The Director of Stewardship and Development is available to meet with your parish leadership to provide consultation and guide you throughout your capital campaign efforts.


A Capital Campaign is major event in the life of any institution. In a parish community it engages the gifts and blessings of time, talent and treasure - entrusted to parishioners through Gods grace - toward a specific initiative.

While our Stewardship is a regular expression of discipleship there are times when major resources must be raised to further the goals of the parish. A capital campaign is a vehicle to gather support and funding for initiatives such as building a building, undertaking a major building renovation or expansion, purchasing a major piece of necessary equipment or carrying out a vital program, service and ministry.

Care must be taken, however, that the campaign is well-organized, its goals pragmatic, and its timing precise. It is important to realize that the effects of a major fundraising effort have more to do with building connections between people and the Church than they do with raising dollars.

While the methods may vary depending on each individual parish community, there is a general nucleus of preparedness that should be a part of each campaign:


The Planning Phase

The Planning Phase begins by recruiting the campaign core committee. The committee's responsibilities may include: reviewing institutional readiness, developing the plan, budget and strategies, provide overall management, campaign communication, and solicitation of leadership gifts. They will be instrumental in developing a needs assessment. Once the needs and goals have been identified, a feasibility study, which tests the achievability of reaching the goal is conducted. The goals will eventually be stated in a compelling way in the case statement.


Silent Phase

In the Silent Phase the object is to raise approximately half of the entire campaign goal from the wealthiest 10% - 20% of your parishioners. In this phase, campaign efforts must be made to identify those parishioners who have the means and the inclination to make “A Leadership Gift” to get the campaign off the ground.

One way to identify leadership gift prospects is to create a committee of parishioners who know the wealth potential of members of the community. This “Prospect Rating Committee” creates a pyramid of donors that together will account for the total goal. A good starting point for developing a list of your leadership prospects is to look first at the names of your top offertory givers. The Quiet Phase also serves as an emotional and psychological springboard for the General Phase of the capital campaign.


General Phase

In the General Phase the object is to personally contact all parishioners to ask them for a pledge, over a three to five year period. This can be done by In-Pew Solicitation and/or via a system Home Visits.  Several “Home Visit” team captains choose a number of ambassadors to drop off campaign packets at parish households, providing person to person contact. With enough volunteers no one individual will have to visit more than five homes.


Follow-Up Phase

The third and final stage of the capital campaign is the Follow-Up Phase. If a determined effort has been made to reach all parishioners in the Leadership and General Phases of the campaign, Follow-Up will simply be an effort to reach those who, for one reason or another, have not responded by stating their intentions regarding the campaign. Monthly or Quarterly reminder statements will be mailed to all who pledged in installments. Thank you letters are also important. 

In the event a target goal exceeds $1 million, a parish may want to consider the services of an outside firm to provide a regular on-site presence for the campaign.  Please contact the Department of Stewardship and Development for a list of endorsed firms.