Last Fall, facing a cold winter ahead without heat, the historic First Lutheran Church in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, was seriously in danger of having to close many of its valuable services to the community.

Bountiful Harvest knew that helping raise capital funds for First Lutheran would be a unique challenge. Working with a committee of people from First Lutheran and other area Lutheran churches, a strategic plan was set in place and the campaign was begun.

Taking the capital campaign far beyond the church's sphere and into other area churches and communities, success was celebrated when the church was able to install a heating system as well as air conditioning. Happily, worship and Sunday school as well as community services continued, including the Drop Inn Shelter and Community Lunches.

Bountiful Harvest president John Young presented a commemorative plaque in July to First Lutheran's Pastor Fred Cook celebrating the church's dedication to serving the Over-the-Rhine community.

Paula Goodnight
Vice President of Communications/Consultant
Bountiful Harvest Consulting
Paula@BountifulHC.com
513-884-8171

What qualities would you look for in a leader?

Selecting the right person to lead a church Capital Stewardship Campaign is really no mystery when you give it some thought. But, this one single decision can mean either agony or ecstasy when it comes to a successful campaign experience.

Who's "a natural?" I believe that every congregation has several "natural leaders" who could engender great support for your campaign.

Here are a couple of questions that BHC recommends churches think about when searching for just the right person to chair a Capital Campaign:

Who has a demonstrated passion for the work of the church?

Who is well respected among all congregational sub-groups?

Who has a friendly and positive demeanor?

These are only three questions to consider when the time has come to kick off the nitty gritty of campaign planning.

Is it time for you to start asking your church leadership to select a chairperson?

For more advice on campaign leadership, give me a call. And, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what YOU look for in a leader!

Paula Goodnight
Vice President of Communications/Consultant
Bountiful Harvest Consulting
Paula@BountifulHC.com
513-884-8171

Many churches are beginning to move ahead with plans that had been laid aside due to a lackluster economy. The inability to see the upturn coming kept most of us from feeling the optimism needed to move ahead with plans for our church to expand services in one arena or another.

While this upturn is heartening, there unfortunately seems to be just as many churches that are suffering from an inability to pay their mortgages. Perhaps these churches assumed large debt at an unfortunate time – near the beginning of the deep recession of 2008 through 2010. One example would be Dr. Robert H. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in California which filed for bankruptcy in late 2010.

Is your church in Category One - ready to build, add on, expand missions and outreach, or enlarge staff? Or is your church in Category Two - wondering how to continue paying the monthly expenses and mortgage?

It really does not matter much whether your church fits in Category One or Category Two – either way you likely will be finding your congregation embarking on a Capital Stewardship Campaign.

Category One churches are moving ahead with building construction, creating new mission field opportunities, and/or increasing staffing. These are inspiring outcomes and they make a good case for families or individuals to give vigorously.

But, Category Two churches need not despair! This same type of campaign is also used to eliminate debt. In fact, a debt elimination campaign if often coupled with a new, small improvement to the church or its mission opportunities at the same time.

I see every church foreclosure as a missed opportunity for a financial turnaround. If you find your church in the same situation as the Crystal Cathedral, you might consider first a Capital Campaign for debt elimination or reduction.

For further information, don't hesitate to give me a call.

John Young
President
Bountiful Harvest Consulting
513-706-8410

In this time of declining financial support, many non profit institutions are closing the doors rather than trying to extend their services. An excellent example is the county-sponsored pediatric dental practice where my wife works. They received stimulus money to offer an important new service to the community. The practice will have used up its stimulus money by September 15th, and they now have to make a decision about dropping their new clients or raising the needed dollars to provide for people who need help. I hope they choose to explore strategies to find the money to provide these valuable, needed services."

John Young
President
Bountiful Harvest Consulting

www.BountifulHC.com
www.BountifulCapitalCampaigns.com
www.BountifulHarvestConsulting.com
www.BountifulHarvestConsulting.org
www.BountifulHC.org
www.VisioningandValues.com

With the economic climate inside and outside of most churches, Bountiful Harvest Consulting often feels it is very necessary to do a feasibility study before committing to any capital campaign.

A valid feasibility study includes meetings and conversations with 25 to 30 influential church members and potential donors.

The purpose of the study is to:
1. Cast the vision in detail to select church members to evaluate the level of commitment these individuals would have to the campaign.
2. Estimate the potential amount of donations they would be willing to commit to the campaign including planned asset based gifting.
3. Determine the level of involvement and/or influence they would have in the campaign.
4. Consult with staff on how the results affect the timing, direction and degree of the eventual campaign.

Eric Battenfield, consultant
Bountiful Harvest Consulting

I met recently with a potential client that wanted to raise several million dollars. In our discussion it was revealed that this organization had been quite successful several years ago in just such a campaign. At the time, they had advice from a large and expensive firm in Chicago. They recently decided to campaign again and were advised by the Chicago firm not to spend so much on consulting this time. Hats off the the Chicago consultant for being honest about "organizational memory." I did not have to say it in this case, but if your Executive Director, Development Director, and Board Members are "long-termers," then their learnings from the last campaign are enough to do a pretty good job with less consulting than might otherwise be the case. The best practice is to shop several capital campaign consultant providers and call their references!
John Young, President
Bountiful Harvest Consulting
Bountiful Harvest Capital Campaigns and Services
513-706-8410
info@bountifulhc.com

We at Bountiful Harvest Consulting know that the current economy makes a frightening backdrop for a capital campaign of any kind. However, the truth is that during the last four recessions, church giving held steady during one, dropped slightly during another, and grew during the remaining two. Giving to religious causes generally "rides out the storm" while secular groups suffer more.
Put this generally optimistic news alongside the current lower cost of building materials, and you have a pretty good combination.
John Young

{may * TAA}
The Cambodian word for MERCY, which in its fullest sense means, a call to COMPASSION with a sense of URGENCY. THE TIME IS NOW.

Bountiful Harvest Consulting is excited to be working closely with CSI Mercy Medical Center to PROCLAIM Christ in word and deed in Cambodia as they PROVIDE excellent healthcare and PREPARE nationals to do the same in PARTNERSHIP with like-minded organizations.

With $877,000 in kind gifts already received, CSI Mercy Medical Center is raising $1,273,000 to complete the Medical Center that will provide training and comprehensive, quality care in Cambodia for one-tenth or less of the U.S. cost of care.

"And he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick." Luke 9:2.

Learn more about this exciting project at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZOzDvteBHA

If you would like to learn more about this wonderful Mission of CSI Mercy Medical Center, or if you have a capital campaign or other planned giving or annual giving campaign in mind for your church or non-profit organization, please contact Bountiful Harvest Consulting. We are here to help!

Every Executive CEO’s Dilemma

Hire an Internal Fund Developer or Outsource?

Every manager with much experience in the not for profit sector has faced this decision at one time or another. The temptation to believe that you can be successful by hiring an outsider to handle your total fund development task is even more attractive during this “budget-squeezing” recession. You might even be tempted to try to do this on a commission-basis which almost always ends in disaster. Even when moderately successful, your organization winds up with relationships built between your outsource pro and the donor when you really want those personal relationships to be between your organization and the donor.

I don’t know of a single example I have seen in 40 years in the business which builds long-term financial growth with a fund raising program that is run totally from the outside. The most successful examples I have seen feature a talented part-time or full-time fund development employee on the inside complimented by an experienced advisor employed periodically from outside the organization. No organization, be it a church, ministry or secular non profit can afford to do the same thing year in and year out to raise funds. The outside advisor or consultant can take a fresh look at the needs and help align them with resources that might otherwise not be targeted.

My argument for an “inside” fund developer might seem opposed to my role as an outside consultant who makes his living helping others fund their plans and dreams. I have simply found over the years that a fund development professional must become “part of the mission” of the organization and must be well acquainted with the Director, his or her staff and the ebb and flow of program or services being delivered on a daily basis. It is simply not cost-effective to employ an outside consultant to fill this role at the hourly rates that are customarily charged.

Having said all this, I do still strongly advocate for outside professional support for the “in-house” fund developer. Unless the Director has years of fund development background and the time to adequately train the new fund developer, the outside consultant can help build confidence and the skill needed to build a plan of work in those first few critical weeks on the job. The consultant can then back off until advice is needed for an event or campaign.

This advice to CEOs will probably not be echoed by everyone who functions as an outside advisor in the field of fund development, but it is an honest opinion based on a recent experience I had helping to run a capital campaign for a ministry whose board would not help and who did not have any inside fund development help for the first 18 months of the campaign. The Director and I raised $600,000 of a $1,500,000 goal before the lack of internal support stalled the campaign. I believe that this organization can still be successful if they follow the advice above.

SUBMITTED BY Dick Trotter, consultant, on July 27, 2009 at 11:12am
Editor’s note: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS ORGINALLY WRITTEN AND POSTED ON

http://www.churchcentral.com/article/Where-to-save-in-a-shrinking-church-budget

The bad times are worse.

A National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) recent survey found more churches struggling in the economic downturn. In 2008, fourteen percent of survey respondents said their church was definitely having economy-related financial difficulties. In 2009, that number rose to 32 percent. Not surprisingly, more congregations are looking for ways to cut their budgets. Some have frozen or reduced staff benefits; others have had staff layoffs; and others are postponing a major capital project.

Funding programs and ministries that have little, if anything, to do with a church's primary mission and vision can unnecessarily strain both financial resources and human resources. It can also lead to a decline as congregants realize that rather than paying for progress in the church’s mission to make disciples, they are funding an organization. Some are also simply increasing the budget, despite a downturn in giving, under the mistaken assumption that people will rise to the occasion and make up for the previous deficit with newfound generosity.

Before developing a budget, churches must first identify their core values, their mission, their vision steering them in a particular direction, and the strategy to accomplish their mission. The largest single budget item for any church is its staff. Paid ministry personnel eat up the largest share of a church’s funds. According to Your Church magazine, on average, salaries and wages comprise 38 percent of church operating budgets. Are there ways to slim down this budget category without layoffs?

Larger churches naturally require larger staffs. Reports show that once a church reaches an attendance of 500 with 2-3 staff members, a new ministry staff position can be justified for every additional 100 congregation members, even if the church doesn’t have the money for it. This can create a great burden on large churches, because unless you have a wealthy congregation, you can’t add staff as fast as you need to.

The answer lies in a competent volunteer recruitment, support, and deployment program. A large and growing church must learn to depend more on lay ministry. This means more decision making is left up to the staff, while more basic pastoral ministry, as well as shepherding, teaching, and discipling, is in the hands of volunteers. Cutting a staff member in a smaller church may mean that a particular part of ministry will cease to exist. Cutting a staff member in a larger church may mean renewed emphasis on training lay leaders.

Cutting travel expenses, education, and conferences is a step some churches and ministry organizations have taken this year as they try to make ends meet. A lot of large church budget items can be cut before leaders are forced to cut staff. You may also have a hiring freeze, or even a retirement fund matching program freeze. Others have found some success encouraging staff members who can to shift to part-time, and moving five-day-a-week workers to a four-day week.

Others say that bonuses, pay increases, ministry budgets, and flexible expenses should be cut first. Capital spending should be reduced. If the budget adjustments must result in loss of personnel, it’s crazy to leave in money for new Christmas decorations at the expense of a person’s livelihood. Personnel should be the last cut on the list, because when you make those cuts, they’re going to leave wounds.

Still others have said there is one budget item that should not be cut—especially in a time of financial struggle for more people than usual — the benevolence fund. Instead, churches should encourage more giving in this specific area. Consider special offerings with the proceeds going to families in need in the church and surrounding communities.

We have all heard the old adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Although a bit hackneyed, the words are strangely applicable to the art of raising funds in today’s questionable financial climate.

For those of you working on annual campaigns or events where giving ranges from $25 to $2500, there is some encouraging news. Donors of modest amounts tend to give more aggressively during tough times. It is typical that lower income donors give more aggressively because they have often needed and used the services that you are trying to fund and provide.

For those of you who are contemplating major gift or capital campaigns where the giving can range from $5,000 to $1,000,000, some care in reading the financial climate is in order. It can be tricky to time a campaign to coincide with an economic turnaround. Corporate contributions that are outside foundations may recover more swiftly than foundation giving. Older donors dependent on investment income will have to become optimistic before they commit $50,000 to that new church sanctuary.

All of this having been said, it would be prudent to begin to plan for your campaign even though the kickoff may be delayed. Selecting an architect for a building or capital project and gathering information from your staff, volunteers or congregation is not expensive and it will enable you to respond more quickly when the turnaround does come.

Bountiful Harvest Consulting helps you arrive at these decisions through its Visioning and Values Retreat. Once consensus is reached, Bountiful Harvest offers several ways to pay for your campaign. We can give you a package price to roll into your goal, or we will perform our services on an hourly basis, which allows you to do this preparatory work with professional advice at a modest cost. We recently ran a campaign to reduce debt on a church facility that was not fully funded 3 years ago in a campaign run by one of our competitors. The goals were identical and while the first campaign with our competitor cost $38,000, our services were provided for less than $15,000. That is good value in an adaptable package!