Posts by David Phillips
Capital Campaign Essentials: The Case Statement
There are four essential elements to every successful capital campaign. In our Capital Campaign Essentials series, we provide a quick overview of each of these four elements so that you can successfully grow your organization’s fundraising influence. This article focuses on defining a case and teaching you how to build a case statement. Check out…
Read MoreCapital Campaign Preparation
So you’ve decided to conduct a capital campaign on behalf of your organization. This campaign and its success will help determine its future effectiveness in providing services consistent with your organization’s mission and purpose. You’ve taken all the appropriate steps, including a comprehensive feasibility study to ensure that your base of support is ready, willing,…
Read MoreSuccessful Solicitation: Prepare and Follow-Up
In the fundraising profession, we are constantly learning from each other. In fact, sometimes we learn as much from projects that do not exceed our expectations as those that do. When meeting with clients and potential clients, I often point out that fundraising is not rocket science. Anyone can ask a prospect for money. What…
Read MorePareto’s Principle – The 80-20 Rule
Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist who, in 1906, observed that twenty percent of the Italian people owned eighty percent of their country’s accumulated wealth. Over time and through application in a variety of environments, this analytic has come to be called Pareto’s Principle, the 80-20 Rule, and the “Vital Few and Trivial Many…
Read MoreGuide to Creating a Major Donor Rating Chart, Part 2
Last month, we advocated in the Fundraising Free Press that organizations cull their databases and speak with board members about people who could be major donors. To get very practical, we offer in this article a sample spreadsheet with commentary to – hopefully – make clear how to do the science of rating and then how…
Read MoreUpgrade Your Capital Campaign Committee
In a well-organized capital campaign, it is the Campaign Executive Committee, or CEC, that understands and assumes responsibility for the success of the campaign. The members of the committee are often serious business professionals in their own right, but each campaign is typically a multi-million dollar project. Therefore, as fundraising counsel, we cannot assume that…
Read MoreThe Campaign Office – Nerve Center of Your Campaign
One of the very first activities of any capital campaign is setting up a central administrative and operations center for the campaign – the campaign office. While this may seem rudimentary, it has been my experience this is also one of the least understood aspects of setting up a capital campaign in most organizations. When…
Read MoreThe Campaign Cabinet Gets the Campaign Moving
Your nonprofit organization has decided to take the plunge and begin a capital campaign to raise $5 to $6 million. You have just retained Custom Development Solutions (CDS) to direct your Feasibility Study to help determine the timing and size of the campaign. Now you’ll begin to use the capital campaign plan which was the…
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