Guest Post – Three Keys to a Successful Capital Campaign
Post by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE
1. Recruit the best volunteer leadership for your campaign. The campaigns that have the best volunteer leaders are the most successful ones. Don’t just choose a leader because they love your organization or because they are a “big name in town.” I’ve seen both of these cases and they are always disastrous. On the other hand, one of my clients ran a very successful capital campaign, having never done annual fundraising, with no staff and a committed but not influential board. The secret? They recruited an “honorary” campaign chair that was influential enough to help them recruit a top-notch campaign cabinet. He was also willing to use his influence to garner the big gifts they needed. Although this community leader did not have a real strong tie to the organization when they approached him, they were very persuasive in making their case. The “honorary chair” not only agreed to serve, but attended and led every meeting, made a significant gift to the campaign, and his leadership was enough to convince the presidents of four local banks and other top community leaders to get involved.
2. Be sure you have a well-crafted case for support. The case must be both emotional and rational and needs to be tested through a planning study. During the study, sometimes called a feasibility study, an outside consultant will present the case to community leaders whom the consultant will interview. The goal of the study is to see if the case is persuasive enough to motivate these community leaders to agree to contribute to the campaign and/or agree to serve as a volunteer for the campaign. The case should be presented as a preliminary case until the study is completed. Once the input from the study is presented to the staff and board, the goal may need to be adjusted and the case will need to be finalized before you develop printed and electronic campaign materials.
3. Be sure the staff and board understand their role in the campaign as well as the role of volunteers. Board members must be committed to the campaign—emotionally, financially spiritually, and on paper. One hundred percent financial commitment to the campaign from the board is needed before you ask other to contribute. This is the time for board members to make a “stretch gift” to your organization. Several board members should also agree to serve on the campaign cabinet. However, you will want to involve many other community leaders as well as your board in order to expand the network of contacts with potential major donors. You will also need to make sure the CEO of your organization recognize the importance of the campaign and makes this his or her top priority, agreeing to spend about 50 percent of his or her time in the process of identifying, cultivation and solicitation major donors.
Some tools to help you plan your campaign are available at www.cvfundraising.com. Read more about successful capital campaigns in Linda’s new book, Capital Campaigns: Everything You NEED to Know, published by CharityChannel press. http://charitychannel.com/charitychannel-press/bookstore/productid/133/catreferrer/5436.
Linda is President/CEO of CAPITAL VENTURE, a full service consulting firm. Linda is one of fewer than 100 professionals worldwide to hold the Advanced Certified Fund Raising Executive designation.