A capital campaign is sort of like a big, fancy wedding – expensive to put on, takes lots of planning, invitations are sent to the people who know and love you the most, and guests bring gifts you’ve suggested.

Okay, the analogy probably ends there, but summer is the time for weddings (and you have my sympathy if you just paid for one of those weddings!).

So let’s get right to it: Are your donors prepared for your campaign?
You can’t have a successful campaign without a big percentage of your most loyal and biggest donors giving above and beyond what they have been giving to your group annually for operations.

And if this is your first campaign, you need to have a history of asking for and receiving some special, larger, and possibly designated gifts from donors in your donor base. If you don’t, it may take you awhile to warm up your donors to even consider giving to your campaign.

“We need to launch our campaign now – is it too late to develop our donors’ expectations?”
All donors, especially major donors, want to plan ahead for their biggest gifts. That being said, there are a few things you can do fairly quickly, perhaps over a 3-month period.

1. One idea is to hold small events in advance of launching your campaign that will engage your most loyal and biggest donors in thinking about the vision behind your campaign. Save plenty of time for discussion, and develop some key questions to bring up if the discussion falters.

2. Another idea is to ask small groups to review a draft case statement before the event, and then use the event as a focus group to get feedback on the case statement.

3. Alternatively, you can set up individual meetings to let your closest donors know about your plans for a capital campaign, and tell them, “We are not asking for a gift today, but we would like for you to be thinking about how you might like to be involved and give, in addition to your wonderful annual support.”

It’s hard work and it takes time to increase your donors’ expectations.
But don’t neglect to do this, even if you have had big gifts in the past from some of your donors. You need to inspire them with your plans and engage their help for this project. You also need to give them time to plan for their personal campaign gift.

Skipping this work is like sending out the wedding invitations the day before the big, fancy wedding. Don’t let it happen to you!