Part of my strategy for the building fund and payment always included $60-$80K in fundraising every year. Other experts, pastors, and practitioners have tried to discourage me from this, saying that it wasn’t worth the time and effort. I had recently started to lean in their direction, saying ‘maybe they’re right – after all, they know more than I do.’ But after last night's auction and the results this morning (we raised over $17K), I am convinced that we’re on target with this idea. Last night was a great event. We learned some things we could do differently next time, but that doesn’t mean it was anything less than a HUGE success.
Two kinds of people donated items: 1) Those outside of the church and 2) those inside the church. The former are unlikely to give a check to the building fund. Luck Stone, Yardworks, Palmore’s Mill, and the County Seat aren’t going to be giving cash donations to PCC. However, the auction provided a forum through which they could collectively make a significant contribution.
The latter were able to give in a way that some of them would not otherwise. For example, Chauncey gave a day of his time, Winston Jones (J & W tree service) gave a day of his time, Wesley Redford gave some of his time, artists like Ramona Sontag and Connie Kottman donated their time through painting, people gave service like chiropractic care and consulting and on and on I could go. These kinds of donations brought significant monies. Many of these folks who love PCC and call our church 'home' will also give money to the PCC building fund. But for some, donating services like this is the only way they can make significant contributions.
If you do the math I did 18 months ago, it's quite conceivable that we could actually do $60-$80K in fundraising each year (in 3-5 years) between the golf tournament, auction, concert and Food Lion cards and Yard Sale. It’s all about turning the flywheel (from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, which is an excellent book and worth reading). It will take a few spins, but each time, it will get better and easier. We could fill the golf tournament up and make that a $10K event within a year or two. And the Auction could bring $25K even as early next year. And the concert could be a $10K event next year, too. And if we do all of these well, there is a much higher threshold to reach for. I have a friend at a church in Mechanicsville who raises $50K on his golf tournament alone…but it took several years of turning the flywheel to get it there. We can do this. And it will make a significant difference.
True, we can only do so much. But if we're careful and thoughtful and direct our energies into highly potent events, we can do this well.
Thanks especially to Kim Wooten and Robert Bishop and their incredible team who made yesterday such a huge success.
Brian
1 comment:
The auction was a great time of fellowship and contributing to PCC's building project. We were amazed at the various items, services and time commitments that were represented. Although we were out-bid on a few items that we were eyeing closely, we came away with exactly what we wanted. Through the auction, we get what we needed and PCC gets the funds! Our congratulations to those who organized, worked, donated and bought -- Looking forward to another one!!
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