Dream Big with Your Capital Campaign
Our Custom Development Solutions (CDS) staff are constantly talking with many nonprofit organizations across the US and Canada. We provide our clients with feedback on how they can best conduct their fundraising and capital campaign operations. That professional objectivity is a luxury for us and a resource for our partner organizations.
Why Should You Dream Big?
One of the most difficult tasks we have is to encourage nonprofit organizations to dream big. Charities often prefer to think very conservatively, and rightly so. Nonprofit groups have very little margin for error, and therefore decide to avoid risk of any kind. They are dependent upon individual donors whose charitable decisions have a very direct impact on the charity’s ability to function. When charities take risks, they wager their ability to serve a population dependent upon them, often for the bare necessities of life.
Nonetheless, nonprofit organizations are often the groups making the most innovative strides against the issues prevalent in our society. Charities often employ highly skilled staff members who bring to their work a level of passion that is missing among many for-profit companies. They attract volunteers who use their own passion to amplify the efforts of the professional staff. A committed donor base can empower the charity financially to reach as far as possible.
These are the very resources to which we direct a charity’s attention when we begin talking to them about a major capital campaign. So often we hear the leadership of a charity talking about a tremendous amount of need for their services, but the fundraising effort they are considering only addresses half that need. When we probe to learn what is keeping them from going for the brass ring, we often find a conservative philosophy that prevents them from seeking much beyond their immediate grasp. With a little coaxing, and an objective analysis of the resources lying dormant within their base of supporters, we are often able to raise their sights to a much higher level, one commensurate with the full scope of their mission.
Set Your Sights High…
What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? It is a tremendously liberating thought, setting the mind free to wander down paths that might previously have been off limits or restricted. This is the basis from which a nonprofit should conduct its brainstorming sessions. Have them fantasize about how they might best serve their constituencies if there were no limitations on their resources.
It seems that we rarely hear such daring in the proclamations of any organization, much less nonprofit groups. We are conditioned to under-promise and over-deliver, and there is no crime in that approach. But there is a certain magic in starting off from a bold declaration of your intentions.
Decades ago, Rotary International declared that it would eradicate polio on Earth. They asserted that polio could simply be made to go away. Is it a coincidence that a dream of that magnitude and grandeur attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable support? Despite the passage of years, and the stubborn refusal of wild polio, Rotary continues to raise tremendous sums of money to achieve this dream.
Beginning the capital campaign plan and fundraising process with a “no limits” approach can yield tremendous success. The organization must then temper those visions with a detailed analysis of what is feasible, given their current base of support and infrastructure. We talk with organizations all the time that err on one side or the other of this critical balance. Many groups are content to maintain the status quo. Many other organizations have tremendous dreams, but no basis in reality for suspecting they have the slightest chance of achieving those visions.
…But Stay Balanced
The well-organized and well-led groups walk a fine line between those two realities. They encourage themselves to dream big, and then achieve the fullest measure of their dreams based on their objective capability. These groups execute well-managed fundraising campaigns, which have at their core a case statement that communicates a profound opportunity to make a difference. They attract the strongest possible leaders because they present bold solutions to challenging problems. And finally, they secure tremendous financial support. Donors want the biggest bang for their buck and want to make a real difference.
It is important to begin a major fundraising campaign from a thorough feasibility and planning study. Don’t let that dull your grand dreams about the difference your organization can make in the world. Have faith in yourself and your mission. Know that you have the power to succeed and attack your organization’s dreams with abandon. Go for it!
CDS has been a leader in nonprofit fundraising for the past three decades. Contact us if you need more intensive help with your major gift fundraising, strategic planning, or in preparing for a capital campaign.