A well-communicated capital campaign is not only more likely to be financially successful, it can also expand overall advocacy and interest in your ministry in your church’s community.
If your church is considering a capital campaign, there’s certainly lots to plan and consider. In a rush to launch a campaign, we often see churches miss significant opportunities. Like effectively communicating their unique campaign project outcomes and impact. Simply because they haven’t put the right plans in place.
In this series, we’ve provided a roadmap and checklists for your capital campaign’s communications. We’ll close today by talking a bit about campaign branding.
You might wonder why this is the last in our series. Many organizations tackle this first and spend a lot of time, energy and money on a campaign tagline, logo and look only to find themselves several months into planning with branding that doesn’t fit well with the campaign project. While it’s tempting – and yes, fun – to dive right into campaign themes and graphic logos, we’d recommend you allow your planning and your case document to shape the direction of your branding.
What is it?
What do we mean by campaign branding? Most capital campaigns have a theme or tagline and a graphic design look, mark or logo. You’ve likely seen this most often from your alma mater. When a college or university is in a campaign, you’ll see materials and sections of the alumni letters you get that include the campaign branding. It might be a slogan like “Building The Future: City College” in the case of a campaign for a new building.
There’s often a campaign logo that is included as part of the branding. It may feature a color palette specific to the campaign that’s different from the organization’s primary branding. Churches and nonprofits often include the campaign logo on their letterhead. Or order specific campaign branded letterhead, thank you cards, receipts and other printed pieces for use during the life of the campaign.
While not unique to churches, developing a campaign logo and look that works well alongside your primary branding and logo can sometimes be challenging. You want your members to recognize the campaign’s messaging and materials. But you don’t want the campaign brand to overtake or diminish the church’s primary brand. They must live together and strengthen each other as you develop your materials. Again, spending a lot of time on this too early in your planning process may mean having to re-do it once your campaign plans and case statement has gelled. The branding should be solidified and integrated throughout your materials and your launch event when it’s time to announce the public campaign.
Conclusion
We hope this series has given you a roadmap you can customize to your church and your campaign’s needs. Enjoy the process and have fun as you build your case and develop the stories, videos and messages that will make your project real for your members.
Capital Campaign Communications: A Roadmap
One of the most critical – but most overlooked – part of planning a campaign is your communications plan.
Launching a campaign without a strategy in place for communications can create confusion at best. AND often leads to poor results.
This guide outlines key steps to developing your campaign case for support, your campaign branding, and theme and provides a pre-launch campaign communications checklist for churches. Don’t kick off a campaign without this roadmap.
Considering a Capital Campaign?
Capital campaigns are a daunting task, even under the best circumstances. If you’ve been considering — or putting off — a capital campaign to raise funds to grow your church or expand your ministry, the solution is here.
ACS Technologies® teamed up with Non-Profit DNA to offer an extensive and comprehensive consulting service to help make your upcoming capital campaign a success. Through this partnership, you’ll have access to highly skilled, knowledgeable fundraising experts who will help with your campaign — every step of the way.
Visit Capital Campaigns on our website to request your consultation today!
Tim has over 30 years of experience in Church, Non-Profit Administration, Management, and Fund Development. Serving as an Executive Pastor and Chief Development Officer in growing Churches and Non-Profit Organizations. He has provided a wide range of expertise and resources. Tim serves as the Founder and CEO of Non-Profit DNA. A boutique firm committed to helping nonprofits and churches. By building their capacity through fundraising, leadership, team building, staff recruiting, and coaching.
Check out Tim’s latest book, Donors Are People Too
