What’s your community saying?

Before you develop a specific plan for a capital campaign, it’s essential to understand your organization’s community. Our approach is to listen to what your community is saying; then we can design an effective plan and stay with you to implement the strategy. 

Does your organization have a new or enhanced program it would like to fund? Would you like to understand the success rate for major capital or endowment campaign efforts among peer organizations? Would you like to increase marketing and communication efforts to bolster support and strengthen programmatic awareness? Then your organization should consider conducting a Feasibility and Campaign Planning Study. 

A Feasibility and Campaign Planning Study should aim to do the following:

• Gauge thoughts and priorities for program needs and case brochure elements that prospects are likely to find most compelling,
• Assess and obtain feedback on development and communication efforts, prospective volunteers and donors that will aid in the success of the campaign effort,
• Identify ways to position the campaign in relation both to past campaign success and to the current fund raising process
• Provide recommendations for a proposed campaign goal that raises the sights of potential donors and reflects, under the right conditions, an obtainable objective, and a summary plan and timeline to implement a campaign. 

In satisfying all of these checkpoints, the probability of success is infinitely greater because your organization will have listened thoughtfully to its community of supporters and be prepared for any obstacles to success. 

The question of whether or not to hire an outside consulting firm to conduct this type of Study is one that arises time and time again. Some questions to ask include:

• What is your interview style and how many interviews will you conduct?
• What is your timeframe, how will you work with our staff?
• Will you provide recommendations on a campaign goal, will you provide a list of prospective donors and volunteers to help with the Campaign?
• Will you provide a campaign timetable over 1-5 years?
• Will you help us recruit volunteers? 

Opus Advisors is skilled at helping organizations through this process, and with more than sixty years of collective experience working on Campaigns, we can provide a unique perspective on the likelihood of success and how best to prepare and implement a Campaign plan.