Before launching a capital campaign for a church building project, leaders should understand their current giving patterns, strengthen general giving and plan for the ongoing costs of a larger facility. Stewardship, fundraising, financing and construction planning work best when developed together. Stronger general giving may also improve a church’s borrowing capacity.
When a church begins to consider a building project, it’s natural to start thinking about a capital campaign. How much can we raise? When should we launch the campaign? How much will people give?
Those are important questions. But they may not be the first questions you should ask. A successful capital campaign doesn’t begin when you announce a building project. It starts much earlier; with the culture of generosity you’ve already built within your church. In Part One, we explored how to determine what your church can realistically afford before moving forward with a building project. But understanding the numbers is only part of the equation. In Part Two, we’re looking at the other side of financial readiness: whether your church’s giving culture is strong enough to support the vision.
To explore that idea, I recently sat down with Brad Leeper, Founder and Principal of Ministry Essentials, a trusted Catalyst partner who helps churches strengthen stewardship and prepare for capital campaigns. Our conversation centered on an important shift in thinking: Instead of only asking how to raise money for a building, churches should consider how a building project fits into the bigger picture of funding their ministry for years to come.
Think Beyond the Capital Campaign
One of the biggest mistakes a church can make is treating a capital campaign as a one-time event. A traditional campaign may happen during a defined period, but the financial impact of a new building lasts much longer.
A larger facility may mean additional staff, utilities, maintenance, cleaning and other ongoing expenses. Raising enough money to construct the building is only part of the equation. The church also needs the financial health to operate it once the doors open.
That’s why Brad encourages churches to think beyond a single campaign and instead ask: How do we strengthen generosity to support the ministry we want to become? A distinction that is critical.
It’s easy to focus on whether you can afford the bricks and mortar. The better question is whether your giving and stewardship can support the vision behind them.
When Should a Church Start Preparing for a Capital Campaign?
This is also why conversations about generosity shouldn’t wait until a building project is fully designed.
Brad’s preferred timeline for working with a church is 12 months or more. That provides time to analyze giving, develop a campaign timeline, identify opportunities to strengthen general giving and address other questions that could affect the church’s financial future.
For churches considering construction, strengthening general giving can have implications beyond the annual operating budget. It can also influence the organization’s ability to finance a larger project.
During our conversation, Brad gave a simple example: if a church increases its annual general giving, that stronger revenue position may also increase its potential borrowing capacity. In practical terms, improving stewardship today can create more options for what the church is able to build tomorrow.
That’s something organizations can easily overlook when they’re focused solely on how much a capital campaign might raise.
Don’t Plan the Project in a Straight Line
Another theme from my conversation with Brad was timing. Churches often approach construction as a sequence: recognize the need for space, hire an architect, develop plans, find a contractor, launch a capital campaign and then secure financing.
The problem is that each of those decisions affects the others.
Brad described a better approach as “choreographing the dance.” Financial planning, stewardship, fundraising, design and construction shouldn’t operate as separate conversations. They should inform one another throughout the process.
That matters because the order in which you make decisions can have a real impact on how quickly you get into your new space.
If a church spends months developing a project before understanding its fundraising potential or financial capacity, it may ultimately have to pause, reduce the scope or redesign. On the other hand, understanding those parameters earlier allows the project team to make informed decisions from the beginning.
Start Building Financial Capacity Early
There’s another benefit to beginning the stewardship conversation early: you don’t necessarily have to wait for the formal capital campaign to start building momentum.
Brad explained that many significant capital gifts today come from assets rather than a donor’s regular income. If someone understands the vision, believes in the project and is ready to contribute, there may be opportunities to begin funding early project needs well before the formal campaign period. That can make a meaningful difference in the construction timeline.
Early funds can help cover expenses such as design and other preconstruction needs that arise before the larger campaign is complete. Without those resources, a church may have to pause while it determines how to pay for the next step.
The goal isn’t simply to raise money sooner. It’s to align the stewardship and construction timelines so the project can keep moving forward.
Know What Your Giving Data Is Telling You
Before setting a campaign goal, churches should also understand their existing giving patterns. Brad and the Ministry Essentials team use giving data to help churches estimate a potential fundraising range, develop a realistic campaign timeline and identify opportunities to strengthen general giving before the campaign begins. It also helps to understand who is giving and why. Recognizing the different types of givers in the church can help leaders strengthen generosity in ways that fit their congregation.
That kind of analysis can reveal opportunities church leaders may not see from the surface. It can also help answer some of the questions every building team eventually faces: How much could we realistically raise? When should we begin? What needs to happen between now and then?
Those answers are valuable to the financial team, but they’re also valuable to us on the construction side. The earlier we understand the financial path, the better we can align the building plan with it.
When Should Stewardship, Financial and Construction Partners Get Involved?
As early as possible. The goal isn’t to complete one step before beginning another. It’s to create a coordinated plan in which the financial strategy, generosity strategy and building strategy work together.
As Brad explained, the right process can help a church pursue three goals simultaneously: getting into the space sooner, achieving the space it actually needs and emerging from the project in a stronger financial position.
From Catalyst’s perspective, that’s exactly why partners like Ministry Essentials are valuable. Brad’s approach goes beyond raising money for a single campaign. It looks at how a church can strengthen its overall culture of generosity so it is prepared not only to build the facility, but to support the ministry that will happen inside it.
Is Your Church Building a Culture of Generosity?
If a building project may be in your future, ask your leadership team:
- Do we understand our current giving patterns and trends?
- Are we actively strengthening generosity before we need to ask people to support a capital campaign?
- Have we considered the ongoing operating costs that will come with a larger facility?
- Do we have a realistic idea of what our congregation may be able to raise?
- Are our stewardship, financial and construction strategies being developed together rather than one after another?
If you can’t confidently answer yes to those questions, that doesn’t mean you aren’t ready to start the conversation. In fact, it may be exactly why you should start now.
A capital campaign can help fund the building. A healthy culture of generosity can help support the mission that building is intended to serve for years to come.
Want to better understand your church’s giving potential?
Ministry Essentials helps churches analyze giving, strengthen generosity and prepare for successful capital campaigns. Connect with Ministry Essentials to learn more.
Ready to start planning your building project?
Catalyst Construction helps churches and schools bring the right partners to the table early and turn their vision into a realistic, buildable plan. Connect with Catalyst to start the conversation.
This is Part Two of Catalyst Construction’s The Financial Roadmap to a Successful Church & School Construction Project series.
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