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A Golf Tournament Alone is NOT Enough to Advance Your Mission

by Greg Ritter on July 4th, 2010
Posted in: Capital Campaign, Fundraising, Special Events - 1 Comment »

We are certainly well into the nonprofit special event season. Our incoming mail gets more colorful this time of year with all those four-color brochures enticing us to golf, fish, run, shoot clay pigeons, taste wine, drink scotch and eat chocolate, all in the name of our favorite nonprofit cause.

In my first few nonprofit benefit golf tournaments, I was amazed at the wad of big bills players would pull out for green fees, Mulligans, merchandise, the banquet, the silent auction. “We’ll make a bundle tonight,” I thought to myself, “and look at all those new faces.”

What I realize now is that big wad of bills was not the golfer’s own money, happily given in support of our nonprofit mission. In many cases it was their company’s or their employer’s money provided to the golfer for a day of fun and networking.

It was great to collect the money (“take the money and run, Greg!” I remember my old mentor saying). It was fun to strategize about how to increase the number of foursomes each year and increase the proceeds.

But when golf season was over and our nonprofit capital campaign began I found many of the golfers and sponsoring companies did not participate. “We support you through the golf tournament,” they would say.

Even the new faces I remembered from the course, who listened to our program at our banquet that night and saw our client stories posted at each tee, did not feel close enough to us to support the nonprofit capital campaign.

There is no substitute for good old-fashioned one-on-one cultivation of prospects, especially before a capital campaign. They need to see the mission in action, meet Board members, and maybe serve on a committee to feel part of things.

Then let the special event be a celebration of progress. It is also a great cultivation of the volunteers who worked on the event, and a great first introduction of friends who are new to the mission. But keep cultivating, especially when there is a capital campaign in the future. In the meantime, take the money and run!

Does Your Nonprofit Have a Donor Communications Calendar?

by Greg Ritter on July 1st, 2010
Tags: , , - Posted in: Communications, Fundraising - 2 Comments »

A successful communications plan should include a year-long calendar to easily track when different messages need to be delivered and how to deliver them. For nonprofits it is essential to have a structured communications calendar to ensure you are reaching your donors on a regular basis.

I was thrilled to see nonprofit consultant Lori Jacobwith (@LJacobwith) sharing a sample communications calendar (it’s an Excel document that can be used as a template) in her recent post: Keep Track of Donor Communications With this Awesome Tool! Lori also shares some great tips for connecting with donors in this article. I highly recommend you read the post and download this tool to use with your communications planning.

Thank you Lori for sharing this amazing tool!

Making a List, Checking it Twice…Capital Campaign Readiness Checklist

by Greg Ritter on June 30th, 2010
Tags: , , - Posted in: Capital Campaign, Fundraising - No Comments »

The following checklist provides nonprofits with one test to help them assess their readiness to launch a capital campaign:

1.    Compelling statement of the capital need(s).
2.    Engaging case for support.
3.    Strategic plan.
4.    Audited financial statements.
5.    History of balanced budgets.
6.    Enthusiastic Board Chair and Board Members.
7.    Executive in place for at least three years.
8.    Strong volunteer leadership.
9.    Trusted campaign counsel to provide guidance (if goal exceeds $500,000).
10.   Attractive and consistent look to publications and web presence.
11.   Community image that is strong and positive.
12.   Positive report from the feasibility study which should:

  • Test the plan and the feasibility of the financial goal
  • Highlight the areas of the case for support that need to be strengthened
  • Identify planning assumptions that need to be revised
  • Suggest strategies that will contribute to the campaign’s success

Positive responses to the items on this checklist give your organization an excellent chance of succeeding. I recommend you involve an experienced nonprofit consultant who specializes in capital campaigns as early in the process as you are able. An expert consultant will help guide the process saving you time, energy and money in the long run.

Is Your Nonprofit Ready for a Capital Campaign?

by Greg Ritter on June 28th, 2010
Posted in: Capital Campaign, Fundraising - No Comments »

The goal of any nonprofit capital campaign is to be successful in reaching the campaign goals. In order to be successful there are certain critical elements that must be addressed. Some of these elements an organization can assess for itself. Others come from the findings of a professionally-conducted feasibility study. Still others are best determined through targeted prospect research and interactive communication design. Through my years of experience one thing I have learned is that bringing in qualified nonprofit capital campaign consultants early in the process is the best way to save time, energy and money. A good nonprofit consultant will help guide you through these critical elements and lead your nonprofit to reach the capital campaign goals and find success.

Worried about expense?

Remember that the first couple of gifts in a well-executed campaign will more than cover the cost of careful campaign preparation.

How much should we expect to pay?

Hourly rates will vary from one consultant to another. You have to ask. The total amount for professional counsel for an entire campaign will probably average in the range of 7-10% of the campaign goal. This amount should be included in the campaign budget along with architects’ fees, permits, expense for contractors, etc.

When is it worth it for us to pay?

I have asterisked (*) the items below where I believe it is most important to pay for special expertise.

  1. Does the organization have a master plan for growth?
  2. Do you have detailed, accurate estimates of cost for each stage of growth?
  3. Has your annual income grown to a point of including sufficiently large numbers of big-gift prospects and can you identify others who are capable of and may be interested in giving substantial amounts?
  4. Is there whole-hearted agreement among the Board members and staff concerning the importance of your expansion plans?
  5. Are the Board members and staff determined and committed to the success of the project?
  6. Is your organization well regarded and highly respected in the community?*
  7. Is your website and social networking presence up to date?*
  8. Is there a valid and urgent need for the funds to be sought? Can this need be dramatized easily and effectively for emotional appeal?*
  9. Is top-level leadership available for the campaign – leaders who are interested in and committed to success?*
  10. Is it possible for the largest gift to represent 10-15% of the campaign goal, and can it be secured prior to formally launching the campaign? And… can one-half of the campaign goal be secured from 10-15 donors. And…can 65-75% of the goal be secured from approximately 100 donors?*
  11. Can a sufficient corps of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers be recruited to work on the campaign?*
  12. When you succeed in this campaign, are there resources available to provide the annual operating support for the projects funded through the capital campaign?

Although there is no guarantee of success, these seem to be the areas that are best to address before further campaign activities begin. How does your organization stack up?

BRINGING A GOOD IDEA TO MAJOR GIFT PROSPECTS

by Greg Ritter on June 24th, 2010
Tags: , , - Posted in: Fundraising - No Comments »

To take a major step forward, a nonprofit organization needs to become successful at bringing their best ideas before potential donors for consideration and funding.

I have worked with nonprofits who believe in their mission so sincerely, they can’t imagine that a donor would not join in support, just hearing about the program. But major donor prospects are bombarded with many such program descriptions every week, and don’t have the funds to support them all.

How do you make the case for your nonprofit program or project stand out so it gets the consideration it deserves? It is worth it to bring in professional expertise to help create this case for giving? It will be useful all year long, but needs to be reviewed and updated each year as circumstances change in the organization and/or in its service community.

Does the case state the right set of needs in the vocabulary of a major donor?
Organizations make a common mistake by describing their own needs instead of the needs of those they serve. Another common mistake is to miss the all-important balance between statistics and emotional appeal.

Have you described your program in a nutshell that follows naturally the needs you just described?
Major donors are busy people and have a whole stack of program literature they try to plow through. Don’t make their job harder by going on and on about program details. It’s easy for us to miss the boat on this one, as we are so used to talking about our program.

Are you able to describe to the prospect why it makes the most sense to fund your organization (rather than someone else) to meet these needs? Remember the stack of proposals in front of the donor. One or two of them might present a similar program idea to what you are presenting.

Are you able to describe the costs of the project, with just the right amount of detail for the donor to grasp quickly? Although some prospects like spreadsheets of figures, the case for support is not the place for this. In this document we want to establish an idea quickly and in a compelling way. Supporting detail belongs in an appendix.

Have you painted a verbal picture for the reader of what success will mean? Suppose all the needed funds are raised. Can you leave the donor with a mental picture of how life will be different, and for whom?

You can see that writing a compelling case for support is practically an art form. It uses words and paragraphs, but the writing is as tight as poetry. We’ll get once chance with this donor, better invest a little up front to make it shine.

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