Therefore, it’s a smart move for some members of your capital campaign committee to ask businesses for cash and in kind donations for your capital campaign. Matching gifts have the potential to speed up your capital campaign two fold. Determine how you’ll get the word out about your campaign during both the quiet and the public phases. Review the strategies listed above, like using Google Ad Grants or creating a brochure, while also considering what you know about your community and the communications they’ve responded to in the past. Nonprofits sometimes require large-scale purchases to help further their mission. A hospital, for example, may need to upgrade existing radiology equipment, or a university may require a high-powered telescope for the astronomy department.

So, it doesn’t matter if you’re embarking on your first or you have successfully conducted one before. It may seem counterintuitive at first, but capital campaigns are the most cost-effective way of raising money! The budget for a typical campaign will likely be under 10% of its goal. And in addition to being cost-effective, your campaign expenses can be included in your fundraising goal and thus will not come out of your organization’s operating budget. In general, however, the largest gift in your pyramid should make up 10-20% of the total amount you’re planning to raise through major gifts. Capital Campaign Pro combines online campaign resources with expert advising for budget-friendly support that gives you the best of both worlds.

If the consultant is traveling from another city, add $1,000 per month to the direct costs. Year 3 — Campaign budget pays 1/3 of development assistant salary, with the other 2/3 paid from organizational budget. Year 2 — Campaign budget pays 2/3 of development assistant salary, with the other 1/3 paid for from organizational budget. When developing the budget for your campaign, think carefully about the style and culture of your organization. Not only does it allow them to be more philanthropic, but they receive tax benefits and form meaningful partnerships with organizations.

Note that, like the rest of the planning process, you should remain flexible in filling out this template. You may not need some sections, or you may want to add a few of your own that will help you better visualize your campaign. The case for support will be useful to guide your initial stakeholder conversations, but can also be refined and tinkered with during the planning phase. Think of it as a living document you’ll use now to gauge your stakeholders’ perceptions of your campaign and to help articulate your goals and vision for your campaign to the public later.

The exact proportion that you aim for will vary based on a number of factors. As mentioned above, it’s highly recommended that nonprofits planning capital campaigns conduct a feasibility study very early in the process. These insights will help you understand whether you can feasibly reach those goals right now or if your time would be better spent focusing on other ways to build your fundraising capacity. Since capital campaigns are major multi-year investments of time and resources, understanding their feasibility as early as possible is a smart move to take during this first stage of planning a campaign. Capital campaigns are a crucial element in fundraising for organizations.

1. If the consultant is traveling from another city, add $1,000 per month to the direct costs.
2. Once you’ve created a topline revenue goal like this, you can set smaller, nested goals as you go along, too.
3. With a solid approach to internal communications and marketing, your team will be able to work well together and rely on each other, and your community will know all about your campaign and how to get involved.
4. Remember, for a capital campaign, the amount raised through major gifts should be around 60-80% of your campaign’s total revenue goal.

We recommend working with a Google Grants consultant to create inspiring ads that target the right users on Google. In addition to outlining this structure, consider taking things a step further. Consider outlining what role each of these groups play, and when in the campaign they will be active.

Learning More: Additional Fundraising Resources

A gift pyramid (also called a gift range chart or gift table) is a document that outlines how many major gifts you’ll need at different levels in order to reach your campaign’s goals. Once you have your gift pyramid, you can https://simple-accounting.org/ also create a depth range chart. In a depth range chart, you start attaching prospect names to giving levels, allowing you to see where you have enough qualified prospects and where you need to do more development work.

Capital Campaign Plan: 11 Essential Elements & Top Tips

Feasibility studies are crucial to the success of any capital campaign. They essentially determine whether or not your donors and the community will be willing to support your organization’s project. The public phase begins with a kickoff event, sometimes at the building site (when applicable). Once the public phase begins, donors are able to give however much they want. Your committee can still solicit major gifts, but the focus should be on broad marketing to as many donors as possible.

Those donors understand that your campaign is important and that the projects and programs it will fund will continue to be important long after the crisis has passed. If you choose to incorporate any of these or other ideas into your campaign to boost visibility and revenue, you may need to get started laying out your plans soon (as with official sponsorship agreements). For less complex strategies, you can designate a future date in the campaign to begin planning them. Like any planning document, your campaign plan is simply a starting place. Some of the pieces will be developed over the course of your campaign and some aspects may change and shift.

Campaign videos are more common in today’s fundraising environment and they can be very effective, but also costly. It’s never too early to think about what type of donor recognition will work best for your organization, and importantly, how you will keep in touch with your donors once the campaign concludes. Once the campaign is complete, the organization will celebrate the campaign’s success and recognize the contributions of donors and volunteers. Throughout the campaign, project planning, feasibility studies, pre-campaign planning, and follow-through would be essential elements of the fundraising strategy.

This information will evolve as you continue planning your campaign, and ideally by the time you kick off the public phase of your campaign, the messaging will be clear and effective. By timetable, we literally mean a calendar in which all key dates for your campaign are outlined. Second, what will be your strategies for getting the word out about your campaign? You’ll most likely want to use a multichannel strategy, including printed and digital materials, spoken conversations, and perhaps even events. It’s important that when you’re using multiple channels and materials for communication, these channels are integrated with one another. This means they build upon one another, rather than creating an overwhelming echo chamber.

How to Hire a Capital Campaign Consultant

The most compelling brochures feature what your project will accomplish and who it’ll benefit – whether that’s building a shelter for the homeless, an animal sanctuary for endangered species, or something else. Paint a picture with words and images about how your work will create a difference. Then, provide details for getting involved, like visiting your campaign page’s URL. A brochure gives you plenty of space to cover the key details of your capital campaign.

The Public Phase

The costs are likely to be apportioned in unequal amounts as the requirements of your campaign demand. Our rule of thumb is that you should budget approximately 10% of your campaign goal on campaign expenses, budgeted over three years. You may not need that much, but 10% is a great starting place to get your board on board with your campaign budget. Traditionally, nonprofits have had to rely on word-of-mouth advice and anecdotal evidence to understand how campaigns work and what their chances of success were.

What is a capital campaign plan?

And, when you do begin receiving gifts during the quiet phase, a big part of your recognition efforts will be keeping those donors involved and excited about the campaign. To do so, send them regular updates, invite them to volunteer, and make sure to invite them to kick-off, public phase, and groundbreaking events. Don’t hesitate to include the costs of your campaign in your campaign goal.

It’s important to clearly articulate these details, as your most impactful donors will want these answers.

Challenge grants are funds that are released by a grant-making entity after a nonprofit has completed a challenge. The best route to take is to research which companies offer grant programs and regularly donate to nonprofit organizations. Not every donor will work for a company that matches donations, and even if they do, every company has different guidelines and restrictions that must be followed before the matching funds are released.

This element of your capital campaign plan will help you streamline both your internal operations and your public outreach. With a solid approach to internal communications and marketing, your team will be able to work well together and rely on each other, capital campaign budget template and your community will know all about your campaign and how to get involved. For example, it might make the most sense to spend the most time seeking the largest gift needed, since that large gift will give your campaign more security upfront.