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Capital Campaigns: Everything You Need to Know

by Linda Lysakowski, ACFRE

Are You Ready for a Campaign?: Board, Volunteers, and Donors
Part Three

We’ve talked about the infrastructure needed to run a capital campaign. Human resources are the next topic to address. Who needs to be involved in the campaign, other than staff? There are three areas to consider in this regard—the board’s commitment, volunteer leadership and a pool of donors for the campaign.

Board commitment is one of the key areas that need to be addressed before moving forward with a campaign. Has the board reached consensus that this campaign is needed and have they agreed on a preliminary goal for the campaign? Does the board understand its role in the campaign and that the role will include a financial commitment as well as working on the campaign? It is recommended that once the board has decided a campaign is in order that they pass a formal resolution at a board meeting to proceed with the planning for a campaign. It is wise, at this juncture in the planning process, that a consultant come in and talk to the board about its role in the campaign so board members understand what is involved in running a campaign before they pass a resolution to move forward. Once the planning study is begun, board input into the preliminary case for support will be needed. And, providing the study is positive and the campaign moves ahead, board members will need to understand that one hundred percent board giving to the campaign will be required before asking the public to support the campaign. At least three to five board members should also be committed to working on the campaign cabinet and recruiting others to become involved. All board members must be willing to support the campaign to the extent they can contribute both time and dollars. The presence of board members at key campaign events will be required in order to show their united support of this project.

It will be helpful, although not always necessary, that at least some board members have the ability to make a substantial leadership gift to the campaign. This will depend very much on the makeup of the board, which is why many organizations preparing for a campaign will start to beef up their boards in advance of the campaign. For grassroots organizations and those with community-based boards, the lack of cash and clout on the board can be compensated for with the right approach to recruiting key volunteer leadership.

Volunteer leadership is, in this author’s opinion, the single most important element of a successful campaign. The board and staff alone should not try to run a campaign without support of key community leaders. Before recruiting people to serve on the campaign cabinet, the steering committee should review a list of potential donors and try to get those with the greatest potential to give to also become involved in the campaign. A list of corporate and individual donors will be developed through the planning study process and this can serve as the basis for recruiting campaign leadership. It will be vital to include key community leaders in the planning study process. It is much easier to invite these leaders to serve in a campaign capacity if they’ve been included in the planning process.

Volunteer recruitment will need to be handled with extreme care. Often, organizations want to jump the gun and start recruiting campaign leadership before they have a clear idea of the expectations for these volunteers. It will be vital to have a campaign plan in place that includes, among other things, position descriptions for all volunteer roles and timelines for each committee. Trying to fit volunteers into roles after they are recruited is like hiring a staff person and then deciding what the organization wants the person to do. The volunteer recruitment process must be handled just as carefully as one would handle hiring a staff person, with due diligence and thoughtfulness of the best role for this volunteer. We will talk more about this in a future article on structuring the campaign.

Finally, there is one more group of people that need to be evaluated and included—donors! That sounds pretty basic, that we need donors before entering into a campaign. But surprisingly many organizations feel that the campaign will generate its own interest in the organization and that they will find a whole cadre of new donors. While it is true that often campaigns do help an organization uncover and involve new donors, the majority of donors to a campaign will come from those who are already aware of and support the organization. So a careful study should be done of the potential for major gifts among the organization's current donor pool. One good way to evaluate this is to look at the level of giving from past donors. Who is on the list of the top 10% of the organization’s donors? Who are the loyal donors who give year after year, even if not at a significant level? Here is where the donor software discussed earlier comes in. The organization that has a good software system with up-to-date information will more easily develop a list of potential donors than the one that needs to search through hard copy records or institutional memory. Although the planning study may uncover a whole new list of potential donors, the consultant will need a base of people to interview. So organizations should start preparing a list of potential donors as soon as they feel they are ready to start a planning study.

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