Posts Tagged ‘Outreach Programs’

Developing a Fundraising Plan

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Fundraising is a primary method by which churches can gain the money required to implement the programs needed to fulfill its growth and outreach goals. Fundraising events can also help raise awareness of the church and its activities through newspapers or newsletters, it can help a church establish an internet site, and it can help the church’s target community. However, in order to successfully fundraise, churches should develop a comprehensive plan of action. A fundraising plan provides a description of the fundraising activities to take place during a given time period. It answers the who, what, when, where, and how of fundraising. The following steps can assist your church with developing a fundraising plan.

Developing Your Fundraising Plan

  • Set goals for the amount of money you need to raise and what the money will be used for. Will you use it for overhead expenses? To fund an ongoing or new program? To build a new facility? To develop an emergency fund for a future rainy day? To close a deficit?
  • If you have more than one goal, develop a fundraising plan for each goal. Goals should be developed with your board of directors, and have the board’s approval. Having your board’s involvement will also set the stage for their participation in the fundraising itself.

Write down your fundraising plan.

  • Develop a written plan that states how much you need to raise, from what sources, and how you will do it. Don’t worry; the plan can be revised as you proceed. Not all of your ideas will work out, or you may find new sources along the way.

Estimate how much your fundraising program will cost.

  • Most experts recommend that fundraising and overall administrative costs not exceed 25% of your overall operating budget. In other words, three-quarters of your expenses should be spent on doing what you were founded to do.  

Identify funding sources

  • Will you fundraise by soliciting foundation grants, government grants, special events, etc?

Develop a timeline for your fundraising plan

  • Fill in a year’s calendar with specific activities, and identify who will be the lead for each of those projects. Go further by developing timelines for each fundraising activity, such as the direct mail campaign, the online auction, or the planned giving seminar.

Evaluate your fundraising plan during the year

  • Plan to evaluate what you are doing every few months. What accounted for the biggest successes? What were the biggest challenges? What fundraising methods should you change, drop, or add?

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Assessing the Outreach Needs of your Audience

Friday, March 26th, 2010

When a church is considering embarking on a new outreach initiative, the input of the congregation is crucial. After all, it is the church members who will be expected to carry out the outreach program. A simple solution to this issue is to survey the congregation on the types of community outreach programs that they would like to conduct. The following steps will help you to design a brief survey instrument that will assess the needs of your congregation.

Surveying your Congregation:

  1. Find out which causes they would like to help.

                List suggestions and provide room for an open-ended response. For example:  If the church were to embark on a new outreach program, which would you prefer to take on?

  1. Reading program
  2. Financial Management Program
  3. Afterschool Program
  4. Single-mothers program
  5. Other

2.  Find out how much time they are willing to give to the outreach program. Do they plan to volunteer daily, weekly, monthly, etc.?

3. Are they willing to support the program financially? An extra program means that additional resources may be needed. While your church can apply for grant funding for outreach programs, it will also need the financial support of the congregation to ensure that the program is sustainable.

4. Solicit Assistance from the congregation. Are they willing to serve on the outreach committee? You will need a few dedicated volunteers to ensure that the program’s administrative processes are designed and implemented effectively.

5. Give them a due date and place for submission.  For example, “We’re performing the survey during the following two weeks. We have placed trays at the entrance for you to return the survey.”

6. Select the need that you are most able to meet given the resources that are available. If the top two choices were a Saturday Breakfast program and an after school program, but your church only has a very limited budget, the Saturday breakfast program may be the best decision.

7. Update the congregation with the survey results! This is an important aspect of surveying your congregation that is often left out. Keep the congregation involved by letting them know of the top choice. Announce the names of the members who will serve on the outreach committee.

By surveying your congregation, you are getting them excited about the outreach program and garnering support for the program early-on. The survey will not only shed light on the desires of the congregation but it will also identify an outreach committee, help in program design (you now know the hours that “work” for your congregation), and secure volunteers. These are major factors in the success of an outreach program.

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Outreach as a Form of Witnessing

Friday, February 26th, 2010

As a believing body, churches set out to witness the Word to those outside of the church. We often see examples of this in street revivals and door-to-door witnessing. While these methods can be effective, there is another option. Churches can use an outreach program as a form of witnessing. When a church implements an outreach program, it is positioning itself to regularly interact with people outside of the church. It is creating relationships with people who may have never stepped foot in a church. 

When designing your church’s outreach program make sure that your volunteers are positive people, that your program is operated efficiently, and you are welcoming. This may play a pivotal role in a potential parishioner’s choice to attend your church. Remember that church members are charged with shining as lights for others to see the blessings of God. When we shine as lights, we naturally attract people to us and to our places of worship.

Of course, you should also provide church materials at your outreach event. Remember to have flyers or brochures displayed for the program participants or provide t-shirts for your volunteers to wear with the name of the church prominently displayed. Most important, do not forget to invite the program participants to your church. Many unchurched individuals would attend church if they were simply invited.  

Using outreach as a form of witnessing does not follow the traditional means of witnessing. However, by displaying how blessed the congregation is by giving and shining as lights, your church will assuredly attract additional church members. Many people in the world have become numb to traditional tactics of witnessing. Using outreach to reach out allows you to tap into another channel; one that is less defensive and receptive to the blessings that you are attempting to share.

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Sustaining and Growing your Outreach Program

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

A successful outreach program keeps the congregation and its target audience actively involved in the outreach activities. The congregation should be inspired to continue to volunteer and give; the target audience should receive services that are in-line with their needs. If both of these conditions are being met at your church, congratulations, you are on the road to success! However, if you are noticing a lack of volunteer interest and your target audience does not attend your programs, there are a few things that you may need to revamp.

If your congregation has ceased to volunteer their time or give to the outreach program, they may have forgotten that your church is conducting an outreach program. Are flyers prominently displayed on the church bulletin board advertising the program? Are periodic updates being provided during the announcements portion of worship services? Have you polled the current volunteers to see if there are any problems that they are experiencing while volunteering? Oftentimes, volunteers cease to support outreach activities because of a lack of knowledge or a bad experience while volunteering before. Make sure that your outreach program is fresh in the minds of your congregation by providing updated pictures on the church””s bulletin board, website, and/or newsletter. Remember to periodically check in with volunteers to see if they need more resources (i.e. books for a reading program), more support, or if there is a problem with any part of outreach program. They will appreciate the concern and may be able to clue you in to the lapse in volunteer support.

Another problem that may hinder your outreach program from operating successfully or growing is misaligned services. If your church did not conduct a needs assessment prior to starting the outreach program, the services that you””re providing may not be what your target audience actually needs. Therefore, you will most likely have low turnout at your events. Survey your local community to find out what services they need. Are many of the parents unable to afford after school services? If so, can your church serve as an after school program site? Are many families suffering from the current economic crisis? If so, can you provide weekly financial management workshops? Even if you conducted an initial needs assessment, you should conduct yearly assessments to ensure that the needs of the community have not changed. Designing and implementing an outreach program that truly responds to the needs of the surrounding community ensures that your target audience will actually use your services.

A successful outreach program, one that is sustainable and growth-oriented, must respond to the needs of the congregation and target community. If your outreach program is experiencing problems, conduct a thorough evaluation of every component of the program to see where improvements can be made.

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Get and Keep Church Members Involved in Outreach

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Oftentimes, I encounter churches that complain of a lack of dedicated volunteers for their programs; a problem that can certainly ruin outreach efforts. In some instances, they began their program with a substantial amount of volunteers and within a couple of months, the number of volunteers had dwindled to no more than a handful. In other instances, the church was unable to acquire any volunteers from the start of the program. While the cause of a lack of dedicated volunteers varies, there are a few common culprits that your church should consider during the planning and implementation process of an outreach program.

Lack of advertisement

Many churches fail to advertise their outreach program adequately. They may announce the outreach opportunity during the announcement section of worship service, but they fail to mention it at any other time. This is a big mistake. Church members have a life outside of the church. They have full-time jobs, children, workout regimen, etc. While the outreach program at church may be important, it is added to the long list of “to-do” items that they must accomplish each week. Thus, without more than a quick verbal reminder, the outreach program may become a distant memory. In addition to mentioning the outreach program during worship services, the outreach committee should also post the outreach program on the bulletin board, keep it listed in the church””s newsletter and on the website, and encourage established volunteers to bring a friend each week.

Lack of tasks

When designing their outreach program, some churches forget to think of the role that volunteers will play in the implementation of the program. Outside of their planned program personnel, there aren””t any defined tasks for volunteers to take on. As a result, when church members show up to volunteer they end up sitting around without anything to do. This is definitely not motivation for them to show-up again (especially given the aforementioned list of other obligations). When planning the outreach program, keep in mind the volunteers. If your church is starting a meal program, for example, some volunteers can operate the meal line; others can cook; others can handle clean-up and others; set-up.

Lack of recognition

While your church””s members are most likely volunteering out of their desire to give, it doesn””t hurt to give to them as well. Some churches fail to recognize and/or thank their outreach program volunteers for the wonderful job that they””re doing. This may cause some church members to feel unappreciated and diminish morale. A recognition event could easily solve this problem. Your outreach committee could simply have cake after worship service, put up a thank you banner, or if funds are available, have a dinner celebration.

While there are other causes of a lack of participation in outreach programs, this list can help churches to avoid the common pitfalls that have hindered the success of worthwhile programs. If churches remember to keep both the target community and the congregation in mind while planning the program, these problems can be avoided.

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What Type of Outreach Program fit your Organization?

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Just as all churches are not the same, outreach programs also vary. Some outreach programs take place on the church′s premises while others are in conjunction with another community agency. When thinking about the type of outreach program that your church will take part in, there are a few things that you should keep in mind.

Size of your church. The physical size of your church as well as the number of members, are important factors in determining what type of program to implement. Smaller churches may want to work with outside agencies to provide outreach services if their facility or available bodies do not allow for hosting a project of their own. Instead of starting their own program, smaller churches may want to help the local American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, or Boys and Girls Club. Larger churches, on the other hand, might have the staff, size and resources to host an outreach program on its premises. Larger churches may be able to host a reading program, afterschool program, or senior day activities.

Time commitment. Starting an outreach program requires additional time of your outreach committee and congregation. When considering an outreach program think about the time that it requires. Does your congregation have time to devote four hours per week to an activity or should it occur once per month? Only take-on what your congregation can handle.

Expertise. If your church decides to host an outreach program (i.e. implement your own program), make sure that someone in the congregation has experience in the program area. If you′re considering an afterschool program, for example, do you have any teachers in the congregation? While the community will be grateful for the extra services, you should only provide services that can be administered appropriately.

Cost.  Each outreach program will come with various expenses. Outline the projected expenses for the different outreach programs that you′re considering and choose the option that best fits the budget of the church. By only taking on what your church can handle, you will be able to sustain the program over the long-haul.

Outreach programs should be approached honestly. The outreach committee should be honest about the capabilities of the church before starting a program. An evaluation of the church′s human, financial, and structural resources will reveal what type of outreach program it can handle.

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The Importance of an Outreach Committee

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

 Now that your church has decided to start an outreach program, it is important that the outreach is a positive addition to the church. Church members should not be confused about what types of programs the church offers, when they occur, or how to volunteer for the various projects. Most importantly, if you’re requesting that your church members volunteer their free time, that time should be well spent. 

Enter the Outreach Committee. Outreach committees are responsible for planning and organizing outreach events and keeping the congregation informed and involved. Outreach committee members should be active church members that share the vision of the church and have a vested interest in the community.

It will be the duty of the outreach committee to find outreach opportunities and create an action plan for implementation. Outreach members will serve as the contact persons for both the community and the congregation. They will outline the steps necessary to get the program started and operating. For example, if your church decides to partner with Habitat for Humanity as a reoccurring outreach program, the outreach committee would be responsible for contacting Habitat, selecting the dates and time (i.e. every other Saturday at 10:00am), informing the congregation of the location, and meeting volunteers and the agency at the location.

Outreach committees also serve to increase outreach opportunities. Instead of one person being charged with finding and/or designing every outreach program (which can get pretty hectic!), a team of 5-7 members, will easily handle this task. Like the popular phrase, ″Two heads are better than one″, an outreach committee is better than a lone outreach soldier. The duties will be distributed so that the steps mentioned above will be carried out efficiently and effectively.

Outreach members will also keep the congregation informed and involved in the outreach activities. They keep everyone excited about the positive efforts that the church is making through mediums like an outreach bulletin board, website updates, announcements, etc. They also actively recruit volunteers for the various programs that the church is conducting. Outreach programs only work when the church is involved; the committee is responsible for fostering that involvement.

Starting an outreach committee can be a simple process that brings great benefits. Remember to pick hard-working and positive people and your committee will build an outreach program that strengthens your church and the surrounding community.

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Why Outreach?

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Churches throughout the country are on the fence about starting their own outreach ministry. While the Church has historically responded to the needs of the downtrodden, some feel that stepping outside of the walls of the church and seeking those who are “lost”, is a step over the line that differentiates churches from social service agencies. However, crossing that line may be the move that propels your church to higher levels.

Of the nearly 160 million unchurched people living in America, 80 million would be willing to attend worship services if they were invited or felt welcome. During today′s tough economic times and wave of hope, many of these unchurched people are seeking to restore their faith. But where shall they turn? Some of them have never attended a church service; others are so disconnected from their religious ties that they are hesitant to return. Afraid of being judged and ostracized, many may simply give up and return to their worldly ways. Those in the Word know that this is a costly decision.

What′s the solution? Reach out and bring those lost “sheep” back to the herd. Providing an outreach ministry to the community builds relationships between your congregation and the community. It allows your congregation to shine as lights and lead those who are hungry, drug-afflicted, and hurting out of darkness. Outreach serves as the missing link between those who are churched and those who are not. It creates a welcoming dialogue that fosters trust and understanding between the community and the church. Most importantly, it attracts new members to the congregation and strengthens your existing congregation. Outreach programs engage existing members by providing them with a means to apply what they have learned in worship services. It allows them to give back to the community, while also strengthening their spiritual purpose.

Creating an outreach ministry will, of course, bring new expenses to the church. Starting a homeless meal program, for example, means purchasing kitchen equipment, food, etc. Your congregation, like many others, may be operating with a budget with little room for “extras”. However, creating this outreach program will open the doors to outside funding. There are many foundations that will fund your outreach project. Your congregation can achieve your outreach goals without sacrificing other church projects.

Overall, the decision to create an outreach ministry is one that should be considered carefully, it takes time, money, and hard work. However, implementing an outreach ministry offers benefits and services that reach far beyond that of conventional growth methods.

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