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Conference Considers Campaign to Fund Vision

Posted by Bwcarchives on Dec 06, 2012

Conference Considers Campaign to Fund Vision

By: Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

How much are you willing to invest in the church’s future? It’s a question to which leaders of the Baltimore-Washington Conference are excited about hearing an answer.

Early in 2013, the conference will hold a series of regional listening sessions to gather insights into levels of interest for a capital funds campaign and how such a campaign can best resource local churches that may be seeking innovative solutions to budget challenges.

Initial thoughts revolve around a campaign built on partnership. The conference would provide extensive training from a professional fundraising agency to interested local churches. Local churches would then conduct their campaigns and return a percentage of the funds to the connectional church.

The feasibility of such a campaign was raised by members of the annual conference at the 2012 session in May. Members asked that a comprehensive study be undertaken to explore a capital campaign as a way of financing the conference’s 2020 Vision, whose goals were adopted.

CCS, a firm that specialized in fundraising, development services and strategic consulting, was brought on board. Their consultants conducted interviews with 157 conference leaders and received input from an electronic survey completed by 212 lay and clergy members of annual conference.

	Annapolis-Southern Listening Session: Jan. 26, 2013 9a.m. to 11a.m. Community UMC 1690 Riedel Road Crofton, MD
	Western Region Listening Session: Jan. 26, 2013 1p.m. to 3p.m. Otterbein UMC 108 E Franklin Street Hagerstown, MD
	Washington Region Listening Session: Jan. 28, 2013 7p.m. to 9p.m. Woodside UMC 8900 Georgia Avenue Silver Spring, MD
	Baltimore Region Listening Session: Jan. 29, 2013 7p.m. to 9 p.m. Loch Raven UMC 6622 Loch Raven Blvd. Baltimore, MD

From the data collected, recommendations about the feasibility of conducting a successful capital funds campaign were made. These recommendations will be the centerpiece of the upcoming listening sessions.

Included in the information to be considered are research-based suggestions for the amount of funds to be raised, what the funds will be spent on, the percentage split between the conference and local churches, and the level of support that might be expected for a campaign.

Information collected at these sessions will guide the creation of a recommendation that will be presented to the 2013 session of annual conference, which meets May 29-31 in Baltimore.

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