Your church, with an annual budget of $800,000, has approved a $2,400,000 building initiative. You hope to complete the project without taking on long-term debt. While the church is healthy and congregational giving is good, there are no spare funds to pay for the project up front. The congregation is willing and able to support a capital fundraising campaign. You are now at a crossroads: the decisions you make from here on will have major impacts on the future of your church.

With the talented lay and staff people in the church, you could put together a task force to raise the funds. Should the church staff and laity do it? Or should the church call in professional assistance from a firm that specializes in capital funds campaigns?

Even though you know that many churches have used the services of professional firms with great success, you are still reluctant. The issues of working with a fundraising firm are very real: (1) their fee involves a lot of money; (2) the church could save the money spent on the fee and use it for other purposes; (3) you are not sure you want to let a stranger into your church family; (4) you wonder whether you can trust him or her; (5) you don't know if they will do what they say they will do; (6) some people will wonder why the church is spending money to raise money; and (7) this doesn't seem terribly difficult—won't the church be just as successful doing it on their own?

The Challenge
There are many stories of churches that tried to do their own campaigns, only to achieve poor results. When asked why they did not hire a professional, the response usually has something to do with the fee. "The professional consulting firm's fee is a lot of money for a church like ours. Couldn't we do it ourselves and use that money for something else?" That is certainly an option.

And there are some churches that have a giving culture and a team of staff and laity who know how to do capital campaigns well. But those churches are the exception, not the rule. Look at it this way: the fee paid is money invested where it will yield more giving. So saving the fee is kind of like eating your seed corn.

Churches that conduct their own campaigns tend to produce results at about 50 percent of the professionally-led campaigns. These churches do well to raise an amount equal to their annual budget. Churches that use consultants often raise two (or more) times their annual budget in three-year commitments to their capital campaign. To save a $30,000 to $40,000 consulting fee, a church conducts a campaign that receives several hundred thousand dollars less in commitments. It is the most expensive mistake a church can make—to save the cost of a consulting fee and then fall short of their giving potential by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Additionally, there is the intangible cost of recovering from a campaign that falls far short of its financial goals. A campaign that achieves poor financial results interrupts the momentum of the church. It can take months, even years, for a church to recover the lost momentum from a poor campaign. Hiring an outside consultant significantly increases the chances of the church reaching its financial goals.

Do-It-Yourself Pitfalls
Churches that manage campaigns themselves often commit one or more of the five basic errors of church fundraising:

Poor calendar planning. A good capital stewardship campaign is well planned. Events, activities, and communications must be arranged for the maximum potential effect. The professional who does this regularly is trained to sort through all of the potential church, school, community, and other conflicts to properly design a calendar for the capital campaign.

Inadequate or poor communication. Even the most committed Christians require clear, concise information to make a decision about a capital campaign. Well-produced, excellent-looking communication materials are a must. And the information must be disseminated multiple times in different ways to reach the maximum number of people in the congregation.

Short time frame. A farmer would not plant seed this week and expect to harvest a crop next week. In the same way, a capital campaign requires several months to grow the congregation in its commitment. Prayer emphasis, information, inspiration, encouragement, and people involvement are important aspects of the process.

Not enough people involvement. It is important for the lay people of the church to take ownership of their campaign. The single best way to accomplish ownership is through involvement in the campaign. A well-executed capital campaign generally involves 50 percent or more of the laity of the church.

Inadequate major gifts emphasis. Money is not raised mathematically, it is raised proportionally. Some people in every congregation are blessed with unusual financial ability. It will take their participation to achieve significant financial success. It is a rare capital campaign that achieves commitments of three or more times the annual budget of the church without a proper major gifts emphasis. Those who have been blessed with much should be challenged to do much.

It is not always easy to know which people have this kind of ability. In fact, the premise of Tom Stanley's best seller, The Millionaire Next Door, is that the people who really have it are probably not the ones you suspect! And you generally will not find them by looking at their past participation in giving to the annual budget. People with major gift potential are motivated by the big vision of forward-looking capital projects.

Why Hire a Pro?
A professional firm brings the following to the church:

Expertise. While the local church pastor has expertise in a number of different areas, he has rarely received in-depth training in the area of stewardship development. Most pastors and laity can do a good job of stewardship development for operating budget needs. Because a capital campaign involves giving over and above the operating budget, pastors and laity find themselves overwhelmed. A stewardship consultant provides specialized expertise in much the same way a cardiologist does in the field of medicine. Professional firms use proven methods and approaches.

Time. Pastors and lay persons usually do not have the large block of time it takes to plan and execute a major campaign for capital funds. Assuming the staff or lay persons have the ability to conduct a campaign well, availability of time to do the campaign well is a major issue. The stewardship consultant serves as an "adjunct staff member" for a specific period and provides the time needed. Hiring a consultant frees the church to concentrate on its regular ministry programs and activities while still reaching its financial goals.

Focus. Even if a pastor or lay person has the expertise and the time to do a campaign, it is difficult for them to focus on it because of their other roles and responsibilities. The consultant has no other role or responsibility in the church and provides the focus the campaign needs.

Experience. Every campaign will have its challenges. Some are minor challenges, some are major. Every challenge is a potential threat to the campaign and must be handled from the perspective of experience. The stewardship consultant has a wealth of experience that can be particularly useful when challenges arise in the campaign. Additionally, the consultant will know how to position the campaign so it is at the forefront of the church's attention without interrupting the ongoing ministries of the church.

Accountability. A key part of the professional consultant's role is to hold lay and staff persons accountable for doing their work on time with excellent quality. The timing and execution of events are important in creating a successful capital campaign experience.

Selecting a Consultant
There are a number of good professional resources available:

National firms: Large consulting staff (generally 20 or more); diverse experience among a large number of clients all over the country.

Regional firms: Focus on a specific geographic region; some specialize in one or two denominational groups within a region.

Local firms: Small consulting staff that focuses on a specific area or denominational group or both.

Denominational resources: Varies by denomination; have the advantage of knowing the churches in their denomination very well.

The process of selecting a firm is actually quite straightforward. First, create a selection committee. The committee will contact several firms and make arrangements to receive information. Then, invite several firms to your church for on-site interviews. Be sure to allow plenty of time for the interview.

It is tempting to invite four firms to come to your church and to conduct the interviews in 45-minute intervals beginning at 5:00 P.M. with 15-minute breaks so you can finish by 9:00 P.M. and have it all behind you. This is not fair to your church or to the professional firm. Generally, it is best not to do more than two in one evening.

Allow about 90 minutes for a thorough interview if your church has never been through a consultant-led capital stewardship campaign. If you have previously used a consultant in a capital campaign, allow about 60 to 75 minutes. This will give the firm sufficient time to present an overview of its services and for the selection committee to ask questions.

Among competent firms, the most important single key to making a good selection is to carefully check references. Reputable firms will provide a list of client references. Ask for a list of all the clients they have worked with recently, to make sure the list has not been culled to eliminate clients who might offer a less than favorable opinion. Look for churches similar to yours in size and culture even if they are a different denomination. You will have more in common with a church of similar size and culture than with a church in your own denomination if it is a different size and culture. Speak with someone at the church—the pastor or a key lay person—who had significant interaction with the consultant and can offer valid, detailed feedback on the church's overall capital campaign experience. When your selection team has made a decision, notify all of the candidate firms promptly. They all invested in the on-site presentation and deserve a prompt and candid answer.

How Much Will It Cost?
At some point during the on-site presentation, the firm will provide a quote for its services. Most firms provide a package of services that has proven successful for capital campaigns at other churches. There may be different levels of service depending on the size of the church. The firm should quote a fixed price, which typically will include travel costs.

The fee for consulting services is based on the size of the project, which may take into account weekly attendance, membership, annual budget, number of households on the mailing list, number of giving units, or other relevant factors. Steer clear of any firm that quotes the fee as a percentage of the amount raised.

Though it may initially sound like a good way to pay for the services of a consulting firm, it is considered unethical behavior for professional firms to quote their fee on that basis. Quoting from the Professional Code of Ethics of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel (AAFRC), "A flat, fixed fee is charged based on the level and extent of professional services provided. Fees are not based on the amount of charitable income raised or expected to be raised. Contracts providing for a contingent fee, a commission, or a fee based on percentage of funds raised are prohibited. Such contracts are harmful to the relationship between the donor and the institution and detrimental to the financial health of the client organization."

The Spiritual Dimension
This article would not be complete without mentioning the spiritual dimension of capital fundraising campaigns for ministry purposes. Despite all of the dialogue in this article about the role of professional firms, campaigns do not succeed solely because of these firms or the hard work of the people who are involved with these efforts. Capital stewardship campaigns succeed when people turn their hearts toward God for guidance. And as much as the church benefits from and needs the money that is given, the true beneficiary is the giver. For those of us involved in the vocation of consulting with churches, we see our roles as helping to create an atmosphere within the church where people will open themselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit and find the true answer to the question, "How much should I give?"

Can I assure you your campaign will succeed if you hire a professional firm? No. But a competent, spiritually committed stewardship consulting professional will increase the chance that you will have a campaign experience that will far exceed what you could do on your own.

Jim Sheppard is president and partner of a church fundraising consultancy.