Capital Campaign Stages and Stalls (Part 3)
Capital campaigns are the primary tool which a nonprofit uses to realize its vision for the future. Capital campaigns raise large sums of money in a relatively short period of time to grow and improve infrastructure to meet the needs of the nonprofit’s clients and community. There are many ways to prepare for and implement capital campaigns. This series of articles provides a simple overview of the stages a nonprofit will go through in their journey, along with the most common times the process can stall.
In the first article of the series, we explored Stages One and Two, the Needs Assessment and Feasibility Study. In the second article we dove into Stage Three, the Capital Campaign and its first two phases: Family Phase and Quiet Phase. In this final installment, we cover the Capital Campaign’s three concluding phases.
While we have the experience and insight to make an educated guess as to the path that a typical campaign will follow, please allow us this one disclaimer: The following information is an oversimplified outline of what a completely generic, fictitious yet totally realistic capital campaign will look like.
Leadership Phase
Now the hard work begins. Your nonprofit’s family has given, your true believers have given, and now you’re left with donors who do not know you very well or who are only willing or able to make smaller gifts. This phase focuses on two important processes: strength and conditioning.
Strength is a factor of your capital campaign committee’s horsepower; how many people can it reach? The committee started small in the Family Phase, but in each subsequent phase, it is essential to recruit additional members. Otherwise, you will begin making asks of people who have no personal tie to your organization. Remember, people give to people. Therefore, your campaign committee needs to continually grow, preferably with respected community leaders and philanthropists who will solicit their friends, family and peers.
Conditioning is a factor of your tenacity. The longer a campaign lasts, the harder and harder it becomes to make and close asks. A nonprofit’s conditioning, good or bad, is a function of its ability to communicate its vision in such a way that moves people to action. Yes, people will join your committee and make gift to your campaign based upon the needs and benefits of mission. The real power, however, rests with how much they share your vision for the future.
Leadership Phase Goal: The end is near…ing
A good capital campaign plan will have your reaching 70 percent or more of your goal by the end of this phase. This phase, particularly the beginning, is a good time to begin soliciting foundations and corporations. They will typically want to see strong community support prior to making a commitment, especially if they have never supported your nonprofit before. Foundation grants and corporate gifts can often provide a much-needed boost to campaigns that are experiencing a slowdown.
Leadership Phase Stall: Failure to recruit
The most common reason a capital campaign stalls at this point is because its committee members can no longer make strong one-on-one asks. We can illustrate this by altering the saying, “people give to people” to “people give to people… they know.” Avoid this by never stopping the recruiting process, and never forgetting the recruiting process: only recruit strong community leaders and philanthropists on to your campaign committee after he or she has made a personally significant gift to the campaign.
Close-out Phase
If you think the hardest part of fundraising is asking people for money, you’re not alone. But you’re mistaken. The hardest part is closing. We don’t always implement this phase, but it’s nice to have around when nonprofits cannot get people who have been solicited to return their pledge forms. There can be several reasons for this: poor follow-up by the nonprofit; no sense of urgency established by the nonprofit; waning interest and/or procrastination by the donor prospect. The Close-out Phase is designed to give clients extra tools to close. These tools can be reassignment of the prospect to another campaign volunteer, letters of appeal, matching or challenge gifts, or a simple dose of courage to not give up!
Close-out Phase Goal: Don’t take it personal
This is a huge obstacle to closing, the feeling that a prospect is sick and tired of hearing from you. But the truth is this: the prospect took the time to sit with you and learn about your campaign; therefore, he or she is not ignoring out of spite. You asked an important question and you deserve an answer. Keep this in mind and closing gifts will become easier.
Close-out Phase Stall: Too slow
We all have limited attention spans, which includes philanthropists. Successful fundraisers focus on four elements of professional capital campaign solicitations:
a. message (case for support)
b. desire (a pledge)
c. expectation (yes or no)
d. deadline (decision-by date)
They do this so they can move effectively and efficiently through the campaign. Successful fundraisers know that they can maintain the attention of a prospective campaign donor for only a few months after the ask, so they set a definitive deadline and follow-up. This is hard but essential to not stalling after the ask.
Public Phase
This is when you round-up all the prospects who have not been solicited or have not made a pledge, along will everyone else in your database or service area, and invite them to support your campaign. To this point, the only way a person has been able to pledge to the campaign is by sitting down with a committee member for a one-on-one ask. Now you allow prospective donors to pledge however they like: by mail, online or over the phone.
Public Phase Goal: Top-out the campaign
Don’t start this phase too early. It is designed to bring in small gifts from new and low-wealth donors. The general rule regarding a Public Phase is to not enter into one until you are certain the campaign is going to succeed. We can determine this by comparing our funds gifted or pledged to our campaign total. For example, if your campaign goal is $5 million and your have $2 million in the bank and another $2 million in future pledges, it’s probably too soon to start the Public Phase. Why? Because the likelihood of raising another $1 million during this phase is slim. Wait until you have less than $200,000 to raise. The exception is if your campaign has nearly $1 million in pending gifts that you feel 100% certain will close.
Public Phase Stall: Exhaustion
Almost all development professionals wear a lot of hats, and more times than not, they wear too many hats; they are trying to manage too many donors and/or programs to be fully effective. Capital campaigns pile even more hats on to the development staff, and after a few years of working on a campaign, they want it to be over. The development staff’s exhaustion is real, but that it is not sufficient reason to ignore the Public Phase. Staff have spent years educating and cultivating a campaign donor pool. Many people in that pool want to give but have not been given the opportunity. Give them the chance – go public by allowing people to give online or through the mail! The outcome will be more first-time donors who will make your nonprofit’s future fundraising more successful.
Advance Stages; Avoid Stalls
By advancing through these capital campaign stages and avoiding the stalls, nonprofits can raise the funds they need to grow and improve infrastructure to meet the needs of their clients and community. They realize their visions for the future.
Capital Campaign Stages and Stalls
Part 1: Stages One and Two — Needs Assessment and Feasibility Study
Part 2: Stage Three — Family Phase and Quiet Phase
Part 3: Stage Three — Leadership Phase, Close-Out Phase and Public Phase
Is your nonprofit looking towards the future? Browse through our free capital campaign resources or contact us for more information.
Kevin Wallace is president of CampaignCounsel.org, specializing in capital campaign planning and management. Reach him by email or visit www.campaigncounsel.org.
