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Capital Campaigns: Everything You Need to Know

by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE

Are You Ready for a Campaign?: Infrastructure
Part Two

Once the board has reached a consensus on the campaign and appointed a steering committee, the next step is to do an internal assessment of the organization’s readiness for a campaign. Often this is done through a formal development audit process. If time or circumstances do not permit a full-blown audit, the consultant chosen should perform an internal assessment as part of the planning study. In either case the consultant will be looking at various aspects of the organization’s infrastructure.

Infrastructure includes the staffing of the organization as well as the office systems and procedures including software, gift acceptance policies, and office procedures. Running a capital campaign will be challenging for the organization that does not have its internal house in order.

Staffing for a campaign is critical. No matter what the size of the organization and the development staff, consideration must be given to the amount of time the campaign will take from the staff. This is an especially sensitive area for organizations that do not have a formal development office at all. In many smaller organizations, the executive director wears the development hat along with all his or her other duties. The executive director of the organization, even where there is a development office, will most likely spend 40-50 percent of his or her time on the campaign once it gets up and running. If the executive director is not prepared to accept this role, the campaign will suffer from this lack of commitment. Leadership level donors will want to talk with the CEO of the organization before making a major commitment. Donor cultivation is another key role of the CEO, so there will be countless meetings, lunches, cocktail parties, and early morning breakfasts at which the CEO will play a leading role.

The development office will coordinate all these cultivation events, working closely with the campaign consultant. In addition the development office will be responsible for prospect research, organizing volunteers, assuring proper stewardship, etc. For many small organizations, the chief development function may revolve around special events, which are very time consuming for staff. If the organization is focused on special events that may be bringing in modest revenues, instead of channeling the required amount of time and energy into the capital campaign, the campaign will suffer.

In cases where there is no development office, often a campaign director will be hired or a staff person may be pulled from current duties to manage the campaign. A word of caution when this is the case—there must be someone who will be assigned full-time to campaign coordination; this is not a task that can be done in a staff member's “spare time.” Volunteers and donors need to know there is a person responsible for managing all the aspects of the campaign and someone they can go to with questions. Stewardship is a crucial part of all fundraising and is particularly important in a capital campaign.

One of the things that will make campaign management and stewardship flow more efficiently is a good campaign software package. The organization will need to access past giving history of donors and be able to use this donor history, combined with additional research, to qualify prospective donors and assign them to an appropriate solicitor. Donor history is an invaluable resource in the preparation for a capital campaign since, in most cases, the major gifts in a campaign will come from those who are already supporting the organization.

The organization preparing for a campaign will need to have specific fundraising software in place that allows for campaign coding structure, recording of multi-year pledges and generation of campaign reports. The coding of the software system is essential to be able to sort prospects by the division in which they will be contacted (i.e. Leadership Gifts, Major Gifts, etc.) and assign a solicitor to every prospect, so the campaign director can sort prospect names by solicitor in order to track the success of volunteer solicitors.

Another important function of the chosen software system will be to generate the campaign reports that will be needed for the board, the campaign cabinet and committees, and lending institutions. For example, the board will want to track pledges received and cash received against those pledges; the campaign cabinet and various committees will need to see overall campaign progress reports and reports within their division by solicitor. If interim financing is going to be sought to finance the construction costs while pledges are being paid, the lending institution will want to see a cash flow projection showing how many pledges are outstanding and when it is anticipated those pledges will be paid.

Sometimes organizations feel they can do all this by customizing a program like Access or Excel; however, it is often “penny-wise and pound-foolish” to resist purchasing a software designed especially for fundraising which will provide all the tools necessary to manage a campaign with little or no customization. And purchasing fundraising software provides the added benefits of having support from the software company, manuals explaining the various functions of the software, and a group of users who are operating the same system and can provide an additional means of support for staff. One thing that is important is that a designated database manager is in place who can devote the time to managing the campaign aspects of the development program, and that this person receives the training and support they need to assure accurate data entry and reporting.

In addition to staffing and software, internal policies and procedures are another essential ingredient that must be assessed. The organization should have gift acceptance policies in place, which will provide staff and volunteers with guidelines on what type of gifts will be accepted during the campaign, from whom gifts will be accepted, and how these gifts will be recognized and, in some cases, how they will be disposed of.

Internal procedures should also be in place for the accepting, recording, and acknowledgment of pledges gifts received. For instance, who opens mail, photocopies checks, makes the bank deposit, and signs the acknowledgement letters. These procedures should be in place for all fundraising but will be especially important in the campaign since this may be the first time the organization has accepted multi-year pledges in addition to one-time gifts.

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