The Case Statement Payoff June 22, 2010

by Ellie LaCasse

We thought we’d speak to someone about the effectiveness of developing a case statement in the way that Linda Lysakowski described in our June 16 webinar. Cathy Blankenship, chief operating officer of the Lear Theater in Reno, NV, was only too glad to share her story.

Twelve years ago the Lear Theater started a project to restore a historic church and transform it into a community performing arts venue. The original church was designed by a renowned architect, Paul R. Williams, the first African-American inducted into the Architects Hall of Fellows. The capital campaign began having trouble when fundraising could not keep up with construction inflation, and the project stalled in 2004.

In 2008 the Lear Theater secured federal funding from two tax-credit sources and reactivated the local campaign to raise the required $5.4 million in matching funds needed to complete the campaign. The Lear board needed to replace the image of a stalled project with a vision of an exciting new asset to the Reno arts community.

Although Cathy had experience with several previous campaigns, the Lear Theater decided to engage professional help in preparing the campaign plan and particularly the case statement. The theater contracted with Linda Lysakowski of Capital Venture to develop these important pieces of the campaign. The result was a comprehensive, vibrant document that has been priceless in terms of building solid support for the project.

“The case statement is not intended to be a marketing piece; it is the document from which all campaign materials come.”

The Lear Theater’s case statement is nine pages long—longer than most because the theater had a negative public image to overcome. It's made of up warm stories, analytical data, financial information, and even a construction timeline. It covers all the bases of what potential donors might want to know.

Cathy noted, “The case statement is not intended to be a marketing piece; it is the document from which all campaign materials come.” It broadly spells out the argument for supporting the Lear campaign; these broad points can then be tailored to different audiences and used for specific fundraising vehicles, such as grant proposals or marketing materials.

In developing the case statement, Cathy recalled,

We worked closely with Linda. We provided a hoard of information, and she sorted through it to determine what was most important. She looked at it from a fundraising perspective to determine what a potential donor wanted or needed to see. This was a different perspective from that of our marketing and program committee members, who had their own opinions about what should be included. Unfortunately, often a case statement is sent from one committee to another, inevitably resulting in a hodgepodge of ideas, focuses, voices—hardly the way to develop a compelling argument for such an important undertaking. Because Linda maintained control of the case statement, the tone was carefully crafted for consistency, and the document flows seamlessly.

The Lear Theater is now kicking off its campaign for leadership gifts and was able to announce that it has raised $6 million in federal funding. So far the reaction has been positive and the public no longer sees the campaign as stalled and unworthy of investment.

The biggest advantage of having a professionally prepared case statement is that grantwriting is much easier. With all the campaign information already organized in one place, the grantwriter can easily tailor the information to the required format. "We have written similar funding applications to the local arts commission for the past several years," Cathy reported. "This year we were told that it was our best application ever, and all we did was take the information directly from our case statement."

Cathy learned of GiftWorks years ago while working for a Boys and Girls Club. State legislators wanted consistent reports from programs operating across the state. When the organization began using GiftWorks, the project took off and funding was awarded. Cathy now uses GiftWorks Premium, which gives her unlimited ability to segment donors and tailor the message to different donor groups. “Having all your information in one place and being able to create and sort categories gives us more time to spend approaching donors and interacting with the community. We can generate special reports where all the data is in one place, not on several different spreadsheets. I think I’ve referred 15 or 20 agencies in the Reno area to GiftWorks.”

Ellie LaCasse, a friend of GiftWorks, is officially retired from fundraising but is forever a community volunteer.