YOUR CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS
The Six Things You MUST
Have in Place
to Succeed In a Major Gifts Campaign
Whether you are planning to launch a capital
campaign or another major gifts effort,
there are certain essential conditions that
you and your organization must meet for
you to be successful. At Jeffrey Byrne &
Associates, Inc., we call these your Criteria
for Success. In the last issue of “News
You Can Use,” we introduced the first
criterion. In future issues, we plan to
highlight more about how you can use these
six simple rules to measure your readiness
to launch a major giving campaign. For a
complete list of the six Criteria for Success,
visit our website at : www.jeffreybyrneandassociates.com.
Criterion Number
4-
Strategy (including
proper cultivation)
to Obtain “Pacesetting” Gifts
Large meaningful gifts must be secured
if a campaign is to succeed. In fact, the
key to success is often the ability to secure
a “lead gift,” a gift that is
equal to or larger than 10% to 15% of the
overall goal. In addition, the top 10 to
15 gifts should equal 50% of the goal, or
more. In some cases, this will take cultivation,
which may require involvement in the planning
stages of the project those individuals
with the ability to make large pledges.
The most successful solicitations occur
in person, in teams of two and peer-to-peer….More
depends on who asks for the gift than the
amount of the gift requested….Campaigns
work best when conducted top-down, from
a few donors making very large gifts to
broad community support.
If these statements are true, how can your
organization succeed in securing the largest
gifts to your campaign? Think about a likely
gift chart for your campaign. What will
be the top gift? The top five? Can you and
your organization’s leaders readily
identify who will give to your project at
these top levels?
If your list is that same list that is
likely to be shared by every non-profit
in town, you may want to rethink your strategy.
In a presentation of the “Seven Deadly
Sins” of campaign management, the
last “sin” is the propensity
to target those with known wealth in your
community, often ignoring the potential
in your organization’s own donor base.
While it is not out of the realm of possibility
that those in the community with known wealth
will support your campaign with a gift at
some level, the large, meaningful gifts
of the kind you will need to fill the top
levels of your gift chart are unlikely to
come from a “cold” request for
support to these prospective donors.
The key is in cultivation. In
the last issue of New$ You Can U$e, we talked
about attracting the right leadership that
will connect your campaign to significant
gifts. Prospective donors must be cultivated
in the same way. They must know and become
excited about your organization, its mission
and what you are doing to carry out that
mission. In a capital or endowment campaign,
they must understand and relate to your
“case” and want to support it.
As with leadership, if the largest gifts
on your gift chart are not to be found among
your prospective donors, this is not fatal.
It means you must develop concrete –
yet, discreet – strategies to inform
and interest these prospective donors in
your project.
As you can imagine, this does not happen
overnight. It requires patient cultivation,
which requires time. The prospective donor
might visit your organization and your programs;
may receive your organization’s regular
newsletter; be invited to events; and receive
personal visits from top organization leadership
to outline the organization’s vision
and how you plan to go about achieving that
vision.
Of course, your top prospects to the campaign
may already be among your donor base. Do
not neglect the important work of learning
about your donors’ interests, inclination
and capacity. During campaign planning,
the start of this work can be accomplished
through the formation of a Prospect Committee
to appraise prospects and to build an “internal
database” for campaign solicitation.
For each prospective donor, you should be
asking: “What do they know about us?
What is their relationship with us? Why
would they want to contribute? What similar
organizations or causes have they given
to in the past? What is their current situation
and their capacity to make a gift to our
project? Who is/are the best individual(s)
to approach the prospect? When is the best
time to do this?”
One key you should not overlook: The
best donors come from those who have become
active in and excited about your project.
This is where your prospective project donor
base and leadership dovetail. In planning
for your project, seriously consider leadership
and ask who among prospective donors to
the project has the potential to become
excited, involved and make a leadership
gift to create momentum for your campaign.
To learn more about effective planning
for your capital or endowment campaign,
or major gifts effort, contact Jeffrey Byrne
& Associates, Inc., at 1-800-222-9233
or visit our website at jeffreybyrneandassociates.com
