The are several types of church fundraising ranging from tithing received during church services to direct mail campaigns, phone solicitations, and specific types of church fundraising events like bake sales or gala dinner events. But regardless of the types of church fundraising chosen, there are a few guiding principles that must be followed.

The first principle is that successful fund raising requires careful forethought and planning. The second is that no church should depend so much on a single funding source that the group would be unable to function without it. All types of church fundraising planning needs to be guided by this second principle because an organization that is totally dependent on a large donation from one individual is extremely vulnerable.

The organizations that make the effort to use diverse types of church fundraising such that the loss of any one source of contributions would not have a significant impact is clearly in a better position. For example in 1869, the Metropolitan Museum of Art turned solely to the wealth citizens of New York City for support. More than a century later, it still receives donations from wealthy citizens but it also receives aid from local, state, and federal governments, and from corporations and foundations as well. Sure this is an art museum and not a church but don't lose sight of the bigger picture here in terms of diversifying the source of contributions and not being overly dependent on any single source of donations.

Today, diversification of monetary support is critical and no organization can generally expect to finance its work repeatedly from any single source. Even if organization succeeds in getting one huge grant, it cannot and should not be realistically expected that the grant will be renewed every year, and the future of the organization is far from secure. Furthermore, funding sources prefer seeing that a nonprofit organization's funding is indeed well-diversified because this demonstrates a consensus that the church is important and worth supporting.

By becoming associated with all types of church fundraising sources, fundraisers can select those most appropriate to their own church. Remember, it is highly unlikely that every source will be interested in your work, and so, with limited fundraising resources, you will need to choose the battles you are most likely to win.

All philanthropy can be traced back to individuals rather than to governments, businesses, or foundations. The founding philanthropists of the United States were individuals such as Benjamin Franklin whose generosity and vision led to the creation of several of Philadelphia's earliest nonprofit institutions.

During the Middle Ages, Europe's cathedrals were built not only through the largesse of kings, queens, and other nobility but also through the generosity of trades people an artisans. Many members of merchant and guild associations, including bakers, carpenters, weavers, shoemakers, butchers, masons, fishmongers, furriers, and other contributed to the building of the famed cathedral in Chartres, France; their funding underwrote the creation of many of its breathtaking stained glass windows. So you see, all types of church fundraising go way back in time.

This article was written by Todd Nelson, Marketing Director for Capital Merchant Solutions, Inc (HolyProcessing.com). CMS has been in the merchant account business for nearly 10 years, and offers free merchant accounts to both online and retail businesses. CMS also offers a unique program called "Refer a Congregation", which allows Churches and their members to earn money. This article may be republished as long as absolutely no changes are made, and the resource box is included. Copyright 2007 - Capital merchant Solutions, Inc. - All rights reserved.