Campaign Support From Within
Campaign Support From Within
Dec. 20, 2005
By Abny Santicola
Leadership and support from volunteers and board members is critical to a capital campaign's success.
"Leadership, both in terms of CEO, senior staff leadership and volunteer leadership. If you don't have that, the likelihood of success is greatly reduced," says Larry Raff, vice president with Danvers, Mass.-based philanthropic planning and executive search firm Copley Harris Co.
Assemble volunteer leaders (such as board members) and identify the top 100 to 150 people or institutions that are going to provide the money for the campaign, Raff says. Figure out who has the best relationships with these elite givers and then come up with "engagement strategies."
"You go through each person, you do background research to get a sense of their financial capability and you measure, if you will, how much affinity they currently have and need to have to maximize their gift. Then you embark on that engagement strategy with volunteers and staff," he explains.
If your organization has done board development correctly, your board members should be people who have wealth or access to wealth and should be the first to give stretch gifts, Raff says. A cultivated board should understand the need for their leadership and the implication of a gift, and as a group should meet 25 percent to 30 percent of the goal.
Other key components to a capital campaign include:
- a clear mission that can be easily understood and elicits emotion from potential donors.
- a broad and deep pool of donors.
- an understanding of where the money's coming from before embarking on the campaign.
Larry Raff can be reached by visiting http://www.copleyharris.com
- People:
- Larry Raff
- Places:
- Danvers, Mass.
