7 Questions to Ask Before Kicking Off Your Annual Campaign

Many congregations launch their annual stewardship campaigns in the fall. If you are gearing up for your campaign or planning yours for the spring, has your finance and stewardship team asked these questions?

1)  Is the messaging focused more on the church's need or on what Jesus is calling the church to do?
If the tone and message of your communications focus more on what the church needs, on budgets and deficits, than on what the Spirit is calling the church to do, it may be worth rethinking the approach. The annual campaign should touch on the budget, ideally through a narrative approach, but the real focus should be mission and ministry. What is God calling us to do as a church? Who are we called to be as disciples of Jesus?

2) Have we made space for testimony?
The pastor should absolutely be planning engaging, theologically sound, and practical messages about giving as cornerstones of the campaign. But as a pastor, I'm painfully aware that my best stewardship message will never resonate with the laity in the same way a well-crafted testimony will. Is there someone in the church with a long history of giving and ministry leadership? Someone juggling family and career who still gives sacrificially? Someone new to the congregation who is on fire for Jesus? Coach them to prepare a BRIEF testimony (3-4 minutes) to share in person or by video on gratitude, why they give, or what God has taught them about generosity. A word about how giving has changed the giver's life is a witness to the power of the gospel.

3) Do we have plans to engage all age levels of the church?
This is a prime opportunity to model the importance of generous living for children and youth and for them to model it back to the adults. Engage staff and key volunteers so that your campaign themes flow into children's messages, Sunday school lessons, and youth group content. Consider a campaign-themed art project, such as a bulletin board with coloring pages inviting people to share their hopes and dreams for the church.

In the weeks surrounding the campaign, invite young people to take part in a mission project or collection supporting a specific ministry and look for ways to involve them in concrete acts of worship and service tied to the campaign: offering prayers, sharing testimony (see question 2 above), ushering, or serving at a celebration lunch.

4) Have we appropriately segmented our communications?
Once you've settled your message and brought the whole congregation into it, it's worth asking who, specifically, you're writing to. When you create letters or emails to accompany your campaign materials, consider tailoring them to people at different stages of the giving journey. The message you'll want to share with those who recently arrived is different from what's shared with longtime members, and the invitation to someone giving $5 or $10 a week is different from one already well on their way toward tithing. Choose the segments that make sense for your church and remember: the theme and ministry stories can stay the same. The tone and invitation shift.

5) Have we provided multiple ways for people to respond?
Many in our pews haven't mailed anything in years, so asking people to send in an estimate of giving card can feel like a foreign exercise. There's real value in presenting paper cards as an act of worship, but it's worth making that same card available in other ways too, maybe as a form on your website or through a QR code. Consider whether signing up for recurring giving counts as submitting a card but be mindful of electronic givers' tendency to "set it and forget it," bypassing the process of prayer and discernment altogether.

6) Do we have a plan for follow-up?
Every campaign requires at least some degree of follow-up. People are busy, and they may miss church or forget their estimate of giving cards. Plan to send reminders to those you haven't heard from one or two weeks after the campaign concludes. Be sure to have a plan in place to thank those who do return their estimates of giving or sign up for recurring gifts, paying special attention to those returning a card for the first time. And be aware of large changes in giving patterns (up or down) for pastoral follow up, with thanksgiving or with spiritual care. 

7) Do we have a plan for year-round stewardship that goes beyond the annual campaign?
There's a temptation to conclude a three- or four-week campaign and say, "I'm glad that's over." But generous disciples aren't formed through a few messages each fall. They're formed in an environment attentive to generosity throughout the year, through invitations to mission giving, intentional thank-yous, and narrative budgets or year-end reports that tell the story of Jesus’ work in your church. If this is new for your congregation, set a few realistic goals with your finance and stewardship team and begin building your plan to emphasize generosity year-round.

You may not have time to execute every idea this year, but there's always room to grow as you look ahead to next year's campaign!