelling one must drive who you are becoming. Most times people know the vision. They just don t know how the vision will be accomplished. That s where strategy comes in. Without clarity around the how your strategy people fill in the gap with their own approach. That s where division begins. It s one thing to have a vision; it s another thing to have a strategy for accomplishing that vision. This is where many church leaders lose traction. They have great videos and printed resources that espouse a clear picture of the future, but they haven t identified how each ministry area and individual can play a role in reaching the vision. This approach makes as much sense as a football coach assembling a team, making a great pregame speech, and then taking the field without a game plan. Capital campaigns are motivated by vision and sustained by strategy. For the duration of the campaign, organizational decisions must be made in light of the vision and strategy. This means saying yes to some things you ve never done before and no to some things you ve always done. This means empowering staff and volunteer leaders with a clear understanding of their responsibilities and measurable outcomes. Vision should be something you live by. When you do, seemingly disconnected pieces begin to form a multifaceted effort to accomplish a specific goal. When you don t live by it, your appeal will seem less desirable and perhaps even inauthentic. 8

9 REASON 4 You Have to Reveal a Better Future Vision will focus your direction and the attention of others. You must have both before you launch your capital campaign. Vision and focus are what will capture the attention of people who live largely distracted lives. Vision must be connected to the individual hopes and dreams of those you are asking to invest in it. Too many leaders cast a vision that is so disconnected from the present reality that people dismiss it as fantasy. That will hinder the success of the capital campaign. Your clear vision might be fuzzy to others. Therefore, you need to help them by clearly identifying the personal benefit of the realization of the vision. People receive a lot of messages each day. Most of the messages are dismissed as being personally irrelevant. Only a few messages will strike a chord of connectedness with them and cause them to pay attention. We can t compete for someone s attention with information. We also can t compete just pushing our desired action. The only way we can compete for attention is to get at the motivation behind the action. What will motivate someone to take their next step? This is typically more of a heart issue than a head issue. In a world where distraction is celebrated and not paying attention is the norm, motivating people to invest in a capital campaign can be a challenge. That s why it takes more than just 9

10 a capital campaign; you need to clarify and share your vision and strategy before you ever ask people for additional money. Experience tells us that people invest their resources in things in which they believe. Research shows consumers will pay more for products that are marketed as addressing social issues through the profits. Givers will give to organizations they perceive as being effective in addressing an issue about which they are concerned. When they buy into your vision, their resources will naturally follow. So, if people aren t giving to your church, they probably don t understand the vision and strategy. 10

11 REASON 5 You Need Some Secret Sauce Vision provides the framework to tell a story that invites other people to join in. And the truth is that the best stories get funded. Great storytelling will bring your vision and strategy to life; it will add a human dimension that will personalize your appeal. Vision establishes the fence within which your organization functions in the mind of the giver. The more clearly defined the vision, the more effective you will be at funding your vision. We live in a culture that loves a good story. People want to hear about others who are benefitting from something you are asking them to do. They want to know about the people you have helped in the past so they can be confident you will continue to help people in the future. They are looking for evidence of organizational integrity. We understand their skepticism. After all, much has been said about church leaders who mishandle resources. The media pays little attention to all of the great things a church does, but it jumps on any story that suggests leadership incompetence. So, before you ever ask for the first contribution, you must establish your integrity and accountability. The best way to do this is through stories. Stories are different from advertisements in that they allow individuals to explain the situation from their own perspectives. Their perspectives should be representative of the varying 11

12 perspectives of people in the congregation. You need a story from someone who once was a skeptic, a beneficiary of the church s ministries, a key leader, maybe a business owner or city leader, etc. Stories need to be the centerpiece of the time leading up to the initiation of the capital campaign. Use them to build excitement and community. Use them to raise awareness of issues that will be addressed in the campaign. Use them to show the importance of everyone in the congregation. The better you are at telling stories, the more successful you ll be in the capital campaign. 12

13 REASON 6 You Must Be Absolutely Certain About Your Next Step Vision clarifies what direction the leader should move next. With so many good giving options available to the people in your church, you need to be explicitly clear in demonstrating where this campaign will take your church and what it will take to get there. When it comes to the next steps, clarity is key. Clarity keeps things simple, and simplicity is your only hope of ensuring you complete what you set out to accomplish in the first place. In like fashion, your vision will clarify the next step for your givers. Once people begin to buy into the vision and strategy, they need to know exactly what the next step should be. They don t need so many options that they can t make a decision. In fact, studies show the more options people have, the less satisfied they are in their decisions. The longer the decision -making process takes, the more likely people are not to get involved. Capitalize on the moment by giving people one option. Offer them a card on which they can identify their response. Capitalize on the intentional moments you create through the storytelling. A word of caution: As a leader, the most important thing you can do is follow through on the next step. Your willingness to do what you said you would do determines the longevity of the investments other people make. If you maintain your focus, guide the process publicly, invest in key leaders, and celebrate incremental successes, interest in and contributions to the capital campaign should sustain and even increase over time. However, if you ask people to give without a compelling vision or a clear plan, their interest in the campaign will diminish. 13

14 REASON 7 You Need to Demonstrate Your Unwavering Commitment It s easy to get distracted along the way. Vision provides the accountability leaders need to keep things moving in the right direction. Buildings, bricks, and mortar don t engage or inspire people. Those are merely tools necessary ingredients to accomplish a larger plan. What inspires people is something that shows them how they can make a difference in the world and why your church is best positioned and prepared to bring that plan into reality. In short, vision is a promissory note that gives enough confidence to the giver that they are willing to respond to your invitation to get involved. People want to make a difference and they want to invest their resources in things that matter. Unfortunately, loyalty doesn t always cast the deciding vote. Just because people attend your church doesn t mean they will invest in it. They will weigh your church s strategies against other benevolent organizations. The key question here is what makes you distinctive? If you didn t fulfill your vision, would anyone notice? They will evaluate your success against the successes of other organizations. They will watch to see if your actions support what you say is important. Their contributions are their votes of confidence. They give when they believe the church is on target and moving in the right direction. They discontinue giving when they question where things are headed or decide another organization can deliver more effectively. That s why it is so important for the leadership team to stay focused on the campaign objectives. 14

15 The landscape of capital giving has changed. People want to know what you plan to do, not just what you plan to build. This subtle shift changes everything. Churches that are successful at raising money are the ones that use vision and strategy to help people see how each individual can make a difference. People respond when they see a need and believe they can personally address the need. They respond differently when they only see a facility. It s not that facilities are bad, but they should be presented as tools to help your congregation reach its community and the world. When you cast a vision, you make a promise to your congregation and community. It is important that the leaders of the church do everything possible to deliver on those promises. Accountability, transparency, and vision -driven spending are trust- building exercises that will solidify the commitment of your giving base and inspire new givers to be part of something special. 15

16 CONCLUSION Vision Alignment Will Engage and Inspire Others to Participate If your vision inspires a strategy that aligns with the congregation s expectations, a capital campaign can be instrumental in the financial, spiritual, and relational aspects of the church. However, if your vision isn t clearly articulated or seems out of sync, a capital campaign will magnify your weaknesses and inconsistencies. A capital campaign isn t designed to fix those foundational issues like vision and ministry planning; it is a tool to help you achieve your financial goals by connecting them to a clear and compelling vision for your church. So, before you think about entering a capital campaign, take time to think through your vision and strategy. What are the long -range plans and how are you organized and equipped to achieve those goals? Survey your key leaders and see if they know what the vision of the church really is. Ask staff members how their ministries relate to the overall vision of the church. In other words, do your homework before you launch a campaign. You are the linchpin in any capital campaign. You are the one best positioned to engage and inspire others to participate. That s why you must get vision right BEFORE the launch of any capital campaign. 16

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18 ABOUT THE AUTHORS TONY MORGAN is the Chief Strategic Officer and founder of The Unstuck Group. He and his team have worked with more than 80 churches across the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, providing consulting and leadership coaching to help churches get unstuck and have a bigger impact. For 14 years, Tony served on the senior leadership teams at West Ridge Church (Dallas, GA), NewSpring Church (Anderson, SC), and Granger Community Church (Granger, IN). He has written several books including Simply Strategic Volunteers, Killing Cockroaches, and Stuck in a Funk? which all focus on improving leadership and ministry strategies. For more information, visit and follow Tony on Twitter (@TonyMorganLive). 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 has written several books and ebooks including Church Giving Matters, The Ministry of Giving, and Crafting a Theology of Stewardship. Joel can be reached at joel.mikell@rsistewardship.com, Twitter (@joelmikell), or Facebook. 18

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