The Key to Successful Capital Campaigns (CSA Survey Results)

Mike Buwalda, CSA Stewardship Connections Editor

This month I asked CSA members, "Have you had any success with capital campaigns, and if so, what was the single most important lesson learned?" In the survey responses below, you will discover an amazing collection of experience-based wisdom from your peers in ministry development. [more...]

One theme that came up over and over again in the survey responses in a variety of ways was preparation. In short, there are a number of things that need to be done well long before you ask anyone for money. Here are just five of the many examples of campaign preparation, shared by your coworkers in the Kingdom:

• Develop a credible cause—a big vision—that can be clearly stated.
• Research to discover campaign potential, key donors, potential hurdles, and more.
• Recruit the right people to ask the right people.
• Build ownership among staff, board, volunteer leaders, and constituents.
• Pray, pray, pray at every opportunity, and ask others to join you.

Below are the survey responses from your friends in the CSA family, which I trust will bless and inspire you as you consider God's future plans for your ministry.

From Your Peers

Three things I’ve learned from capital campaigns: (1) People give because they trust you. Be a trustworthy person in a trustworthy organization. (2) People give because the cause is credible. Make a clear, simple, powerful case for the campaign. (3) Campaigns are difficult—don’t give-up. Keep on being faithful. Leadership’s job is to keep hope alive.

Dan Bolin
Encouragement FM

I feel a well-executed study is a must. It gives you an understanding of the current potential, helps you set a proper goal, makes you aware of potential hurdles you will have to overcome, and it identifies your lead gifts. If the special project is too small to warrant a formal study, it would be wise to conduct a few informal interviews to learn some of the same information.

Jim Schlottman
Quiet Waters

My biggest lesson as a capital campaign service provider is that while some churches appreciate a cookie-cutter approach where they simply follow the copyrighted recipe provided for them, many more want to know that their unique history and context is appreciated; that is, that the campaign is designed with them in mind. They also want to be confident that the consultant will be available to provide counsel throughout the three years (or more) of their campaign.

Mark L. Vincent
Lead Partner, Design For Ministry™

One of the most important things I have learned is to never assume the church is ready for the campaign until this has been verified in several ways. One thing the church must do to be ready is to make sure all the leadership is on board with the same vision. I have often been told by the pastor, “Oh yes. Everyone is behind this.” Only to find out later, that although he thought he was speaking truth, there were things he didn’t know. It’s always better to get those issues worked out in advance of launching the campaign!

Linden Kirby
Excel Ministries, Inc.

Pledges for a campaign, as I am sure that you know, are a key element to its success. I learned that I had to "stay on top of it" even more than I did. Running reports, moving donors from unfulfilled status to fulfilled, and matching donations to the actual pledge were all items that I learned from this. Matching donations to the pledge proved to be a challenge as many of the campaign donors continued to be ministry donors and just mailed in checks. Our campaign turned out to be successful and the building was more than doubled in size.

Pat Morris
Grant Director, Fellowship of Christian Athletes

Yes, we are having success. The most important lesson we have learned is having all of the right people on the “bus” and to be sure that they are sitting in the right seat. Our biggest challenge is finding advocates and advocacy through our board, significant influencers, and friends. We are continuing to message all of these relationships to get to the right people and ask them to be a part of what God is doing.

Tim Burkhart
Vice President of Estate and Gift Planning
The Free Methodist Foundation

In the past few years we have had a few special projects that have required funding. Encouraging people who have a similar passion with the project to become involved is important. We have seen this in technology, music, art, and sports. Recognizing that God has blessed people with different gifts, identifying supporters with these different gifts, encouraging involvement in their gifted areas, and a passion for the project results. No one is more convincing in selling a project than one who has a passion for the project.

John Voortman
Development Director
Ontario Christian Schools

Unfortunately, this is not a success story, but a hard lesson to learn! The most important lesson I learned in a most recent capital campaign is that you must have your Board on board with 100% participation or you'll be paddling upstream. We did a demographic study, had a number of players in place and when the Board did not back it wholeheartedly, it just went floating down stream.

Bud Barger

1. Doing a thorough fundraising feasibility study that yields a positive outcome.
2. Recruiting campaign committee members willing to make asks and who know some of the best prospects.

Don Johnson
Director of Capital Fund Development
Methodist Retirement Communities

We are in the early phase of a capital campaign right now. The importance of 3–6 months planning and working to get all staff and constituency on board is critical, including feasibility processes. Silent phase to successfully win leadership gifts is next important. Being disciplined to wait on the public phase is next.

Steve Hoffman
VisonQuest Alliance

Campaigns start with a vision. They are led by leaders willing to communicate that vision strategically to constituents and new friends. They are sustained through prayer and are completed as God works in the hearts of people to give.

Gary Hoag
Denver Seminary

The three most important lessons I have learned about campaigns or special project fundraising is Preparation! Preparation! Preparation! Abe Lincoln once said, "If I had 6 hours to cut down a tree I would spend 4 hours sharpening the axe!" Enough said!

Harold Hazen
Taylor University

We are 1 year into our first capital campaign since our inception 114 years ago. We have raised almost 55% and are still in the “quiet phase.” I would give us a B– on our success rate to date. The most important aspect of this campaign is the formation of a strong campaign cabinet—people who believe in what you do and most importantly are eager to do the WORK. It has been a real learning experience as well as a faith builder.

Griff Freyschlag
Denver Rescue Mission

We have had much success in recent years with campaign funding—many millions have been raised. Although not a new lesson, the greatest thing we were again reminded of is how few people it actually takes for a campaign to succeed. In a $16 million effort we finished a few years back, 30 people have given $15 million of the $16 million needed. In our current campaign of $14.7 million, we have had $12.2 million given to date. Of the $12.2 million, $11 million of it has come from eight people. With all the "techniques" out there on how to do fundraising well, it's clear to us that when relationships are formed with the right people and the ministry has a compelling cause, it takes but a few people to make a huge difference. I tell my team that it often takes as much time to build a relationship with a $1,000 donor as it does to generate a gift of $1 million or more. We need to be purposeful and strategic in how we spend our time—and with whom!

Adam J. Morris, PhD
Senior Director, University Development
Biola University

Biggest lesson: It's the vision for excellence that drives the mega-donors in a campaign. Ordinary or mediocre will not cut it. You have to envision something with far-reaching impact, not status quo or maintenance oriented. They want to make big differences with their big gifts!

Wes Wick, Office for Advancement and Development
Bethany University

Right now we are working on building a house using the many constituents of ours who are in the construction business. The concept is to balance efficiency and the opportunity to involve as many contractors as possible in order to obtain the most favorable terms (working at cost versus full rate versus donated labor). I really haven't made any great discoveries as I did research this quite a bit in advance with many other organizations that have done this recently. I have seen clearly what I suspected from the beginning: that with this project if the leadership is committed, the Advancement person must get out of the way of the details! I have followed this principle and we are off to a great start.

Dale Walvort
Director of Advancement
Kalamazoo Christian Schools

I think the single most important lesson in capital campaign fundraising is making sure you get the right person to make “the ask.” It is identifying who the prospect can’t say “no” to that makes the difference.

Carrie Zeffiro
Director of Development
Niagara Christian Collegiate

It is that old saying, “When opportunity knocks, it is too late to prepare.” The most important aspect in the more successful efforts was early preparation—considering all of the possibilities and getting a head start on projects that were no brainers. For some, we had the complete programs ready and waiting because we knew they would be a go with the right donor. When the opportunities arrived, we had them in the mail that day. Patience was the key. This took a belief in staff, that they knew and understand what they did and who they served.

Carolyn Koole
Executive Director of Planned Giving
Cornerstone University

Better knowledge of who our major givers are. Our recent campaign, while it advanced us in our effort and cause, did not reach its goal. Where we fell down was the area of major gifts. That is because we did not know our potential in that area to create a credible campaign goal.

Dave Sheppard
Evangelical Free Church of Hershey

May I suggest two things: First, be persistent with donor connections. When people know why you are calling they can go into avoidance mode and it is usually related to their schedule. Second, follow through on presentations and their responses. Set a follow-up date and time frame before you leave, otherwise it could get dragged out farther than you can afford to have it be dragged out.

Brian Jackson
Cornerstone University

The single most important lesson is also the most difficult—find the right leadership. You have the executive director and director of development, but you must recruit board members and community leaders that will LEAD your campaign. Campaigns are about vision, passion, and people. Leadership people are rare, and increasingly difficult to find. But when you have the right leadership, your campaign will be successful.

John R. Frank, CFRE
President
The Frank Group

Our experience was not as good as we hoped. It was anticipated that when we sold our old property and refurbished the building we purchased, there would be no debt incurred. Unfortunately that was not the case and we ended up with a large mortgage. At that point we launched a capital campaign to make up the difference of several million dollars. First, it’s more difficult to raise funds after the project is essentially complete; it amounts to debt reduction—very hard to stimulate donors for that. Second, the promise of no debt left the constituency wondering what had happened. Third, among our church constituency there were several competing capital campaigns with virtually all of us going to the same “wells.” Fourth, our stewardship consultants were the same group conducting the competing campaigns with essentially the same people. This was confusing to the constituency and difficult for the contact people to go to the same churches on behalf of different campaigns. Fifth, we were a newly merged institution and the constituency was having difficulty trying to understand who and what we had become—were we a state-side university, a foreign missions entity, or something else? We lacked a clear image. Sixth, some formerly strong supporters were quite upset over the merger and the move to our new location. The result was we reached only 63% of our goal—$1 million short.

Dr. Ron Iwasko
President, Global University

The lesson we learned about campaigns is to have done good research as to who would be interested in the type of project we were looking for funds. Clarity of outcomes and a clear line of who was responsible for these outcomes with specific reporting points are helpful but most of all it is the relationship that has been developed and the understanding of who the donor is and what they are really interested in that makes difference in receiving the funding. One other thing which helps is a big vision that can clearly be stated. People want to make a difference in what they do, and our roles as fundraisers is to help show them how they are making a difference and how they can do even more. The last thing, but most important, is to bathe campaigns in prayer before and after for God to receive all the glory and His will be done.

Dave Bustraan
Mission India

We are currently in a $100 million nationwide capital campaign. We will roll it out in 35 geographic areas from 2006 to 2009. We are using Community Counseling Service as our consultants. We are currently running a pilot program in Texas. The pilot turned up a glitch we did not expect. We have developed an excellent case statement, but we realized we needed a period of visioning prior to rolling out the case and the campaign in our Texas congregations. We have a vision called Ablaze! It is a worldwide movement to reach out with the Gospel to 100 million people between now and 2017. The congregations needed to know more about the vision before we came along with the funding campaign to support the vision. This has caused us to back up a bit and strengthen the ownership of the vision. But that’s why you run a pilot program! It allows you to adjust your processes and avoid national embarrassment!

Ronald E. Nelson
Director of Donor Communication
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod Foundation

We have not done a capital campaign, but we have done "special project" funding. The most important part in my mind, is training our people (e.g., staff, board members) on how to make the ASK. Plus, casting the vision or need as in a special project funding. We had a situation on a special project funding where the staff member dropped the ball in following up on a person. The staff person made an "ask" and received a promise of $125,000. The donor gave an initial $75,000 ($75,000 now and $50,000 in 60–90 days) and told the staff person to follow-up in 60–90 days with an update on the project. The donor was interested in seeing if we were making sufficient progress. We, the ministry, had told the donor that we would like to have the "special project" up and running in 90 days. We did not do our part and when the staff person went back to this particular donor in 120 days, the donor was not happy with us and the lack of progress. The donor refused to give us the additional $50,000. Since, I am the "stewardship director," my executive director gave me the responsibility of following up with this donor. This was NOT a good situation, this donor basically told me to not contact them in the future. Their reasoning was that when a ministry makes a promise to start a "special project," if you cannot start the "project" as promised, then by all means do your best to make contact and communicate that back to the donors.

Mark Hutchison
Stewardship Director
Peoria Rescue Ministries

We have had a successful capital campaign. The single most important lesson was to be thoroughly prepared for starting. The precampaign study was vital. We still started a little early—before we had everything ready to go.

Jack Hooker, VP for Advancement
God's Bible School and College

We did do a feasibility study for a capital campaign about 3 years ago. Interviews were held with major donors around the country. However we never went beyond that. We have had a number of special projects that required funding over and above a donor's regular gift. I have had a great deal of success with these myself. We deal with many issues. The key to a successful project funding is matching the donor and project. We know which issues resonate with each donor. Then you need to see if the donor has the financial capacity. We always tell them that a gift to this project must be over and above their regular giving level.

Bill Held
Family Research Council

I wish that I could tell you a great story about capital campaigns, I hope to in a year. We are in the private phase of a 26 million campaign. The Open Door Mission continues to have blessings in fundraising for special projects. Whether the need is program related, such as, educational software a need for the Learning Center ($10,000), expanding existing programs Day Camp ($50,000) or a new roof for the Men's Center ($200,000). The larger the need the more diverse your development and marketing plans will need to be. Yet, one thing remains true. Success is built through relationships. Relationships are built by telling the story, passionately.

Candace L. Gregory
President/CEO
Open Door Mission