Effective church fundraising ideas are required to capture people’s attention and have them willingly open their wallets in generosity. But there are many organizations requesting donations on a regular basis, and all those fundraising requests combine with other marketing messaging to become noise.
Our world is full of marketing noise right now. And it’s impossible for everyone to listen to everything and certainly won’t respond to every request. People, for their sanity, are only half-listening and ignoring anything that doesn’t seem interesting. This is the attention challenge of our day! Few are listening.
You need the right church fundraising ideas to help overcome that challenge. In order to gain the engagement of your audience. If you do that well, you’ll have a small amount of time to share your church fundraising ideas and call them to participate. Here are 3 ideas to get people to look up:
- They need to hear the need. And that need must connect to one of their needs or goals. EXAMPLE: If the average person in your church has a child and you’d like to build a new church building, then it’ll get better attention if you emphasize the problems with the current youth facilities and remind parents how important it is to engage their kids well. There may be other non-student ministries happening in the new building but don’t overwhelm them with “all the details” because then, you’re adding to the noise! Get their attention by speaking directly to their need or goal. There’s more time later to give them additional details once they’re engaged. CAUTION: ensure you’ve established a regular way of communicating important messages with a list of engaged people now. Never waste their time with unimportant information, so when a critical fundraiser happens, they’ll be more likely to hear about it.
- They need to understand the goal. Rarely will anyone give to something they’re not sure of the outcome. “Without vision, the people perish” is often shared from Proverbs 29:18 and it’s true. People will give to a church fundraiser, but they need to “envision” the future first. Understanding what’ll happen when the church fundraiser is complete. Maybe a good illustration or artist rendering. Or it can be an inspirational story of how they will be better off after the campaign. It’s entirely up to your church to cast the vision! Don’t let them figure it out. Instead, control the language so it’s very clear about the benefit of participating in order to experience the future. CAUTION: know the big goal your church is known for, so you understand why people regularly give now. A survey in anticipation of the fundraiser can help understand outcomes your congregation needs to achieve to feel part of your fellowship!
- They need to feel urgency when you’re casting church fundraising ideas. People are more apt to give to something that’s required immediately. Of course the timeframe must feel believable but it must stretch them to act quickly AND rely on God to participate. Create urgency if it’s not felt. CAUTION: your members must understand their role to successfully complete the goal in time. Stage your fundraiser so there are early wins to create momentum for all that will be accomplished!
Mark MacDonald is communication pastor, speaker, consultant, bestselling author, church branding strategist for BeKnownforSomething.com and Executive Director of Center for Church Communication, empowering 10,000+ churches to become known for something relevant (a communication thread) throughout their ministries, websites, & social media. His book, Be Known for Something, is available at BeKnownBook.com.
