What Projects Church Building Funds Finance

• From small rural church furnace repairs to multimillion dollar facility construction, church building funds are essential to administering the business of planning and maintaining worship space. Church building funds support unplanned projects like heating, cooling and plumbing repairs; planned projects like carpet replacement or steeple and stained glass window cleaning; and major undertakings like land purchases and new facility construction. Most churches set aside a separate account for the building fund.
  
  

Church Building Fund Projects in Small and Large Congregations

• Congregational size often determines what kind of project supports the building fund. Yet building fund projects may succeed or fail whether they are carried out in churches of 30 or 3,000 members, whether they are financed by bake sales or trusts. Often, larger congregations contribute to the building fund with investments or trusts. Sometimes denominational affiliation also helps provide financing to church building projects. It is common for congregations of all sizes to engage in projects like fundraising events, programs and capital campaigns. Many churches find additional resources for their building funds through bank loans or nonprofit grants.
  
  

Church Building Fund Project Fundraisers: Land and Buildings

• For building projects that require large sums of money, churches look to a variety of fund raising options. Whether a new worship facility is needed or a plot of land is desired, capital campaigns are widely used church building fund projects. Capital campaigns are set for a specific duration, for a specific purchase. The most successful are often paired with well-planned promotional campaigns to cast vision for the project, engaging donors through renderings of the new building, themes, camaraderie, teamwork and shared mission. While congregations with thousands of members may launch multi-platform promotional campaigns with signage, logos and branding, average congregations rely on more modest methods.
  
  Whatever scale of promotion is used, the goal is the same: leveraging a project to generate funds for the purchase of land or construction of new facilities. For large-scale donors, high-end fund raising dinners or cruises provide opportunity for guest speakers to share how the church has affected their lives. Additional donor development may include taking tours of the proposed land or showcasing cornerstone ministries of the church.
  
  For average-sized churches, however, traditional fund raising methods continue to be effective. Craft bazaars, bake sales, holiday festivals, annual giving pledges and raffles help raise money, in addition to donor-recognition projects like "buying a brick" or stained glass window memorials.
  
  

Church Building Fund Project Pitfalls

• Financial transparency is vital to the long-term success of building fund projects, whether capital campaigns or cake walk proceeds. Publishing estimated budgets, income, and expenditures helps church leaders to account for funds and gives donors a sense of project ownership.
  
  Unity in moving forward with church building fund projects is also essential to long-term success. Without it, the natural stress of transition can be multiplied through mixed messages to the congregation, disagreements about goals and methods and loss of church morale.
  
  Experienced planning and organization can make building fund projects run smoothly and cost-efficiently; a lack of organization and poor communication skills leads to underestimated building costs, project timelines and donor expense. Frustrated donors sense the lack of organized leadership and hesitate to give money to what they fear will be a "money pit" with little to show for it in the end.
  
  By starting church building fund projects well, congregational leaders can prevent many of these pitfalls and conduct successful building fund projects that further the church's mission.