Four Key Success Steps for Your Nonprofit's Capital Campaigns

Capital campigns can be highly rewarding for nonprofits when done well. Check out these four success steps to get started in funding your next major project!

If your nonprofit is planning a large-scale project or starting a new initiative, you may want to consider launching a capital campaign to raise the necessary funds. The main differences between a capital campaign and a regular gift drive are that a capital campaign is a much larger effort—often lasting three years or more—and has a large-scale, specific fundraising goal, such as constructing a new building or adding a new program.

In order to increase your nonprofit’s likelihood of launching a successful capital campaign, it’s essential to follow these four steps:

1. Outline your capital campaign goal.
2. Conduct a feasibility study.
3. Research and build relationships with prospective donors.
4. Personalize all your gift requests.

If you run into problems or have questions about any of these steps, consider hiring a fundraising consultant to guide you through planning, launching, and troubleshooting your capital campaign.

1. Outline your capital campaign goal.

Before launching a capital campaign, you’ll need to be confident in your nonprofit fundraising strategy, as described by Recharity, and set a specific, attainable goal. To determine that goal, start by asking two questions:

• What do you want to accomplish?
• How much is it going to cost?

You’ll want to discuss these questions with your entire fundraising team and your organization’s financial department to make sure everyone is on the same page. Also, make sure your campaign fits into your nonprofit’s budget and overall goals. You may need to readjust your strategy over time, but starting with a projected budget and ensuring the project is a priority for your organization will allow you to move forward more easily.

2. Conduct a planning and feasibility study.

After you’ve nailed down your capital campaign’s goal, you’ll need to determine whether you’re prepared to launch one now by conducting a planning and feasibility study. Averill Fundraising Solutions outlines planning and feasibility studies in three phases:

• research your nonprofit’s fundraising history to see which efforts were successful and why, as well as areas for improvement;
• conduct interviews with stakeholders in your organization to gauge their opinions on your purpose and strategy; and,
• review the results of your research and interviews together to make your final decision about launching your campaign.

When your planning and feasibility study ends, you might find that your organization is ready to launch a capital campaign, or you may need more time to prepare. Either way, a planning and feasibility study will introduce the idea of your campaign to your internal community and increase their confidence in its success, meaning that you’ll likely already have some supporters when you launch.

3. Research and build relationships with prospective donors.

Once you’ve reached the point where you can launch your capital campaign according to your feasibility study results, you’re ready to start looking for donors.

Your feasibility study interviews may have introduced you to a few potential donors for your capital campaign. But prospect research will be key to your success in finding enough donors to fund your campaign. Having a range of options will increase your likelihood of bringing in enough gifts to reach your fundraising goal.

Before you ask someone for a major gift, you’ll need to determine if they’re a good prospect by researching these aspects:

• Giving capacity: An easy mistake to make when asking for a gift from a potential donor is requesting the wrong size gift. To figure out how much to ask for from each prospect, research wealth markers like their net worth and investments.
• General giving tendencies: Capacity alone isn’t enough to make someone a good prospect—they also have to want to give a large amount of money to your organization. Check if each prospect has a history of supporting nonprofits, especially other organizations with similar missions to yours.
• Affinity towards your organization: Past involvement with your nonprofit is a strong indicator that a prospect would want to support your capital campaign. But engaging with similar organizations or having connections to other donors in your database can also be donor affinity markers.

In addition to your nonprofit’s donor data collection, you can look into specialized prospect research technologies to help you identify the few major donors who will give 70-80% of your capital campaign funds during the first, quiet phase.

But in order to convince these major donors that your organization is worth giving to on your desired scale, you’ll need to build relationships with them. Major donors will want to give only if they feel valued by your nonprofit and want to add value to your cause in return.

First, get to know your potential donors as people—ask them about their lives, interests, and values. Suggest that they engage with your organization through events or volunteering, but wait to ask for a gift until you feel the time is right. And always remember to show your appreciation and gratitude.

4. Personalize all your gift requests.

After the quiet phase wraps up, you’ll move on to the second, public phase of the capital campaign to raise the remaining 20-30% of your funds through many smaller gifts. Having more supporters involved in your campaign will make personalized communication with each of them harder—but not impossible!

For example, you can collect information on your donors’ preferred communication methods and use it to update your messaging lists so each donor gets updates they’ll be receptive to. Or you could add donors’ names to mailing lists and gift confirmation messages to show that they matter to you as individuals.

A capital campaign is a major effort for any nonprofit. But following the four steps above will help you launch a campaign that runs as smoothly as possible and succeeds in reaching your goal.