Welcome back to Ask a Responsive Fundraiser! Youโre in for a treat this weekโitโs our first-ever video edition of Ask a Responsive Fundraiser!
This week, Virtuous partner marketing manager Scott Holthaus sat down with Sterrin Bird, CFRE, Founder, Wingspan Philanthropy & Nonprofit Executive in Residence at Attain Partners, to answer your questions.
Check out the video for Sterrinโs insightful answers, or read below!
Be sure to check out past editions of Ask a Responsive Fundraiser and leave us a comment on LinkedIn so we can answer your questions!
Dear Responsive Fundraiser: We have a huge project that we’re starting a capital campaign for. We know there are a lot of steps to take, and it’s a bit overwhelming. Where should we start, and what are the best practices for a feasibility study?
โFocused on Feasibility
Dear Focused: This is a loaded question for a young woman like me who spent most of her career in Capital Campaigns and Study Land.
So, I will say this: Feasibility studies should be considered the first phase of your capital campaign. So often, we think of them as, โI’m going to study what I’m able to do, and then I’m going to make a decision about what I’m able to do, and then we’re going to move forward.โ
I would argue that a feasibility study often requires and entails engaging your biggest supporters to test the viability of a particular project. While that sounds, in practice, like a great idea, I also think the reality is that most organizations know they have to do something, whatever that something is, as it relates to a campaign. And it isnโt whether or not they’re going to do itโit’s how big or how to scope it. I tend to fall on the idea that a feasibility study is an excuse to begin the quiet phase of your campaign early on as fundraising professionals identify the projectโs needs.
Identify those 50 or 60 top-end donors. Talk to them about your case for support and ask them if they’d support it. Then, simply ask them at what level it falls on their philanthropic priority list. Start to build your own gift table and your own plan around that in a way that begins with relationship building.
I’m not trying to throw shade at my fundraising consultant friends out there because I think there are places and times where perhaps a portion of a feasibility study makes good sense. The way we used to think about it 30 years ago is very different than it is today. I would argue that you should always find every opportunity to interact with your people in a way that’s personal and understand what their interest is in your project, and just start campaigning.
Now that said, there was another question: Where do I start? I think what’s most important is to understand the sustainability factor for your organization. Let’s say you need an infusion of $10 million in capital. Ask yourself what your organization can sustain. What can you sustain right now in your annual giving and your regular order of business? Then, if you were to take a look at your overall file and you know you needed to grow it by a certain percentage, ask yourself if your file is ready for that. And now, take a moment to leverage tools like Virtuous or analytics tools.
Those tools will tell you what’s possible on the file, at least in black and white. Take that data and then begin the process of the human connection.
Itโs the human interaction that makes the biggest difference with a big campaign.
I just want to say one more thing. It’s really important, and again, I’m not throwing shade at my fundraising consulting friends because I was one for many, many years. You know, the tools that we have now can almost instantly automate the results of a feasibility study based on data and build the gift tables.
It can build the phases. It can tell you which prospects belong in which phase. But, it’s one-dimensional. And so, I would argue that the way of the future is to leverage the tools to create and for us fundraisers to get back in touch with the human part of major gift fundraising.
Dear Responsive Fundraiser: At what point would you bring in a campaign council? Uh, we’re growing rapidly, and it’s becoming apparent that our team is overwhelmed by the complexity of our fundraising campaigns. So would a campaign council be helpful for us?
โCouncil Conundrums
Dear Conundrums: The most important thing when choosing campaign counsel is someone who shares the energy of your team and your organization. And also someone or organization that you can be sure is not going to come at you with an old plan that they presented to another customer that they repurposed and say, โThis is actually what you should be doing.โ
And I say that again, not throwing shade, the truth of the matter is that there is wisdom in hiring campaign consultants. I used to joke when I was a campaign consultant that the meter that runs over my head enables me to behave with a certain sense of urgency that perhaps those that are in seat day in and day out can’t create that sense of urgency. I think you need to find people who share your energy and who are willing to really come to understand your organization and the nuances.
And also, it’s important to find a consultant. The old expression I use often is the best fundraising consultants and campaign directors out there are the ones that when they arrive, you’re a little nervous, and they’re pushing you a little bit out of your comfort zone when you’re in the middle of it. It kind of feels a little easy, and you’re kind of getting your sea legs. And when it’s over, you feel like you could have done it without them. And nobody remembers that they were there. So it’s about pulling in a player-coach and someone who rides alongside you and your team to augment your staff. But at the same time, you want that person teaching your team how to do this.
Because that’s the long-term sustainability, and how we really improve the industry is by making sure we’re teaching people how to fish, not just handing them the bucket of fish.
Dear Responsive Fundraiser: Our nonprofit has organizational goals and objectives, but we’re finding that we don’t have clear definitions of how to achieve them. What steps should we take to create a cohesive strategic plan?
โStrategic Planning Problems
Dear Problems: It comes down to finding someone who isn’t in your echo chamber to help partner with you to really crystallize your vision. Then ultimately to help you understand what are the things you’re choosing to do. There’s an old expression called โmust, should, would.โ What must my organization do to succeed and stay sustainable, sustainable. What should we be doing? What would we do if money were no object? Then radically prioritize those initiatives within that work and back yourself into that with metrics. Be certain that you actually have the resources and the staff to pull off the priorities that you’re really trying to do.
Remember, you don’t have to do it all at once. Give yourself a little bit of freedom within a framework, but finding a partner that has visibility into how others have done this well and successfully that really adheres to and admires and hold space for you in the individuality and the uniqueness of your organization to determine what to do in what order, how to measure it and when to cut bait.
That’s probably one of the most important things ever is to decideโwhy are you doing this? Let’s just stop what we should be doing and move on because we don’t afford ourselves that fail forward, fail fast mindset in the nonprofit sector because so often we’re dealing with human lives.
Sterrinโs answers have been lightly edited answers for readability and clarity.
