Campaign Feasibility and Planning Studies
Preparing for a Campaign Feasibility and Planning Study
Every year, more and more non-profit organizations are preparing to enter into capital campaigns to construct or update facilities, build endowments, supplement operations, and pursue other financial goals. The more successful of these organizations will hire consulting firms to conduct a campaign feasibility and planning study. Identifying the best consulting firm for your organization is…
Read MoreDream 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…
Read MoreFundraising Campaign Success: Making the Calls
Everyone starts their campaigns with high hopes for success; no one designs their campaign with failure in mind. So why do as many as 40% of capital campaigns fail? The number one reason why campaigns fail to reach their goals and their potential is that they simply did not make enough calls. They did not…
Read MoreFighting a Campaign Slowdown
As much as we plan, plan, plan, there inevitably comes a time in most capital campaigns when activity slows dramatically. This is known as a campaign slowdown. There are few things more frustrating in a capital campaign than losing valuable momentum. Capital Campaign Momentum Properly planned campaigns get off to a quick start because of…
Read MoreHow to Be an Agent of Change
I was surprised to see in recent weeks that a six-year-old book remains on the New York Times Best Seller List, recently at #3 among nonfiction paperbacks. The book is The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. It seems as though it has become its own best promoter, demonstrating what happens when…
Read MoreThe Forensics of Fundraising: Study, Research, and Analysis
My youngest daughter is a big fan of crime scene investigation shows. She tries to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed at the end of the show. While watching television with her one night, it occurred to me that fundraising was a lot like crime scene investigations, except, of course, for the corpses…
Read MoreFinancial Goal Setting for Your Campaign
When setting a financial goal for your organization’s campaign, you want to choose a minimum goal that is both challenging and attainable. Nothing is more discouraging than running a great campaign and coming up a few thousand dollars short of the minimum goal.
Read MoreFielding Solicitors for a Campaign Team
Introduction Just as sports teams are built around the players’ abilities and strengths, so too are campaign teams. And when a team needs a particular skill or asset, the coaches can either try to develop it among their current players or, more likely, recruit or draft for that ability. The four fundamentals of a campaign…
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