Is Your Campaign Feasible?

Is Your Campaign Feasible?

Dec. 20, 2005

By Abny Santicola

A feasibility study is the nonprofit version of market research and an important component of a capital campaign, says Susan Galler, president and founder of Newton, Mass.-based full-service executive search and institutional development consulting firm The Galler Group.

The feasibility study helps a nonprofit organization determine whether its case for support for a capital campaign is compelling --whether potential donors have confidence in the management team and board leadership of an organization; if the case is strong enough to secure significant gifts; and whether the vision is enticing enough to get volunteers to step up and lead the campaign.

Galler says a feasibility study also can help an organization do the following:

• Identify new leadership. It might tell an organization "that the community looks at the board and thinks it's a board that is past its heyday," Galler adds.
• Address problems such as the quality or reliability of an organization's financial statements.
• Determine whether the recognition vehicles created for the campaign will interest people.

"It's a whole way of looking outside instead of inside," Galler says. "So it allows you to take that information and use it to reposition yourself."

Organizations considering hiring a consultancy to do a feasibility study should put together historical fundraising information "so that they can think through where their strengths and weaknesses have been over time," Galler says.

"But most important is to come up with the components of the case and some ideas about who could be potential campaign leaders and a real recognition as to whether the staff and the board are prepared to put in the time that it takes to do a capital campaign," she adds. "It's an incredible investment of time."

Susan Galler can be reached by visiting http://www.gallergroup.com