Campaign Planning
A successful fundraising campaign begins with planning. If you haven’t planned well, your campaign is guaranteed to fail.
Articles about Campaign Planning
Accountability & Job Performance for Nonprofit Fundraisers
How and what development professionals are held accountable for are two of the most important questions nonprofit organizations and their fundraisers face. Accountability is a necessary tool for managing staff and fundraising efforts, but it is only as good as the...
Accept Fundraising Feasibility Study Results No Matter How Painful
As I was in the midst of writing this article, my wife entered the room modeling a dress she thought would be perfect for an upcoming special event. She asked my opinion. I looked her up and down, examined the garment, and then suggested that it might be a bit too...
How Long Should Donors Have to Fulfill Fundraising Pledges?
In my hands is a slick, well done brochure for a capital campaign. The nonprofit organization that has produced it wants to build a new $6.5 million facility. Dates are given for ground breaking, commencement of construction, building completion, and dedication of the...
Challenge/Matching Gift Programs for Your Fund-Raising Campaigns
Challenge Grants Can Multiply Your Success Challenge grants are indeed challenging to fulfill, and once secured, they are unusually rewarding opportunities for non-profit organizations to greatly energize and enhance their fund-raising campaigns. They can...
A Campaign Deferred Is a Campaign Defeated
Disasters and crises can occur anywhere, at any time. Hopefully they won't have the impact of mega-disasters such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks or of 2005's hurricane Katrina. However, even disasters of considerably less magnitude can impede the...
Major Gifts Campaign Checklist
A successful Major Gifts fund-raising campaign is not magic. It is a straightforward, concise process of executing well-defined components arranged in a step-by-step progression. I know this to be so because I have seen it done over and over again—starting at A and...
In Search of the Elusive Major Giver
What a Major Giver is How to find them What you need to have in place before conducting a Major Gifts Campaign Your organization needs money. Big money. The kind of money you can't raise by going out and asking for donations of $10, $20, $100, or perhaps even $1,000....
Consulting Agreement for an Annual Fund Campaign
The following example of an annual fund development agreement between a non-profit organization and a fund-raising consultant is suggested as a guideline for: Organizations having little or no experience in drafting such documents. Experienced development...
Campaign Feasibility Studies: Taking the Time to Find Out whether the Time Is Right
A campaign feasibility study is a tool a non-profit uses to determine whether it should go ahead with a capital or endowment fund-raising campaign. It is essential for an organization to assess the likelihood of success for a campaign before entering into it. A...
Campaign Solicitation Kits
"For Want Of A Kit A Campaign Was Lost?" A little neglect may breed mischief: "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the rider was lost; for want of a rider, the battle was lost." B. Franklin: Poor...
Campaign Assessment and Review: What Was Accomplished and What Was Learned
It's over. The campaign is finished. The thank-you's have been said and the money counted. However, before closing the book on a campaign for good, you should take one last look at it. The days immediately following a campaign are the time to analyze what went wrong...
Fitting Annual, Endowment, Capital, Sponsorship & Underwriting Campaigns into Your Organization’s Plans and then Making Them “Sing”
Remember those great old movies with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland? The ones in which the "kids" had a money-raising dilemma that perplexed and perplexed them. All of a sudden Mickey would light up with youthful exuberance and optimism. He'd turn to Judy, and say, "I...
Rating and Evaluating Prospects: Whom Do You Ask For How Much?
No one would argue the fact that every fund-raising campaign needs a goal and that everyone connected with the campaign, including prospective donors, needs to be aware of that goal. Then why do people so often fight the setting of a goal for each prospective donor...