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To be successful, a church fundraising campaign must begin with a vision. And few congregations have proven this maxim true as convincingly as the members at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. The church's finance committee developed their vision by focusing on ministry first and money second.

"Their focus was on God and on the mission of increasing our ministry and our outreach," says Alyce Price, Highland Park's director of finance and administration. "The building and fundraising program revolved around those."

The committee eventually decided to demolish or renovate several existing structures and begin extensive new construction. To do the job right, they determined the church would need to raise $28 million.

"That's when we started interviewing consultants," Price says. "We needed a consultant who had experience dealing with larger campaigns and had dealt with demographics similar to ours."

The church, home to more than 13,000 members, including President and Mrs. George W. Bush, hired The Genesis Group in Fayetteville, Georgia, to conduct its fundraising campaign. Since its founding in 1988, the company has raised close to $2 billion for its clients.

"The focus of our company is quality," The Genesis Group's Jim Sheppard says. "That's why we're organized like we are, much like a law firm that has consultants rather than employees. Our clients work with people who are loyal both to them as well as The Genesis Group."

Sheppard's proven program helped Highland Park raise more than $38 million in pledges.

"We're obviously very pleased," Price says. "The additional money raised will allow us to purchase additional land that has an apartment building on it. We can use that building as temporary office space while other construction and renovation is being done. It also gives us a contingency fund, which is nice to have."

Like Highland Park, many churches are turning to capital fundraising companies to help them meet their financial needs. Your Church talked with the leaders of several major companies to find out more about this critical service.

Although methodologies differ among capital fundraising firms, their leaders all repeat the same theme. Firms don't raise money. Churches don't raise money. God does.

For Bill Wilson, president of Resource Services, Incorporated (RSI) in Dallas, Texas, the difference between a good capital fundraising campaign and an awesome one can be summed up with a single word: God.

Wilson should know fundraising. His firm, started in 1972, was the nation's first devoted to the fundraising needs of local churches. In the past 29 years, RSI has served more than 17,000 churches across denominations, and its 56 consultants have raised more than $6 billion. They helped Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, raise $80 million in pledges between 1999 and 2000.

There is no substitute for a job done right, Wilson says.

"That begins with taking the time to design a comprehensive program for each church we serve," he says. "The result is a program for each of our clients that is intimately flexible. This flexibility allows us to match the uniqueness of each of our church clients with a program that fits their style and traditions and will work with anything they want to do. The bottom line is consistent, quality service to those church clients."

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