Capital Campaigns: Everything You Need to Know (In the Trenches)

Capital Campaigns: Everything You NEED to Know is a practical, down-to-earth guide that will take the "pain" out of your capital campaign. Is your organization considering a capital, endowment, or other major fundraising campaign? Do you work for or serve on the board of a nonprofit that is thinking about or ready to launch a capital campaign? Many organizations launch campaigns that disrupt the annual giving program, drain the staff, and fail to reach their goals for a number of reasons:

• The staff is not prepared to focus energies on the campaign and still maintain ongoing fundraising programs.
• The board does not realize that a campaign will require their time, attention, and financial resources if it is to succeed.
• The executive director is not willing or able to commit sufficient time to the campaign.
• Donors have not been educated about the community need this campaign will address.
• The organization has not taken sufficient time to cultivate relationships with major donor prospects.
• The organization does not have the infrastructure in place to manage a campaign.
• The organization tries to run a campaign without involving key community volunteers.

Launching your campaign prematurely can be the kiss of death. So you need to read this book before you get too far down the road. In fact, you should pick up the companion workbook, Are You ready for a Capital Campaign: Assessing Your Nonprofit’s Ability to Run a Major Fundraising Campaign and complete the workbook before you decide to launch a campaign. In Capital Campaigns: Everything You NEED to Know you will learn how to position your organization’s campaign for success. After reading this book, you will understand what makes a case statement compelling, how to structure your campaign, how to budget for the campaign, and how to develop a realistic timeline. And you will be able to run a “painless” campaign.

Contents

Chapter One
What is a Capital Campaign?

Chapter Two
Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign—Infrastructure

Chapter Three
Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign—Who Else
Needs to be Involved Besides Staff?

Chapter Four
Developing Your Case for Support—Telling Your Story

Chapter Five
The Capital Campaign Planning Study—It’s Not Just
About the Money

Chapter Six
The Capital Campaign Plan and Budget

Chapter Seven
Recruiting and Organizing Campaign Volunteers

Chapter Eight
Identifying and Cultivating Donors

Chapter Nine
Making the Ask

Chapter Ten
Campaign Events and Public Relations

Chapter Eleven
Recognition and Stewardship

Chapter Twelve
Life after the Campaign

Appendixes include 26 forms, checklists, and samples.

About the In the Trenches Series

The In the Trenches series is published by CharityChannel Press, a project of the CharityChannel professional community. You'll know an In the Trenches book not just by its cover, but by the author's fun, upbeat writing style. But don't be fooled by its down-to-earth approach and ample use of sidebars. In the Trenches books are authoritative and cover what a beginner should know to get started and progress rapidly, and what a more experienced nonprofit-sector practitioner needs to move forward in the subject.