Capital Campaign Series, Part 1: How a Capital Campaign Can Help Your Nonprofit Create a Bigger Impact
Nonprofit organizations exist to create impact. But impact, well, it can be pricey.
A capital campaign is one tool a nonprofit can use to elevate its bank account and, thereby, the impact it generates now and well into the future.
Maybe your organization needs a larger building to increase its capacity, wants to develop a new program to expand its services, or needs to pay off stubborn debt. Capital campaigns can infuse cash into an organization so it can stabilize, grow, and ultimately make a bigger impact.
Capital Campaigns Can Be Great. Like, Really Great.
There’s a long list of benefits that a well-executed capital campaign can generate. These include:
1. More Money in Your Coffers Than Ever Before
Money is a tool to create impact. The more money you raise, the greater you can fulfill the purpose of your organization. A successful capital campaign can grow your funds, as well as your ability to create impact exponentially. Expect a 3-5X increase in annual funds after your first capital campaign, and even more if you have a deep and wide pool of donors giving five, six, or seven-figure gifts.
2. A Deeper, Wider, and More Engaged Donor Base
If you don’t already have an all-important deep, wide donor pool, a capital campaign can help get you there. A campaign is likely to help capture new donors, inspire existing donors to give more generously, and recapture lapsed donors. Capital campaigns can also boost donor engagement, so the depth of your donor pool is more likely to grow exponentially over time.
3. Relief in Knowing Your Organization is Free of Debt – Perhaps for the First Time
Debt is a weight on the shoulders of a nonprofit, hindering its ability to reach goals and forward its mission. A capital campaign is one answer to debt retirement that can make a dramatic and near-immediate improvement in your organization’s financial status and security.
4. A Bigger Endowment for Greater Organizational Stability
Speaking of a boost in financial security, capital campaigns can also raise additional funds for an endowment. With it, you’re serving more than immediate financial needs – you’re providing multi-generational financial sustainability for your organization.
5. Greater Awareness of Your Organization and its Mission
To achieve success through a capital campaign, you and your team need to grab your megaphones and shout about the value you bring your community from the rooftops. Creating awareness and giving people a compelling reason to donate requires a targeted, grassroots PR and marketing campaign. The buzz you generate will help get eyes on your organization now and can also help build an audience you can stay in front of after your capital campaign is complete.
6. A Boost in Team Morale
There’s nothing quite like looking around the room after completing a successful campaign and seeing the impact you and your team created together. Conducting a campaign is a lot of work, and its success requires teamwork and the dedication of each member of the organization. But once it’s done, the feeling of accomplishment is thrilling.
You Get Out of a Capital Campaign What You Put In
It’s clear that capital campaigns can produce profound results. But before you run headfirst into one of your own, there are a few factors you’ll need to consider. The biggest consideration is whether your organization is actually ready for a campaign.
First, your team must be dedicated to the effort – and there’s a whole lot of effort required. There’s the extra workload that capital campaigns require during the campaign. And there’s also the up-front work that must be done before a successful campaign can begin.
Before you kick-off a capital campaign, make sure you have these bases covered:
A Solid Organizational Infrastructure
You’ll need an organized and professional process in place for accepting gifts before your campaign begins. This includes up-to-date donor software, written gift acceptance policies, established data-entry procedures, and the staff to support the entire effort.
Financial Stability
The purpose of a capital campaign is to raise money, but campaigns cost a lot of money, too. A campaign is unlikely to rescue a struggling organization that hasn’t been able to balance its budget for several years, has seen long-term deficits, or has had to lay off staff to stay afloat.
Board and Staff Leadership
A capital campaign is a time when the leaders of your organization need to step up. The community needs to see leaders who are strong and making intelligent financial decisions. After all, a donor wants to see evidence that their gifts will be used responsibly. Leaders should have influence and affluence and be decision-makers within their spheres of influence in order to, ultimately, drive capital into the organization.
A Strategic Plan
As you’ve likely heard me say before, a nonprofit organization needs a strategic plan in order to achieve its mission, especially when it comes to fundraising. A strategic plan must demonstrate how your organization will first realize and then achieve long and short-term goals.
Quality and Expansive Donor Base
The most important factor in a successful capital campaign is a donor list long enough to reach your campaign goal. Before beginning a campaign, you’ll need to build a robust prospective list of donors at all levels of the campaign gift pyramid.
Preparing for Your Capital Campaign
As you know now, a capital campaign can be truly transformational for a nonprofit – as long as that organization is thoroughly prepared for and committed to the process.
Next month, in part two of our Capital Campaign series, I’ll go deeper into how to prepare for a campaign, including a discussion of the oh-so-useful feasibility study.
Also, in April, I’m excited to announce Beam Consulting’s free webinar on Campaign Readiness. Join me on April 28 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST /9:00 am – 10:30 am PST, where we’ll discuss more of what it takes to prepare for a capital campaign, including the most important arrow in your quiver – the capital campaign prospective donor list.
Register for the free Campaign Readiness webinar on April 28, 2022.
I can’t wait to see you there!
Dani
About The Author
For the past 25 years, Dani has helped nonprofits at local, regional, and global levels find sustainable solutions to tricky growth and funding issues. She works with leaders and teams to optimize their approach to fundraising, strategic planning, marketing, and more! Dani is passionate about helping motivated people build vibrant and effective nonprofit organizations—so they can make a meaningful impact in the world!