If you’re planning a capital campaign, we’ve got some tips to help you plan the most successful campaign possible: Take your goal-setting seriously.
If you start planning your campaign with a goal that’s too timid and too low, you are likely to leave money on the table. But if your campaign goal is too high, you’ll lose credibility before you get going. In this article, we’ll dive into some advice for how to find the sweet spot and set a goal that will set your capital campaign up for success.
That is the list of things you’re going to raise money for through your campaign. Make sure that those items, when completed, will make an outsized impact in the community your nonprofit organization serves. Breaking your campaign into individual line items will show you how much money you need to succeed.
Successful campaigns do not fund business as usual or recurring general operating expenses like an annual campaign does. They fund exciting ideas that motivate donors to give larger gifts than usual and use those funds to buy property, for example.
When you think about your campaign goal, have a clear idea of what your campaign will support. Make sure your vision is strong and easy to understand. Impact created through the capital campaign should be top of mind throughout the planning process. Nonprofit goal setting is always going to be a mix of ambitious impact and sound financial backings.
Many campaigns fund several initiatives. Some campaigns focus on building or renovating, starting new programs, funding projects, upgrading systems, covering expenses, and building an endowment.
Think about if you have a few major donors who might give enough to cover 20% or 25% of your campaign goal. Large donations should come from major donors during the quiet phase of the campaign. Also, investigate if you have others who can give slightly lesser amounts early in the campaign to build momentum. Prospect research will inform your capacity to raise funds while planning your capital campaign.
If your organization has a strong nonprofit fundraising program that that is consistently helping you cultivate and steward donors, you likely know your key prospects off the top of your head. While they may not give large gifts now, you’re aware they have the financial ability to do so.
If you have no idea where gifts of those sizes might come from, you have some work to do identifying those donors. And if after some fundraising effort, you still don’t know, then you should consider stepping back your initial goal or working on your donor relationships.
Of course, it’s not a crime to shoot big for your goal for your campaign. At first, you can call it your "working goal," meaning it can change as you learn more about the support available to you.
Most capital campaigns use a “working goal” until they kick off the final public phase of their campaign. This allows them to aim high while staying flexible as they explore the goal's viability and seek out major donors for their initial list of prospects.
Risk tolerance is often a reflection of the characteristics of the board and executive leadership. With stable leadership, organizations develop a clear pattern.
Risk-taking organizations tend to embrace bigger visions and take larger financial risks. They try new programs and initiatives.
Some organizations have natural limits in their ability to execute on a large capital campaign. And you should take your organization’s risk tolerance into account before you set the working goal for your campaign.
If your organization is open to taking risks, you can broaden your vision and campaign goals during the early stages of planning. Sometimes inspired, bold ideas are more compelling and able to draw larger gifts.
But if your organization has no stomach for taking risks, you will do well to set a more conservative goal.
Consider what donor database are you using, and how it will impact your ability to identify key donors. Your goal setting in the beginning will depend on how organized your data is within your system. Building lists and reading notes of past interactions with donors will help immensely as you start cultivating your list and making asks.
Often times, teams will manage this campaign data on simple spreadsheets, which is insecure at best. Why should your most important donor data live on a spreadsheet? With Instil, you can manage capital campaigns and steward your most important donors, while being able to see the different stages of cultivation across your entire network.
Start by defining your organization's vision and the key goals you want the campaign to fund to achieve it. Use that list to determine how much money you would have to raise to achieve those objectives. This list should get you excited as a fundraiser. To hit this goal, you will need to be strategic, aspirational and clearly communicate impact.
Then, consider whether you have prospective donors who might give the largest gifts to fund a campaign of the size you determined. These donors are likely already supporters to your organization. If you lack major donors to fund your goal, focus on building relationships. Look for individuals or companies that share your vision. Consider your technology stack, and make sure your systems is purpose built for major gifts and moves management to effectively identify donors you want to reach out to and cultivate them.
Finally, assess your organization’s willingness to take risks and adjust the goal accordingly. The goal setting process should align ambitious impact to tangible goals. If you are interested in learning more about how to manage your capital campaigns, request more information here.