How often have we heard this!! As churches plan for the next year they, of course, develop an operating budget that usually is based upon the expected giving of the congregants for the year usually from an annual, fall stewardship campaign.
This budget usually contains staff salaries, heating and lighting, some ministry costs as well as general maintenance and up-keep of the church facility. It usually has little or no costs associated with high-ticket (capital) items or costs associated with long-range planning or costs associated with conducting a capital campaign.
We suggest there are possible ways to handle these costs:
1) If your church has an existing endowment, money can be borrowed from that fund to cover costs associated with both fund-raising counsel and architectural fees and given back to the fund as capital pledge dollars are received during a capital campaign.
2) If there is an expected construction loan needed, many banks will loan the necessary dollars for “program start-up” knowing that those dollars would be returned with interest as part of a construction loan.
3) Some dioceses have start-up grants and loans to assist parishes in the planning process. Again, loans would be paid back with dollars coming from the capital campaign.
It is important to begin the planning process early on…whichever plan works best for you and your church. Bringing counsel in early will save your church dollars in the long run and will guarantee that your visioning program and likely capital campaign will be cost effective and efficient. Most importantly, delaying vision planning and development of long-range needs of your church hurts the potential for both numerical and spiritual growth during these challenging times!