Once your project is confirmed to go ahead and you know the costs that will be involved you will need to recruit your fundraising team/committee.
Consider carefully who has the right skills and passion for the project and then approach them, they will need to commit to monthly meetings and additional work outside of the meetings over a period of months or even years.
Do contact the fundraising team at this stage and request their support. They can provide you with a range of support, attend your early fundraising meetings and also send you a list of trusts and foundations that fund Church building projects.
Normally your committee will be composed of six to eight volunteers, but will include the incumbent or project leader and potentially a paid fundraiser if they have been employed. Your committee should collectively have the ‘Head, Heart and Hands’ to complete the job.
Ideally the Chair should have experience of fundraising and they must be organised, respected and proven at leading teams to work effectively together.
An incumbent would be advised to consider who in their congregation can take this role and discuss it with them ahead of your first meeting.
The incumbent will (ideally) not chair this committee as they are likely to have a range of other responsibilities during a big capital campaign.
However the incumbent must be 100% committed to fundraising. They should undertake training if required to improve their confidence and skills before starting the campaign if they feel uncertain or nervous about asking people for money – take a look at a range of helpful fundraising courses at the Institute of Fundraising.
