It has been some what common for non-denominational college ministries to have fund raising banquets. It is a fairly new or rare event within Baptist circles. Here is a word from Ben Maddox, Baptist Campus Minister at Tennessee Tech, and how they do their fund raising banquet.
Telling Our Story
As a campus based college ministry, we have countless stories of how God uses campus ministry to assist in students coming to faith in Christ, developing leadership skills, discovering who God has called them to become during their college years, answering a call to ministry, and many others. Telling these stories are vital to keeping churches, alumni, parents of students, and friends of the campus ministry connected to the everyday life and fruitfulness of the ministry.
Three years ago, the Tennessee Tech BCM began hosting a fall banquet for local churches, alumni, parents, and friends to attend to hear these stories of God's faithfulness. Each year the banquet is focused on a theme that reflects the mission of the campus ministry, such as reaching students with the Gospel, developing student leaders, discipleship/disciplemakers, life on mission, connecting students to churches, etc. We have both students and alumni share how the campus ministry has made an impact on their lives and the lives of those they ministered to during their time in the ministry. We include videos, testimonies, student-led worship, prayer time for the ministry, etc. Each year, we have approximately 200 local church leaders, alumni, parents, and friends in attendance during this night. It is a great way to tell our story to them.
Logistically, how do we do this? We have a twelve member Board of Directors who help facilitate the banquet. Your ministry not have a Board of Directors, but you may have a support team or advisory committee who could help you with the details of the event. Our Board is responsible for identifying and recruiting table hosts; typically, our Directors commit to being one of the table hosts. Each host is asked to get eight people to join their table at the banquet. We do not charge for the event; we build this event into our yearly budget. Our tables are organized by local churches, decades of alumni, and parents of current students. We have a local catering company provide a full meal with a salad, main dish, dessert, and refreshments. The BCM staff and student leaders develop the program for the banquet. Near the end of the night, the Chair of our Budget and Fundraising Team of our Board shares how our BCM is funded and gives our guests an opportunity to become a part of individually supporting the TN Tech BCM. We have seen our guests respond by individually giving gifts ranging from $20 to $2500. BCM ministries in Tennessee raise from $5,000 to $20,000 at events such as this. Our banquet has become a significant part of how we tell our story, and it allows guests the opportunity to learn more about as well as join in supporting our ministry for the sake of continuing to share the Gospel of Christ to students on our campus.
Ben Maddox
Baptist Campus Minister
Tennessee Tech University
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