Ingredients for Capital Campaign Success August 5, 2010

by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE

If a capital campaign is in your organization’s future, you will want to do everything you can to ensure success, including:

• having strong annual fund history,
• setting a realistic goal,
• establishing a sufficient pool of qualified prospects,
• building strong staff support,
• creating gift acceptance policies,
• setting up a campaign organizational structure, and
• purchasing an adequate donor software system.

Strong infrastructure is a key prerequisite to a successful campaign. A good donor software program will enable you to assess the level of current support, identify major donors, and track campaign gifts and pledges accurately. In addition to software, other infrastructure requirements include gift acceptance policies and office procedures for handling donations. A planning study will help you identify your internal strengths and weaknesses and assess community support. Analysis of successful campaigns point to three additional ingredients as the most crucial:

• writing a compelling case for support,
• recruiting a committed board of directors, and
• developing strong volunteer leadership.

These three key ingredients should be in place before a decision is made to go forward with a capital campaign. Let's look at them one at a time.

Case for Support

To conduct a successful capital campaign, an organization must first have a clear, compelling case for support that inspires and motivate volunteers and donors. The case is often referred to as being “bigger than the organization.” It talks about the people who will be served, the importance of the project to the community, and the difference the donor can make in the lives of people by supporting the campaign.

Once the preliminary case is tested during a planning study, it should be reviewed again in light of input received by community leaders. If it is found that the case is not strong enough, the time may not be right for your organization to run a campaign, at least not for this project.

Board of Directors

Board commitment must be present before an organization proceeds with a campaign. Board commitment means that the board is committed to this campaign in every respect—emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially. The board should pass a resolution approving the campaign once the planning study report is received and discussed. At last five or six board members should be willing to serve on the campaign cabinet.

One hundred percent of the board must make a financial commitment before any other gifts are solicited for the campaign. It will be crucial to show other funders that the family of the organization has made its commitment first, and at the highest level possible for each board member. This is the time to ask board members to stretch their giving to a truly visionary level.

Volunteer Leadership

Good volunteer leadership can make or break a campaign. It is essential to select a campaign chair or chairs who can inspire others to become involved and to support the campaign—even if the selection process takes several months. A recruitment package should be prepared that includes the case for support, the campaign timeline, and position descriptions for each member of the campaign cabinet, along with an organizational chart.

The campaign chair should be someone who believes in your organization's mission and supports it wholeheartedly, ideally someone who has been involved with your organization, and someone who is known and respected in the community and has the ability to both give a leadership-level gift and to solicit leadership gifts from others.

Once the campaign chair is in place, others key positions on the cabinet should be filled. These volunteers will, in turn, recruit others to serve on the campaign as needed.

With effective volunteer leadership, full board commitment, and a compelling case for support, most campaigns will succeed.

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Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE, is president and CEO of Capital Venture, a full-service consulting company that specializes in capital campaigns, development audits and plans, and board development and training. Linda is the author of numerous books; her new book on capital campaigns will be released later this year. For more information on capital campaigns and other fundraising information, visit www.cvfundraising.com.