This post was last updated on March 30th, 2021 at 03:39 pm.

This is the fourth of our four-part series on successful church fundraising. (See Part I, Part 2, Part 3)

Trust

Look back at Prof. Sargeant’s surveys (sourced from the this periodical). Two of the main reasons people gave for leaving a charity were a) the charity didn’t make clear to them how the donations were being used, and b) they felt the charity wasn’t honoring their wishes. Those are trust failures.

Again, respect and value the donor. Your church needs to do two things to gain and keep that donor’s trust:

1. Honor the intent behind the donor’s gift.
2. Show the donor how the money is being used.

These two points are where the speaker in that college chapel lost me.

And, since I’m a developer and support rep for a church management/accounting software company, it’s at these two points that I have the most experience helping and guiding churches.

8.  Honor the wishes of your donors.

To retain donors for your church fundraising, you need to spell out clearly the purpose for their donation, and then you need to stick to it. If there’s any reason that you need to change the purpose, you need to be transparent with your donors about it.

It’s a matter of good faith and good stewardship. Misuse of funds is a common problem, and donors can get uneasy about your project if all they see are “random faint glows of follow-up information.” Instead, they should see the inner workings of the finances behind your church fundraising. They should see that you’re honoring what you told them to start with. It will help you gain their trust. Also, stepping back to our first theme, it will motivate them. They’ll want to give when they see specifically how their donations are helping.

And that brings us to our last point.

9.  Report clearly to donors your church fundraising operations and financial state.

At the outset of a capital campaign or a special church fundraising project, the organizers need to be able to answer basic financial questions.

• What is the fundraising goal and the deadline for reaching it?
• How are you going to save the money? (checking account, savings, some sort of investment)
• If you’re going to deposit the new money you raise in the same asset account with other church funds, how are you going to designate and track that money?
• How will you spend the money? What expense accounts will you use and what are your projections for them?
• What if you don’t raise enough? Will you transfer money from another fund?
• What if you raise more than you need? That’s always a nice problem. However, do you know at what point money from the designated project fund is available for other uses?

As your project progresses, report on its finances often and with transparency. You should be able to not just tell donors how much money has been raised, but answer questions like these:

• How have you spent the church fundraising money?
• How much money is currently available in the fund?
• Are there any debts the project has taken on, and what is the total of that debt?
• If there is debt, what is the project’s current net worth (assets-liabilities)?

For-profit accounting gets complicated and nonprofit is much more so. Depending on your church fundraising project and how complex your church’s finances are, keeping good track of designated funds can be kind of mind warping. It can turn into a game of tag-team 3D chess, or maybe group juggling with different size wiffle balls on a breezy day while whistling “Flight of the Bumblebee” backwards. (Throw in balancing over a crocodile pit because, let’s face it, the stakes for messing this up can be pretty high.) Find the tools you need. Modern accounting software designed for nonprofits can make things immensely easier.

The Church-donor Relationship in the Church Fundraising Process

Work with your donors to cultivate a shared vision for your church.

Value them.

Acknowledge them.

Communicate with them.

Show them what you’re doing with their gifts.

Listen to them.

In the first post of this series, I asked how a church can put together a donation formula that works? But in the end, it’s not a formula at all; it’s a relationship. And it comes down to this: respect your donors, value your donors, and earn their trust.

Icon Systems, Inc.