It’s practically a cliché at this point, but it still rings true: if you work at a nonprofit organization, you’re either in a campaign, or planning for your next one. And honestly, there are multiple reasons why nonprofit organizations love fundraising campaigns!
Research from GG&A illustrates that, for higher education organizations, campaign fundraising years can sometimes more than double the rate of fundraising growth from non-campaign years. The research also suggests that the effects linger—as many organizations stretch their donors and ask for additional gifts often establishing a new baseline of fundraising that continues to propel the organization and its mission fulfillment to even higher levels of success.
We’re often asked how donor relations can prepare for their role in the campaign. With increased gift activity comes an increased workload in nearly every aspect of our donor relations programs. Campaigns ask a lot of our donors and perhaps even more of the staff required to execute the increased donor programming.
So, if you’re in the theoretical half of organizations planning for their next campaign, take a look at these four key campaign planning tips. We hope you’ll breathe easier knowing where to focus your efforts in this critical planning period!
1. Evaluate past campaigns
If you’ve been through a campaign at your current organization before, take some time to reflect on big questions such as:
What worked well?
What didn’t work so well?
Were we staffed for success?
Did we have a sufficient budget?
If you’re lucky, your organization did a campaign debrief as part of its wrap-up process—if you weren’t around for the last campaign, ask if there is a debrief document you can review. Do yourself (and your future predecessor) a big favor: schedule an organizational debrief in this campaign’s wrap-up process. Include partners from major gift officers to advancement services analysts to leadership outside of development. Document your findings, and ensure that they are stored somewhere centrally that can be accessed by many different stakeholders.
2. Review all policies
Blow the dust off that handbook and dive deep into key fundraising documents and policies, including gift acceptance policies, gift agreements, naming guidelines, “levels” associated with namings, and gift celebration guidelines. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it will hopefully get you headed in the right direction. As your organization widens its fundraising net, you’ll need to ensure that your organization and donors are protected through sound, updated, and easily accessible documents and policies.
3. Read the campaign feasibility study
A campaign feasibility study is one of the core campaign planning documents. One important element of feasibility studies is to gather feedback via surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one conversations with donors and key stakeholders. Outside fundraising counsel is typically used to conduct this study to ensure unbiased responses.
The questions asked in the study give great insight as to what the campaign goals will eventually become. For example, donors may be asked to respond to their interest in special projects or key areas of organizational growth. Use the campaign feasibility study results to begin planning where you need to bolster your donor relations program.
If you work in higher education and the feasibility study asks donors questions about their interest in supporting financial aid, you can bet that financial aid will become a key pillar, goal, or platform in the eventual fundraising campaign. Make sure that your scholarship fund management and reporting process is tight, your beneficiary engagement strategy is in top shape, and that any scholarship events or receptions have room for additional guests.
If you work in healthcare and your feasibility study is research-heavy, you can bet the campaign will be designed similarly. Take a look at your storytelling capabilities, including staffing (full-time and contract), to ensure you have the resources to communicate the impact of technical results in a donor-centered, compelling manner.
4. Current Program Assessment
Campaigns will only highlight areas of your donor relations program that aren’t functioning effectively, so get ahead by conducting an honest assessment now. Take a look at your acknowledgment process, and ask yourself, what will happen if the gift volume more than doubles? Take a look at your recognition societies and determine whether it’s time to build, revamp, or retire. Make sure you focus your time equally across the Four Pillars of Donor Relations.
Incorporate donor feedback into this evaluation to gain a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t. The more in-depth this evaluation is, the more helpful it will be as you plan for additional assignments—because you will be asked to do more as part of a campaign, including creating and managing new programming.
After you complete this assessment, take a look at the ROI of your current program to see what can be paused, or eliminated, to create bandwidth for the additional campaign workload. Use the Eisenhower Matrix below to help you get a sense of the effort required and the impact created with each aspect of your donor relations program.
I hope these tips will get your campaign planning off to a great start! It can seem daunting at first, but campaigns bring great energy and spirit to our organizations—and to our donor relations teams, too.
If you have specific questions about how the Donor Relations Group can help your organization prepare for a campaign, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Our consultants have decades of experience working with dozens of organizations through campaigns of all sizes and goals.
