Many other people and organizations are vying for your congregation’s money … and time. If you don’t present your ministries to your people in a way that stirs their interests, they will give their money elsewhere. Below is a PowerPoint presentation that is addressed to organizations that need to raise funds; it’s not specifically addressed to churches … but it’s still valuable information.

Elements of a Successful Fundraising Campaign

  • Follow the Plan
  • Steering Committee
  • Volunteer Recruitment
  • Prospect and Evaluation Education
  • Kick off Meeting
  • Conducting a Report Meeting
  • Victory Celebration
  • Follow-up

To be successful, the annual enrollment must have three elements:

  1. Determining prospective donors’ interest in your organization.
  2. Analyzing prospect’s financial ability to contribute.
  3. Determining who is the right person to make the solicitation.

Why People Give:

  1. They are asked
  2. They believe and care about the ideals of the organization
  3. Prestige and recognition
  4. Seek power and influence
  5. Peer pressure
  6. Tax consideration

What other benefits from the campaign?

  • An awareness and understanding of your organization and its programs.
  • A broad base for support of program resources.
  • New prospects as well as current donors.
  • A measure of independence in program and operation.
  • An annual opportunity to tell the your organization’s story.
  • An opportunity for a donor to gain personal satisfaction.
  • A vehicle for growth, providing strength in working together for a common cause.
  • A source of human resources for programs as volunteers become more involved in your needs.
  • An opportunity for personal commitment.

Time Schedule for Campaign

  • Kickoff on a set date—October 15.
  • Monthly Report Meetings—Pep rally lunches where each team reports on their status and is recognized.
  • Weekly emails sent about status of campaign.
  • Victory Party on a set date—near April 15 to conclude campaign.

Asking for Funds

  • Easiest way to ask for funds for campaign is to invite people to the Honoree dinner for that team.
  • IC5—Ask chairs for five people in their sphere of influence who they would ask.
  • At the event, they will be asked to give to the campaign.
  • Larger donors will be targeted one-on-one.

Vendors Campaign

  • Invitation to Solicitors of Organization Board members.
    • At every campaign level, request to send out letters of top volunteers using their own stationary to vendors and other people who “cannot say no” to the volunteers.

Board Campaign

  • Recruit Board members as members of the Steering Committee.
  • Solicit their gift first. Ask them to lead the way in their giving.
  • Request a Vendors Campaign from each Board member.

The Steering Committee

  • Key organizational volunteers/top business leaders.
  • Committed to the mission of the organization.
  • Positive attitudes.
  • This committee should have five to eight members, and be composed of key advisory board members, key volunteers, and wealthy influential/power structure community leaders.

The Job of the Steering Committee

Principal Responsibilities

  • Select key leadership.
  • Enroll personally in the upper level of membership.
  • Actively participate in the prospect and evaluation process.
  • Accept responsibility in enrolling other upper-level memberships.

Chairman Chair Job Description

The Chair must:

  • Believe that a successful campaign is essential for the organization to reach its objectives.
  • Be able to devote time needed for meetings, planning, and leadership.
  • Possess outstanding ability as a leader.
  • Have proven organizing ability.
  • Be willing to follow a plan.
  • Be representative of top leadership.
  • Have ability to recruit and stimulate leaders.
  • Have financial ability to enroll in top-level membership division.

The degree of any campaign’s success depends upon:

  • Top leadership.
  • Prospecting and evaluation— determining who has the ability and an interest to give.
  • The right person making personal solicitation.
  • Campaign controls and executive direction.

Prospecting for Donors

Good campaign prospects must have an interest in your organization. They must also have the financial ability to give if the right person makes the solicitation.

Kickoff Events

Honoree Dinners

The honoree dinner is a quick, effective method of securing donors at all levels of enrollment, including upper-level donors.

Fundamentals to Honoree Dinner success are:

  • Listing where luncheon or dinner will be held.
  • Recruiting hosts who will invite friends to attend a fund-raising event.
  • The host pre-enrolls on the level of those invited.
  • The organization’s story is presented by a volunteer who can impress the guests with knowledge and dedication to organization.
  • Securing pledges at the meeting.
  • Securing sponsors for expenses.

Matching Gifts—An Excellent Potential

Corporate matching gift programs are a great, untapped resource. More than 1,000 national corporations match their employees’ gifts to nonprofit organizations. Many of them match employees’ gifts to higher education, but recent trends show corporate philanthropy includes numerous community-serving organizations.

Campaign Tools

  • Annual Fund brochures
  • Job descriptions
  • Steering committee
  • Calendar of events
  • Annual Fund organizational charts
  • Agendas

Annual Fund Brochures

  • Sample brochures from other non-profits around the country are available to view and discover ideas for your campaign.
  • Focus of the brochure is to capture through pictures and brief quotes the mission and story of your organization.

Master Calendar

The master calendar is the guide to a smooth-functioning enrollment. It is:

  • The basis for a work schedule by executive staff.
  • A guide for recruiting deadlines.
  • A timetable for meetings.
  • A schedule for office work.
  • A schedule for preparation of promotion and enrollment material.
  • A calendar of records management.
  • A calendar of kick off dates, report meetings, and cleanup.

Add new people from the list below:

  • “New People List”
  • Associates of P&E Committee
  • Telephone book
  • Civic club rosters
  • Banks—Board of Directors
  • Industrial plants management list
  • Country club rosters
  • New businesses
  • Chamber of Commerce lists
  • College and university alumni
  • Any other source list

View charts (not included above) in the original PowerPoint PDF: Basic Elements of a Successful Fundraising Campaign