Frequently asked questions
Answers to what we hear most from boards, executive directors, and development staff considering or planning a capital campaign. Don't see your question? We would love to talk.
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About capital campaigns
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A capital campaign is a fundraising effort with a specific goal, a defined beginning and end, and something tangible to point to that exists as a result. It could be for bricks and mortar, a new program, a new endowment, or growing an existing endowment.
A capital campaign is also a transformational opportunity to grow your organization, not just through capital but often programmatically as well. Many organizations also use a campaign to address sustainability, including their endowment, funds, and investments. If you want to increase your impact, a seven- or eight-figure campaign is typically the way to do it.
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The case for support is the answer to the question a donor will always ask: what are you going to use my money for? It outlines the purpose of the campaign and makes the case for why a donor's investment matters. A campaign can have multiple case components, for example, bricks and mortar, a new program, and endowment growth can all exist within a single case for support.
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Working with us
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We see ourselves as a partner. We are with you from the earliest stages of prep work all the way through to the close of the campaign. Here is what that looks like in practice:
We conduct your feasibility study and test the market to determine whether you are ready for a capital campaign.
We create all of your campaign materials and deliverables, including your case for support, campaign plan, gift policies, pledge forms, and gift acceptance policies.
We help you build and manage your campaign committee, including job descriptions, talking points, and recruitment support.
We facilitate every committee meeting, preparing the agenda and all materials in advance and leading the meeting alongside you if you choose.
We meet with you every single week to review your prospect pipeline, identify who is ready for a gift request, and determine next steps.
We manage your prospect list and track all moves management, using it to inform strategy.
We prepare personalized materials for each donor conversation, including a tailored version of the case for support and talking points.
We provide suggested gift request amounts and help you justify why that amount is appropriate for each prospect.
We draft tailored gift request materials for six-figure asks, which can include a custom slide deck.
We provide feedback and next steps based on every donor conversation you have.
We monitor your progress toward interim financial benchmarks and adjust strategy if needed.
We help you craft a campaign budget and provide guidance on how to allocate funds.
We are there every step of the way to help you navigate tricky situations with current and prospective donors, all of it tailored to that specific prospect and to your organization.
A capital campaign is also a transformational opportunity to grow your organization, not just through capital but often programmatically as well. Many organizations also use a campaign to address sustainability, including their endowment, funds, and investments. If you want to increase your impact, a seven- or eight-figure campaign is typically the way to do it.
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When you work with a large firm, you are often assigned a staff member who may or may not have deep expertise in capital campaigns. With us, you are working directly with the knowledgeable expert, someone whose primary area of expertise is capital campaigns.
At the same time, you have the depth of resources and a full team at your disposal, which means if one person is unavailable or a topic falls outside their expertise, another team member steps in. You get all the advantages of a larger firm, including continuity and bench strength, while also getting the hands-on, intimate client relationship of a small shop.
You also have direct access to firm leadership. Every week, you are working with someone at the executive level. You are not handed off to a more junior consultant. You are in the hands of an actual leader and project manager for your campaign.
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The Feasibility Study
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A feasibility study is your test. We reach out to your constituents, volunteer leadership, most generous and committed donors, and prospective donors, including coveted foundations in your community, and we interview them to gauge their interest in and reaction to your campaign.
We test a preliminary case for support, which sets the stage for what you are trying to do and how you would use the funds. We ask a consistent series of questions in every interview, covering everything from whether the project is feasible to their personal interest in supporting it.
The feasibility study typically takes three to four months from start to finish. That includes developing the preliminary case for support, building the interview list, and conducting every interview ourselves. All interviews are done confidentially so that participants feel free to be candid.
At the end, you receive a comprehensive report of approximately 25 questions and 40-plus slides of detailed qualitative information that you simply cannot get any other way. That information goes to your board and forms the basis for setting a realistic, defensible campaign goal.
We test a preliminary case for support, which sets the stage for what you are trying to do and how you would use the funds. We ask a consistent series of questions in every interview, covering everything from whether the project is feasible to their personal interest in supporting it.
The feasibility study typically takes three to four months from start to finish. That includes developing the preliminary case for support, building the interview list, and conducting every interview ourselves. All interviews are done confidentially so that participants feel free to be candid.
At the end, you receive a comprehensive report of approximately 25 questions and 40-plus slides of detailed qualitative information that you simply cannot get any other way. That information goes to your board and forms the basis for setting a realistic, defensible campaign goal.
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We typically recommend a feasibility study when there are unanswered questions about how much you could realistically raise. If you know you want to purchase a building or grow a program but have no idea what your donors could support, it is better to start there than to work backward from what you need.
The goal needs to be realistic and achievable. If you announce a $10 million goal and only raise $5 million, everyone sees it as a failure. If we recommend a $5 million goal and you raise $5 million, everyone sees it as a success. You can always do a phase two or pursue alternative financing for the rest.
Every time we conduct a feasibility study and set a goal, and then go on to manage the campaign ourselves, we surpass that goal. The number is not pulled from nowhere. It is based on actual interviews and the projections participants provided themselves.
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A few things set our approach apart:
We ask directly how much each interviewee might be willing to consider giving, typically over a five-year period. This often surfaces positive surprises and, occasionally, important recalibrations about what a prospect is actually ready to contribute.
All interviews are conducted by us, confidentially and directly with the prospect. This allows funders to share information they might not say directly to the organization, including insider perspectives and concerns.
We sometimes uncover planned gifts, meaning a donor has already included your organization in their will, which the organization would not have learned any other way.
We identify who is most supportive from a volunteer perspective, so you know the best people to recruit for your campaign committee.
We often revisit the case for support based on what we learn. If a component of the case is testing poorly, we will come back to you and recommend tweaking it to better reflect what your top donors actually want to fund.
We also flag any pitfalls or concerns that surfaced during interviews so you can address them before the campaign launches.
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Campaign Phases
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We recommend being between 70 and 90 percent of your goal raised, ideally 80 percent or more, before going public. Going public means speaking to the press, announcing your goal to large groups, posting on social media or your website, and broadly inviting anyone and everyone to support the campaign.
During the quiet phase, you keep the overall goal out of public-facing channels. You may share it in small, private settings with invited supporters, but you do not put it on the internet. There are a few important reasons for this:
Campaigns succeed in the early stages because of a small group of your most dedicated supporters. The general public needs to see that the campaign is going to be successful. No one wants to give to something that looks like it might fall short.
During the quiet phase, you have much more flexibility to adjust the goal up or down, refine your case, and update your messaging.
It signals to your top prospects that you cannot move forward without them. The message, "we cannot do this without you," is authentic when you are genuinely waiting for their commitment before making any announcement.
Going public too soon can cost you major gifts. If a donor you planned to ask for $100,000 hears about the campaign through word of mouth or social media before you have had a private conversation with them, they may give $10,000 instead.
The quiet phase ensures you have had a private conversation with every significant prospective donor before you make any public announcement.
We test a preliminary case for support, which sets the stage for what you are trying to do and how you would use the funds. We ask a consistent series of questions in every interview, covering everything from whether the project is feasible to their personal interest in supporting it.
The feasibility study typically takes three to four months from start to finish. That includes developing the preliminary case for support, building the interview list, and conducting every interview ourselves. All interviews are done confidentially so that participants feel free to be candid.
At the end, you receive a comprehensive report of approximately 25 questions and 40-plus slides of detailed qualitative information that you simply cannot get any other way. That information goes to your board and forms the basis for setting a realistic, defensible campaign goal.
We test a preliminary case for support, which sets the stage for what you are trying to do and how you would use the funds. We ask a consistent series of questions in every interview, covering everything from whether the project is feasible to their personal interest in supporting it.
The feasibility study typically takes three to four months from start to finish. That includes developing the preliminary case for support, building the interview list, and conducting every interview ourselves. All interviews are done confidentially so that participants feel free to be candid.
At the end, you receive a comprehensive report of approximately 25 questions and 40-plus slides of detailed qualitative information that you simply cannot get any other way. That information goes to your board and forms the basis for setting a realistic, defensible campaign goal.
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A comprehensive campaign typically includes your annual fund in addition to the capital campaign goal. Your annual fund is what you need to raise every year to cover operating expenses. Some organizations choose to include everything they normally raise each year into their capital campaign. There is no right or wrong answer, it is a board-level decision.
The argument for including the annual fund is that it lets you approach a donor once for both gifts and count everything they give toward the comprehensive campaign total. It also helps avoid cannibalizing your annual fund during the capital campaign.
That said, it is more common to run a separate, discrete capital campaign counted independently from the annual fund. A capital campaign can still have multiple case components, which is the answer to the question: what are you going to use my money for? Case components can include endowment, programmatic support, and bricks and mortar, all within a single campaign.
Comprehensive campaigns, by definition, include your operating funds. You see this most often in universities, where institutions count every dollar that comes in the door between a start and end date. That is where you see those large eight-figure campaigns.
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