Pledge campaigns are beneficial for everything from increasing regular giving to funding a specific project.
They help keep your congregation accountable and engaged, and give members the opportunity to participate in the life of your church.
While pledge campaigns can be relatively simple to plan and execute, setting realistic goals is the key to their success.
When it comes to setting goals for your pledge campaign, you want to be ambitious, challenging your congregation to step out in faith and give generously. But how do you balance what’s achievable with that ambition?
Step #1: Find Your Minimum Need
Whether you’re supplementing your annual budget, supporting a missionary, or financing a specific project, a minimum amount is required to make the pledge campaign worth it.
If you’re running a pledge campaign to help encourage regular tithing, you know how much money you need to keep your ministry running. You’ve got numbers already calculated, showing what it would take to see your church thrive.
Funding a project or a missionary typically requires a specific amount. Set costs are associated, giving you a base number to aim for.
When setting your goals for your pledge campaign, finding your minimum need is the first place to start.
Having realistic goals requires you to look carefully at what you’re trying to raise funds for and understand what it will take to make it happen.
Step #2: Use Your Giving History
Look at your previous pledge campaigns or your giving records for similar projects. How did your congregation do with funding those efforts?
Did you feel like you were pulling teeth to barely reach your minimum required amount? Did you raise the total amount (and then some) in record time? Did you have the proper methods to match how your congregation prefers to give?
Using data from your previous campaigns will help you determine your goals and how to approach your congregation to make your project happen.
Once you have a starting point for what you must raise through your pledge campaign and an idea of how your congregation will participate, then you can increase your total amount to create your goal for total giving.
Adding a little extra to your goal is a good way to challenge your congregation to step out in faith and see how the Lord can move when His people trust Him. But this part of your goal should be extra, and the campaign’s overall success shouldn’t be contingent on this amount.
Step #3: Establish a Reasonable Timeline
One key feature of a pledge campaign is asking your members to commit to giving a specific amount for a set period.
Part of setting realistic goals is establishing a reasonable timeline.
Do you want your campaign to run for a month? A quarter? A whole year?
If you’re funding a building project or helping a new missionary get established, is there a deadline when they need to have finances in hand?
After reviewing your congregation’s giving history for previous campaigns, do you tend to hit a rut after a certain amount of time? Would a shorter timeline motivate them better?
Use the answers to these questions to help determine a reasonable timeline for this specific pledge campaign. You may choose a different timeline next time, so only factor in the information for this campaign.
Your timeline will help you set smaller milestone goals throughout the campaign and keep your congregation on track.
Step #4: Determine Non-Monetary Goals
While having goals for how much money you want to collect and how long you want the campaign to run is standard, you should also set goals that aren’t about money.
You’ve already looked at your campaign history. What percentage of your congregation participated in the last pledge campaign you did? Can you set a goal to see a larger percentage engage in this campaign?
What about new participants? If you know who has pledged in the past, you can set a goal for seeing new members or first-time givers commit to giving this time.
How about fulfilled pledges? Have you seen a trend of congregants making pledges but falling off track at some point? Setting a goal and being intentional about following up with your congregants throughout the campaign will help keep your members on track to fulfill their commitments.
What about offering a pledge to pray or to help plan and execute the campaign for those who may not be able to contribute financially? While collecting funds is the primary purpose of your campaign, your focus should be on the hearts of the givers rather than on the gifts themselves.
Your pledge campaign’s biggest goal will be the amount of money you’d like to raise through the process. However, setting goals for engagement, new participants, and fulfilled pledges will help your campaign become more than a fundraiser.
Your members have been called to support the church, and not every person can give financially. Having goals that don’t depend on how much money you’re gathering will help you connect with the givers.
Step #5: Pray Over Your Campaign
The most essential part of your church’s endeavor is to cover it in prayer. The same should be true for your pledge campaign.
Setting realistic goals relies on understanding your goals and asking God to guide your plans.
Praying for your campaign, for each person who will participate, and for how the money will be used is vital to the success of your endeavor.
You should pray for the entire process, from the first conversation about launching a pledge campaign to the project’s completion.
While you don’t necessarily need to set any goals specifically about prayer, it should be part of every step.
Setting realistic goals for your pledge campaign is essential to successfully completing the project. By finding your minimum need, using your giving history, establishing a reasonable timeline, determining non-monetary goals, and praying over your campaign, you’ll be well on your way to seeing positive outcomes.
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