A Capital Campaign to Retire Debt

What Key Things Must Be Done to Retire a $1 Million Debt?

You pastor a significant church that has enjoyed unprecedented growth since moving into a new facility. A large portion of the facility has already been paid for, yet there remains $1 million of debt. What do you do?

Seven Big Things to Meet the Challenge

1. CLARIFY. The vision that dwells in the heart of the pastor must be clarified and made clear to the congregation. When the pastor gets up in front of the congregation and tries to explain how the asset-building needs are essential to fulfill the vision of the church, the purpose is to make the entire capital campaign process understandable.
2. QUANTIFY. Add together all the costs. Calculate a total. Take account of any additional amounts that should be included. If you are going to do something significant, first you have to count the cost.
3. ENLIST. It takes more than money to meet the challenge of a successful capital campaign. You have to enlist the commitment of people, time and energy at a rigorous level. This takes buy-in at every stage and stratum of the campaign.
4. COMMUNICATE. There are many audiences that need effective communications. Leader-to-leader, pastor-to-congregation, member-to-member, and life-to-life need intentional dialogue. To successfully communicate the vision has to be consistent and clutter free.
5. EVANGELIZE. It takes passion to capture hearts and minds. It’s important to do communications with excellence, but all of this pales in significance when compared to the pastor’s passionate presentation of a capital campaign.
6. PLEDGE. Collecting the commitments is a celebration and consecration, it is a shared dynamic experience that lifts a congregation’s expectations.
7. FINISH. After the commitments are made, the follow-through and fulfillment begins in earnest. Regular and congruous follow-up and progress reports helps conserve the results of the capital campaign.

Steeple provides fund raising and organizational development services to faith-based and community-based organizations of the nonprofit sector. Our efforts are dedicated to putting nonprofit managers and trustees in touch with the tools and resources they need to develop their organizations and to conduct successful capital campaigns. Our work with clients is for the long-term—to build internal capacity, to create brand equity, and to attract and retain funding. Since 2007, we’ve helped nonprofit organizations like yours raise more than $14 million.

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