The feasibility study of a capital campaign is essential for testing and refining your plans, but its ultimate usefulness hinges on who you choose to involve.
We’d all agree that having a plan is essential before embarking on a big, new project. But in many cases, it’s not enough to simply have a plan—you need a plan that makes sense and will actually work.
For nonprofits, big, new projects are typically funded by major fundraising campaigns, especially capital campaigns, which are conducted once every ten to 15 years to propel the organization to its next level of growth and impact. These require significant investments of time and resources, so you have to be confident in your plans.
This is why nonprofits conduct feasibility studies before major campaigns. They’re a critical first step that will set up your campaign for success, but only if they accomplish their objectives and include the right stakeholders.
What Is a Feasibility Study?
A feasibility study is a series of interviews with a select group of a nonprofit’s stakeholders intended to test its preliminary campaign plans. It seeks to answer two key questions:
- Are our campaign’s objectives and case for support motivating for potential donors and funders?
- Is our working goal feasible, i.e. in line with what we can currently expect from our top supporters and what they find to be possible?
The findings from the study’s interviews are then analyzed and condensed into actionable recommendations for the campaign—adjust the goal up or down, hold off on the campaign for now, or proceed full steam ahead.
Modern Approaches to Feasibility Studies
Traditionally, nonprofits hire third-party consultants to conduct their feasibility studies. The interviews occur behind closed doors, and the consultant returns with an analysis and set of recommendations.
This approach is limiting in a few ways: It can be expensive, especially for small nonprofits conducting their first campaigns; it can limit the amount of direct insight you receive into participants’ responses; and it doesn’t allow you to reap an important potential benefit of feasibility studies—personally introducing the campaign and working to secure the early buy-in of the people who will help drive it to success.
Guided feasibility studies are a modern, more flexible approach. Your nonprofit’s leaders receive coaching, conduct the stakeholder interviews themselves, and then work with an expert to translate the findings into concrete recommendations. This method can be much more cost-effective and transparent. Importantly, it also allows you to kickstart the process of getting stakeholders excited for your campaign and its potential.
7 Essential Stakeholders to Involve
So who are the key stakeholders that should be interviewed during a campaign feasibility study? There are seven categories of individuals to consider:
- Prospective lead donors. These are the supporters who have made the largest gifts to your nonprofit in recent years. Conduct a wealth screening and review your records to identify those who have the greatest capacity and inclination to support your new campaign.
- Committed donors. These are donors whose support you can count on year after year. Even if they’ve given relatively modestly, they may be able and willing to give larger gifts if you take the time to learn more about them and involve them in the campaign.
- Foundation representatives. Funders that have previously awarded you grants or that operate locally are definitely viable campaign contributors. Plus, they bring the added bonus of being well-connected and plugged into the philanthropic community.
- Business leaders. Corporate sponsorships and donations often play pivotal roles in capital campaigns, so invite leaders from large, local businesses who have either supported you in the past or whose support you’d like to secure.
- Board members. A selection of your organization’s own current and past board members should be involved for a few reasons—they’re usually the first to make gifts to a campaign, and they have the perspective and familiarity with your operations to share particularly relevant insights.
- Founders. If your organization’s founders are still active in the community, use your campaign to re-engage them in a meaningful way.
- Other local leaders. Local politicians and other prominent figures can also offer helpful perspectives while introducing you to more movers and shakers or perhaps giving campaign gifts themselves.
When you test your campaign’s plans, goals, and case for support with a group of diverse perspectives, you reap a few benefits. Not only do you receive their valuable input to shape a more successful campaign, but you also lay the groundwork to solicit gifts later, apply for grants, arrange sponsorships, or set up special fundraising challenges. You can get your campaign on the community’s radar, ask for introductions, and invite all kinds of new partnerships.
Key takeaway: Choosing the right group of stakeholders for a feasibility study does more than ensure you’ll receive helpful input—it also lays the foundation for a more effective and impactful campaign.
How to Prioritize Your Potential Participants
If you sit down to make a list of these people, you might end up with a much larger number than would be possible or even helpful to include in a feasibility study.
You’ll need to prioritize your participants. Loosely order them according to who’s likely to have the greatest impact on the campaign—excited participants above skeptical ones, prospects with a high capacity to give above those with lower capacity.
Of course, every donor will matter for your campaign once it's underway. But remember that right now you’re testing how likely you are to raise enough money to achieve your campaign’s working goal, and this success hinges on donor buy-in. The input of those who are thrilled by what the campaign means and have the potential to help you get there should be weighted more heavily.
For your funders and sponsors, take a similar approach based on their likelihood to support you. This is best indicated by whether they’ve supported you with grants or sponsorships in the past. Weigh the input of past funders more heavily than those that haven’t yet awarded you a grant since your chances of securing more support from the first foundation are generally much higher.
Striking the Right Balance
However, as you sort and prioritize your list of participants based on their potential impact and likelihood to support the campaign, remember that there’s a careful balance to strike.
You don’t have to prioritize only those whose support you’re already confident in. You should also use your feasibility study as a way to begin actively securing buy-in from others. Broaden your scope to include a handful of participants whose support you’d like to secure.
This can include prospective donors and funders but look internally, too. For example, perhaps you have a board member with a reputation for shooting down new or risky ideas and who’ll put a serious drag on the campaign if they’re not aligned on its purpose and potential impact. Take the opportunity to get that board member involved and personally lay out the campaign’s vision.
Key Questions to Ask
Here are a few questions to ask that will help ensure you make the most of this stage of the campaign as you compile your list of participants:
- Of the high-impact stakeholders we’ve identified, whose support can we reasonably count on?
- Whose input and buy-in do we need even if they ultimately don’t make a lead gift?
- Who could have a big impact on the campaign but hasn’t yet been so closely involved with our organization?
- Whose involvement will attract the generosity of others and/or increase the visibility of the campaign in the community?
Answering these questions will help you strike the right balance and hit several targets at once—testing your campaign goal and case for support, securing early buy-in from stakeholders, laying the groundwork for appeals, and boosting your campaign’s profile.
Key takeaway: The feasibility study serves the essential function of helping you refine your plans and manage risk, but it’s also an exciting opportunity to begin shaping the spirit of your campaign. Take steps to accomplish both and you’ll be set up for success.