The purpose of a PCS is to determine if there is adequate support from the congregation and if this is the right time to proceed with this capital campaign. Depending on your project and the size of the congregation, we may conduct either a FULL or ABBREVIATED PRE-CAMPAIGN STUDY. The abbreviated study will only be conducted prior to a Faith Funds or Miracle Sunday campaign.
The goals of the Pre-Campaign Study are to:
- Identify potential campaign leadership
- Determine manageable goals for the campaign
- Uncover attitudes toward the proposed project
- Identify potential major gifts and "pace-setting" donors
- Secure information concerning probable support for the campaign
- Continue the information process about the campaign
During an ABBREVIATED PCS, staff from the Foundation comes to your church for a day to interview 12-15 couples and/or individuals in private, one hour meetings. We ask questions and have conversation about the church, the project, possible leadership for a campaign, possible gifts toward the project, the timing of the campaign, and the level of enthusiasm toward the project. We do these interviews after there are some plans and cost estimates available. The PCS process takes two to three months.
The fee to the Foundation for conducting an abbreviated Pre-Campaign Study is $2,500. For this fee your church will, at a minimum, receive:
- Initial conversations about the PCS/Campaign/project with the pastor and key leader(s) in the congregation.
- A Pre-Campaign Study guide which assists with
- How to choose your committee
- How to choose who will be invited to be interviewed
- Sample letter of invitation and response form
- Scheduling tool to schedule interviews
- Data gathering forms about the finances of the church
- Timeline of the process
- 25 copies of a printed and bound final report two to three weeks after the interviews
- Meeting prior to the scheduled interviews with the committee and Foundation staff
Less than three weeks after the interviews, we send you a written report that explains what we did, what we found, and our recommendations. Also included in the report are all of the responses to our questions (with no names attached, of course). You can use this report to determine if the project is in line and affordable based on the results learned from your congregation, as well as which type of campaign may be best.
Many committees find that this study gives them confidence to proceed with a Capital Campaign knowing that there is enthusiasm and potential financial support from the congregation. Some committees have learned they need to work on lowering the cost of the project to make it more affordable to their congregations. Still others have discovered the project is not in line with what the congregation believes their mission and ministry is to be at this time. This Pre-Campaign study can be conducted even if you do not plan to work with the Foundation on a Capital Campaign.
If your project is large and has many facets, you will need a Full Pre-Campaign Study (PCS).
Call Lenore Geisthardt at 1-888-903-9863 for more information or to set up a meeting with your planning, building or finance committee.