Members of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Long Grove, Iowa, knew they needed more space. Six weekend services were packed, and it was starting to become uncomfortably tight in the pews, said Lolita Dierickz, a member of the church's management team.
"I think any church tries to get by as long as you can without taking on such a major project as building, but the time comes when there's no other option," she said.
So in 1997, the church started its own wish list of sorts, detailing what features members would like to have in a new facility.
"This has been a long process because we went through the needs assessment and asked everybody in the parish to dream," Dierickz said. "Our old facilities were at least 30 years old and very inadequate."
The church's dreams needed to meet realities, though. The church turned to a feasibility study to make sure they did. According to Joe Ragona, chairman of St. Ann's finance committee, no church should begin a fund-raising project without first polling members to see whether it's feasible.
"We could have launched immediately into a capital campaign just going by what our wishes were," Ragona said. "But your dreams have to be grounded in reality. We had to make sure it was possible for us to raise the money before we started spending it."
St. Ann's worked with its local diocese to conduct the feasibility study, which included one-on-one interviews with many of the church's members.
"Two things came out loud and clear," Ragona said. "First, they agreed we needed to expand and that they would support the project. Second, they said it was too expensive, and that it needed to be cut drastically."
The original $4.5 million wish list was cut to $1.9 million, an amount the congregation agreed could be raised through members' donations. Members stuck by their pledge, and St. Ann's celebrated the opening of its new facility in early January, debt-free.
Test the vision
Pat Graham believes feasibility studies may be one of a church's best investments. More times than not, a church's need is greater than its ability to raise funds, Graham said.
"You really need to test the vision," said Graham, who is president of Cargill Associates, a leading full-service stewardship development firm that works with churches and other non-profit organizations across the United States.
"It's crucial that church members feel like they're a part of the effort even in the planning stages. Too many churches will set a goal too high because they haven't bothered asking members what they're willing to commit to. If members aren't behind your project, whatever it is, you have no chance of success."
- Pat Graham, president Cargill Associates |
A feasibility study conducted in a confidential setting gives church members a chance to express their true feelings, Graham said. A study can also earn buy-in from the congregation.
"It's crucial that church members feel like they're a part of the effort even in the planning stages," he said. "Too many churches will set a goal too high because they haven't bothered asking members what they're willing to commit to. If members aren't behind your project, whatever it is, you have no chance of success."
Cargill Associates' Capital Feasibility Study includes:
· Stewardship inventory -- a thorough inventory of a church's financial life
· Demographic analysis -- essential information about the households in a church's ministry area
· Congregational questionnaire -- a comprehensive questionnaire designed to test awareness of the church's program, service, giving potential and future plans
· Leadership interviews -- interviews with key leaders representing a cross-section of the congregation
· Summary of the benefits of the study -- a major stepping stone of the overall efforts and campaign
· Campaign calendar -- A timetable showing when events will occur; also functions as an organizational and planning tool
Churches using the study reach or exceed their financial goals 95 percent of the time, Graham said.
"There's an important distinction to make," he said. "We are in the stewardship development business, not the fund-raising business. Churches are successful when they approach each project as to how they can be good stewards of God's resources rather than how they can raise cash."
A feasibility study was among Robert Crandall's first duties as campaign director for the American Baptist Churches USA. The denomination wants to raise enough funds to start 1,010 new churches aimed at reaching more than 1 million new Christians.
The feasibility study was critical, Crandall said, because it let the denomination's leadership know "if the proposed plans meet the vision that God has given to the people."
The study proved the campaign was viable, and Crandall expects to share the results at the group's general board meeting in June for a final go-ahead.
"Your first impulse is to say that ‘Hey, if we as the church leadership think this is a good idea, surely everyone else will agree,'" Crandall said. "Feasibility studies will sometimes point out the opposite; many times there are people within the local church that have a very different perception of needs and priorities than church leadership. If they don't believe in something, they're not going to give, financially or emotionally."
Eye-opening results
Cargill Associates offers a Stewardship Vision Workshop that Graham says usually proves eye-opening to church leaders and members alike.
Cargill studies a church's last five years of financial trends and giving, conducts personal interviews and helps create a vision statement for the cause.
"We help take a lot of the guesswork out of it for them," Graham said. "We're not looking for the money so to speak; we're looking for the willingness to give."
Churches tend to have better results when conducting the workshop prior to the feasibility study, he said.
"By that point, the congregation has a grasp on the vision and they can get behind it both financially and in prayer," Graham said. "The workshop, combined with the feasibility study, puts the focus into ministry rather than bricks and mortar."
The workshops cost between $6,500 and $7,500, with a feasibility study running between $8,000 and $25,000 depending on the church or organization's size. Sometimes the feasibility study is included with the workshop, Graham said.
If the cost to raise money seems high, don't fret, said Ragona of St. Ann's Church.
"If you don't pay on the front end to do a job right, you usually end up paying for it in the end, and that's where it hurts you," he said.
