Project Category
Good Plan for Raising Capital
Expansion plan and capital campaign for Soul City Church.
Year
2019/2020
Client
Soul City
Background
In late 2019, Soul City Church, located in the West Loop of Chicago, set out to expand their vision and ministry potential. Having just celebrated their 9th anniversary, Soul City had a grand vision for the next two years. 1. Launch two new Soul City church sites - one to the west and one to the north in Chicago. 2. Build a House of Hope at their West Loop location to provide safe and sacred space for hospitality, hope, and healing. 3. Develop the Soul City Studio to create new resources to be shared around the world.
Soul City Church partnered with Good Plan to create a Capital Campaign Strategy and to follow through on that plan, bringing teams together, facilitating fundraising events, developing marketing collateral, and so much more.
Campaign Goals
With a primary goal of having 100% participation from everyone at Soul City church to see their faith grow through prayer, and a secondary ambitious goal of raising nine million dollars, Soul City was Ready for More.
The first phase of this Campaign Strategy began in partnership with senior leaders, and Soul City’s board. With an initial vision set, Good Plan first made recommendations to develop that plan further, addressing feedback and ultimately expanding Soul City’s potential to use this Capital Campaign for exponential growth and greater impact.
Generosity Toolkit
Good Plan partnered with Soul City to make sure the goal of 100% participation from everyone at Soul City Church was met. Good Plan created a guide as an opportunity for everyone to reflect on their own generosity journey as they consider how God is leading them to be a part of Ready For More. This guide and toolkit walked people through the beginning of their journey, where they’re currently at in their generosity journey, and where they could go, boldly. This toolkit was a thoughtful and intentional guide for people to play a key role in deciding what’s right for them and their families, full of questionnaires, quizzes, and an opportunity to give in response.
Personalized Engagement
Knowing that the success of this Capital Campaign was reliant on the participation of many - long-standing donors, new families, people who just found Soul City - Good Plan created an inclusive strategy to release materials for each and every person.
A devotional written by current volunteers, intentional stories of committed individuals and families, kids and students pieces, families materials, community engagement, and so much more, because core materials for the campaign.
In addition to these pieces, Good Plan put together opportunities for in-person conversations, space to ask questions from senior leaders, and multiple opportunities for people to provide feedback along the way. This campaign was not stagnant. It actively engaged the people who were already invested, and shifted as priorities were set and re-set.
Make it stand out
This Capital Campaign set out to raise nine million dollars in 2020, and was set to fully launch mid-March of 2020. As you likely can imagine, the official launch date was the day so much in the world shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although much was set on pause, including both locations of the church, what didn’t pause is the way Soul City showed up and stepped out to meet the needs of the community.
Instead of raising massive amounts of money for space that wouldn’t be used, Soul City began partnering with Chicago Public Schools, World Vision, and other local entities to provide immediate support and care for individuals and families who found themselves without jobs, in need of food and cleaning supplies, having lost loved ones, and looking to the church for support.
This immediate meeting of needs developed as an organic House of Hope over the course of the next year. The initial vision of expanding looked different than the initial Capital Campaign, but what’s true is that Soul City is a better place because of the bold YES it said back in 2019.
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