An effective capital campaign involves far more than just pretty visuals. I was fortunate to be involved early in the process of developing Hometown Advantage for High Desert Church. The goal of the campaign was to raise money for projects on each of the four ministry sites. I knew it wouldn't be easy to communicate four separate campaigns, nor would it be particularly unifying as a church, I pitched a campaign that focused on the overarching mission they were trying to accomplish. They wanted to strengthen their "hometown advantage" so they could continue to be effective in sharing the gospel with their region.
The campaign brought in over 1.1 million dollars within the initial timeframe allotted. Leadership decided to allow funds to continue to come in after the articulated deadline and they were able to hit their goal of 1.5 million.
Let's start with the look and feel.
I decided to pursue a very strong sports theme for a two reasons.
First, many on the leadership team were big fans of sports, so it would be really easy for them to talk about it. Setting leadership up to easily and naturally talk about a giving campaign is often overlooked. If the primary voices speaking about a campaign aren't bought in or don't understand the metaphor, you've set yourself up for a rough time. Many leaders don't feel comfortable asking their congregations to give already!
Second, the church had been investing in the unique identity of each of their campuses prior to this campaign, so there was a deep sense of ownership at each campus. I wanted to chose a metaphor that allowed for the unity of team to be an element. I wanted those who were regular attenders at a particular campus to have a vision beyond just their campus. I wanted them to realize that a win for any campus was a win for the church.
I wanted to continue the sports language and look while broadening the sports represented. The goal was to provide people a conceptual hook with the team concept, not represent any particular sport.
For the commitment card, I wanted to provide multiple ways for the congregation to respond to the presentation of this campaign. I am a big believer in inviting people to support your campaign through means beyond giving financially. When you provide multiple onramps, you allow people to jump into the mission who may not have otherwise. It also reminds the congregation everyone is on the same mission even if the way we participate is different. If I lost my job and can’t give financially, I’m still able to participate in other ways.
This card provided an opportunity for the congregation to show their commitment, but we still needed a piece to share the details of the campaign. If you don't know what you are giving to, it's hard to get motivated.
Rather than include every possible detail on this information card, I wanted to keep it limited to the highlights of the campaign. If those in the congregation wanted more information, they could learn more about the projects online. The information on this card was enough for the congregation to understand the big picture goals, the total financial goal, and the specific projects at each campus.
Custom giving envelopes are always tricky for me. It feels over the top to create a custom envelope just for a campaign. Practically speaking however, most organizations need a new run of envelopes for a giving campaign anyway. Why not take advantage of the opportunity and maintain the momentum of the campaign?
Another great opportunity to unify ourselves was to all have the same shirt across all campuses. As the unique expression of each campus was being implemented, this spoke very clearly of unity in a way that was almost jarring. To walk into a campus and see the campus staff wearing the same shirt as those presenting from the broadcast campus was something a lot of people noticed. It may not sound like a big deal, but it was more impactful than I expected it would be.
All in all, the campaign was a lot of fun to work on!
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