New feature in Church Executive on fundraising

I’m always delighted when I get the opportunity to write a feature story for Church Executive Magazine.

The most recent edition (August 2012) is about church fundraising. The goal of the story is to translate proven nonprofit development tactics into the language and practice of the church. While the end result of fundraising is different in a church context, it doesn’t mean that those of us responsible for cultivating those funds can’t learn from the pros about what works and what doesn’t.

I offer five suggestions:

Focus your communication about money within the context of measurable outcomes.
Regularly analyze giving data and trends to validate strategic decisions.
Encourage regular givers to incrementally increase their gifts over time.
Put in place a major gifts strategy.
Place giving expectations on staff and key lay leadership.

Read the entire article online or download it here.

What do you think? How can we adapt our funding strategies in church using proven strategies from the traditional nonprofit development space?

Ben Stroup is a content activist in a post-paragraph world. He is chief broker of opportunity at Ben Stroup Enterprises. Connect with Ben via email, Twitter, and Google+. Subscribe via email to learn how to use content to move people to action.