Greetings, Beth---We always look for the good in what at times is a failing, or failed, fund-raising campaign. You have raised 7% of your goal. That percentage of goal represents good money from good and caring people. Most of it came from board members who stepped up and gave. So, as we work to get the campaign back on track, or more likely we need to develop a radical new course, let’s not forget the good thus far and have those donors and volunteers think they have wasted their resources.Amazing, isn’t it? The generous and thoughtful responses you have received from several of the great folks on this Board?. However, they are the “good cops” in this particular case, but now I’m going to be the “bad cop.”
(1) Do not hire a consultant whom you expect will come in to pick up the pieces and do anything with them. There are far too many pieces missing in the first place. No capable and experienced fund-raising consultant can pull donor rabbits out the fund-raising hat when there seems to be no, or few, rabbits. Right now, it is apparent that you have nothing with which to work to raise the remaining 93% of the money. “Failure to lay any groundwork” seems to me a major failure to in advance assess the organization’s best chance for success. Before committing to the purchase of a capital asset, they did not know where the money would come from, nor were they able to anticipate the major gifts such campaigns must have to be successful.
--- 12 Things You Should Know About Setting A Capital Campaign Goal
http://www.raise-funds.com/998forum.html
(2) Having the organization’s leadership now looking for a grant writer, or a professional fund-raiser, suggests to me that the campaign be put on indefinite hold. They simply cannot expect even the best of grant writers to account for all, or most, of the money. There are exceptions, but foundations usually account for about ten to fifteen percent of the total raised for such campaigns. And hiring a professional fund-raiser, is simply hiring a paid solicitor. Who would give major gifts to an outside and unknown individual, one not close to the organization, who might not even care very much for the organization---knowing as well that most of any money raised in that way will most likely go into his or her pocket?
Both individuals in those positions will make fund-raising campaigns unworkable. They get worse when you get to the compensation issue. Having anyone work on a percentage of the funds raised will cause you nothing but even more trouble. If the Board were “burned” previously by a “professional,” they evidently have not learned their lesson.
I believe that the course you must take is to step back, bring the campaign to a halt, and conduct an internal assessment or a full-blown feasibility study. This might not be so hard and painful to do in the public’s eye regarding possible bad press for a failed (let’s call it restructured) campaign, as most of the money came from the Board.
--- Campaign Feasibility Studies: Taking The Time To Find Out Whether The Time Is Right
http://www.raise-funds.com/072302forum.html
Relative to the basic organizational structure needs urged on for you to meet before asking for money---as detailed by Beth, Carl, and Diane, I heartily concur, because my strong recommendation for you to conduct an assessment or a feasibility study is one which takes that process far deeper than at the time past when a feasibility study for a capital campaign was little more than a process of identifying where the money was---who had it and how much they might be willing to give. That is no longer true. In today’s donor-centric world, an organization needs to assess far more than who and how much. It needs to assess the:
1. Community’s perception of the importance of the need for which money is to be raised.
2. Feelings, both positive and negative, about the organization and its mission.
3. Size of the potential donor base and its ability to give.
4. Availability of strong campaign leadership and effective volunteers.
5. Internal resources available for the campaign and the preparedness of the organization to undertake it.
6. External factors that could influence the outcome of the campaign.
This is where a true, capable, and experienced fund-raising and organization-knowledgeable consultant comes in. Carl’s excellent layout of the consultant search, interview, and hire process should be for someone who can help conduct that assessment/study.
(3) A consulting fee proposed for the work to perform the study, must come from a realistic and fair assessment of the time and the effort a consultant would put into the job. I would not hold up the money from the 7% raised as the “carrot” because what really counts most is what is best done by the best professional---and payment and its source can come resulting from what work is needed and proposed, and not the other way around by citing how much of a consulting fee is available.
(4) If there is another, renewed, campaign, be sure that the timeline for beginning to end is no more that about sixteen or eighteen months. When your leadership set a three-year capital campaign timeline for the previous effort, that was a capital campaign set about eighteen months too long. Enthusiasm, drive, commitment, etc., simply do not have the staying power when a campaign runs that long.
--- Capital Campaigns: Building For Now
http://www.raise-funds.com/1099aforum.html
Beth---Tell ‘em. Before you excavate, you must evaluate!
Best fund-raising wishes,
Tony Poderis
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