“I stopped by to meet you today, and to try to bring you up to date on a committee we established a year ago,” said Adrian to his new pastor. “As you may be a aware from our interviews, our church has about a year before we end a three-year capital campaign pledge period. This was actually the third building program in the last 12 years. Needless to say, we’re concerned that when folks finish paying their commitment, giving will drop off.”

“And your committee is trying to get them to roll their giving into their regular commitment?” queried the pastor.

“Yes, indeed,” said Adrian, obviously pleased that his new pastor was not a financial idiot. "We felt that it was important to start making plans to invite members to roll over their giving from the capital campaign into the regular mission budget of the church."

“I’m glad to hear we have far-sighted members at First Church,” commented the pastor. “I think we have to make a careful case to help people realize that mission continues after the campaign. If we can point to some other projects that we’ve deferred, even better.”

“Good point. A group of us thought that even waiting ‘til one year before the close of the campaign might be too late. Hence, we started meeting nearly two years before we needed to ask them to continue. We’re aware that gifts that came from members’ accumulated assets will not be rolled-over. But we’re also aware that many of them can and will increase their present level of budgetary giving.”

A Good Start
Adrian and his committee have made a good start. What they’ve been saying applies both to congregations ending a capital campaign and to congregations that are about to pay off a mortgage.

The Four Categories of Givers
Givers to capital campaigns fall into about four classifications. These include:

·  Givers who lead the way with a major gift. These usually are those who have given from accumulated assets. The gifts may have come in the form of appreciated stock, property, or cash.

·  Givers who increase their regular giving to include a weekly or monthly gift to the building fund.

·  Givers who make periodic payments, as they are able, often paying a lump sum toward the end of the campaign.

·  Those, who for one reason or another, failed to fulfill their commitment.

The Follow-up Committee
The committee at First Church would be wise to examine a number of things:

·  They would do well to examine how the moneys are coming into the church.

·  Who falls into which of the four above categories.

·  They should carefully examine the results of their regular pledge programs, including the increases.

·  List items that have been deferred, both in terms of ministry and maintenance concerns.

·  Several months to a year before the completion on the payment period, begin sharing these challenges with the members.

How to Approach Different Types of Givers
Affluent members who provide the major gifts to a capital campaign respond well to big ideas and plans. They respond to things that excite them. They are special-project oriented. The top five percent of givers should be given opportunities to respond to special ministry needs. These people are prospects to provide seed money for new ministries. It may also be wise to approach them for challenge gifts for special ministries. They will provide X dollars if the other members will come up with X dollars.

After the committee has formed their goals and suggestions for meeting those goals, a breakfast or dinner might be held for these potential donors. Present your vision and ask for feedback. Do not ask them for a gift yet. List their suggestions on newsprint and ask for discussion. Ask them if they would be willing for you to visit them individually for further conversation. When you find their passion (their hot-button) ask for their participation.

A different approach may be best for members who have increased their giving over the three-year pledge period (or for building fund payments over a longer period).

These members are excellent prospects for raising their commitments to regular ministries to include the amount they had given to the building fund or capital campaign. This is a situation when, you must make the case for such a rollup prior to the annual commitment program.

Try to generate enthusiasm that says, “Now that we’re finally coming to the end of our capital campaign (or paying off our building), think of all our new opportunities for ministry. Ministry is the reason we did all of this in the first place.” Be sure, both as you make the case and during the next annual response program, to ask people to roll their commitment for all or part of their building campaign into their regular giving.

Those who have given periodically over the duration of the program or who paid off most of their pledge right at the end, fall into their own set of categories. Some of these include people who deferred their giving due to cash flow concerns; others may merely have made the payment at a time that was convenient to them. Still others may have found the commitment a bit more of a challenge, and done some last minute shuffling in order to pay it. Some of these members may or may not be able to consider a sizeable increase in giving. But, they should be invited at least to consider growing, rolling some of their capital pledge into regular giving. If you don’t ask, they’ll likely continue their annual giving at their current rate. Make no judgments for people as to why they may have waited to fulfill a commitment. And take great care never to say “no” for someone else.

The final category, those who failed to fulfill their commitments, should still be asked to grow in their regular giving. An annual commitment program should encourage growth in giving from everyone. If you ask individually, as in an Every Member Visit, the visitors will not know whether a member fulfilled their commitment or not. If you ask in a program that invites all members collectively, no one will be singled out.

The Pastor’s Role
Pastors need to be visible, both as givers and as leaders in all stewardship ministries. In sermons the pastor can lift up the vision of the committee, encourage people to get on board, and offer suggestions for ways to respond.

For those who made major gifts, the pastor can attend the breakfasts, and participate in some of the follow-up visits. In certain cases, the pastor may well be the best person to ask.

Because stewardship is at the heart of the church, the pastor needs to be involved in all aspects of your stewardship ministry, including her/his own pace setting giving. To do less is not faithful to our call to discipleship. –Eugene Grimm