In all church capital campaign communications, strive for communication that is:
Clear. Concise. Compelling. Consistent.
To be effective, your church’s capital campaign communication of the message and value proposition must be compelling and consistently communicated in a clear fashion. Writing a four-page document on why people need to give to the vision and mission of the church is easy.
However, boiling the message down gets progressively harder as you condense the story to a couple of paragraphs, then the concise five-second “elevator conversation,” and finally the very concise capital campaign slogan. You need the long version, but you also need the short and easy to remember version that people will actually process and make their own!
There Are Two C’s To Avoid at All Costs in Your Campaign–The “Double C” to Avoid is Channel Conflict.
“Channel conflict” in communications will cause confusion and reduce the spiritual and financial effectiveness of your church’s capital campaign communication. Avoid other fundraising letters or events during the time between announcing the campaign and commitment Sunday. In fact, wherever possible try to avoid ANY events that detract from the focus of the campaign during this period.
To be successful, a capital campaign will be the primary focus of the church for several months. You need to make the main thing the main thing! Adding any major events and/or giving requests during this time of preparation and execution will create confusion in priorities and focus, usually to the detriment of both (or all) programs.
Anything that takes from the focus and importance of the campaign will have a long-term financial consequence, as most churches are looking for three-year commitments. You are telling your people the capital campaign is important, so do not do anything else that will detract from the hard work and effort you are putting into your campaign. Help your members do the best they can by NOT confusing the issues or putting them in conflicting situations.