Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign?
by Margaret M. Holman
Now that the economy in New York City seems to be recovering, charities are dusting off their plans for capital campaigns, or major donor campaigns, or endowment campaigns. If your organization is among them, how can you tell if you are really ready to start a campaign?
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Do you have a strong case and the right goal? The most successful campaigns have the most compelling cases for support. Hearing about the campaign needs of the organization should make your donors and prospects want to be involved, involved with personally significant gifts, and involved early on. A successful case statement contains a clear and emotional call to action for your donors and prospects and guarantees reaching your goal. Speaking of goals—setting a goal that allows your organization to stretch, yet reach the goal is the art of campaign fundraising. Aim too high and you may fail; aim too low and you will certainly fail. One of the tricks is to assess the capabilities and propensities of giving from those closest to the organization for a campaign and build a goal on this foundation.
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Do you have campaign leadership? Successful campaigns have charismatic leaders who are personally committed to the campaign—that means they are making leadership gifts at the highest level. The campaign chairperson(s) should make a gift in the highest level to set an example. We like working with organizations who have two or more people who are willing to chair the campaign, as they have complementary skills, don’t get tired as quickly because they can spread the work around, and help each other reach leadership decisions.
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Have you identified your most likely prospects? Wanting to have a campaign and actually succeeding at one depends upon the quantity and quality of your donor base. The old rule still works that 80% or all the gifts will come from 20% or less of your donors, so early identification and involvement of these people is critical to the success of a campaign.
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Is your donor recognition program effective? Your organization should not have an active “donor abuse program.” If you aren’t actively and effectively acknowledging the gifts of your annual and major donors, what makes you think they’ll give even bigger sums of money?
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Have you set achievable expectations? Adding a campaign to your regular fundraising duties without considering the extra time, effort and money it will take to raise the campaign goal is a recipe for disaster. You may need outside expertise, or at the very least, one to two additional fundraising professionals to make the day-to-day effort of a campaign pay off. Remember to always under promise and over deliver.
Margaret M. Holman is president of Holman Consulting, Inc. and is a member of the Greater New York AFP Chapter Board.
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