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 5-
Proper Planning

Prior to launching a capital or endowment campaign, your organization must be willing to demonstrate to your constituents a long-range plan. This plan must include a Mission statement and priority goals. It must also present objectives and action steps that reflect how the plan will be enacted. The plan must demonstrate that consideration has been given to how the organization will meet its future commitments.

A frequent question that will arise in a Community Readiness Assessment ^SM(or fundraising feasibility study) for an organization considering a major campaign is: “If we invest in your organization’s project, how will you support yourself once the fundraising and the project is accomplished?” To answer this question, your organization must have conducted the proper planning to develop the project and must be able to demonstrate how your project is tied to your plan.

Even though strategic planning is no longer new to the non-profit sector, the concept – and the various terms used to describe it – still confound many nonprofit professionals and volunteers. At Jeffrey Byrne & Associates, we describe planning on a continuum: From short-term planning for an event, a program or even your annual budget; to strategic planning which incorporates consideration of your Mission, your vision and setting goals, objectives and timelines; to a more comprehensive “business plan” that incorporates market information and detailed budget analysis and pro formas. Whether you conduct your planning as a strategic or business plan, there are certain key aspects you should be able to demonstrate to prospective donors – and to volunteers who you will ask to be a part of your project leadership.

If your underlying project is a capital campaign, your plan should show how your expansion or renovation will help your organization operate more efficiently, save on organization resources and/or create opportunities for additional earned income or outside support. If your “case” is to build endowment, you should be able to demonstrate how building such a reserve will allow your organization to operate in a more business-like fashion, have the resources to grow or develop new programs, and/or to provide a solid source of continued operating support from year to year. In either case, discussion of how your project accomplishes these goals should be a working part of your campaign, articulated in your materials and used as talking points in training your front-line volunteers. This clarity of vision, backed up by solid numbers that support your plan, helps both the volunteer and donor “catch” your vision for your project.

So, what does this mean for you in planning for a campaign? If you don’t have a plan in place, take time to structure a planning process and develop one now. If you have a plan, get it out and review it. This does not mean you must stall your planning for your campaign, but you must take the time to ensure that all your key staff and your volunteer leadership understand the reasons for the project and what a successful project will accomplish for your organization. In many cases, this stems from a vision of the board and executive director and is conducted during the planning for the fundraising project, itself.

If a successful campaign begins with your “Inner Family” – solicitations of those closest to your organization and project -- it is essential that you have the “buy-in” of your entire board and top staff. To do this, they must understand and support your long-range vision and how the project will further that vision. This, of course, means, that they must be involved in developing the plan and your board should review and formally adopt the final plan as part of its regular business.

Planning for Additional Support
Another important reason to conduct this planning is that many donors will allow you to include additional operating expenses for one, three or even five years in your project budget. Savvy donors understand and expect that major projects create differences in operating costs and that it is wise to cover those costs while the organization is “ramping up” into a new mode of operating. To be able to gather those numbers, you should plan to involve your finance director or CFO in the planning process.

A Bridge How Far?
How far should your plan stretch? Most organizations – and many donors– do not expect planning to go beyond an initial five years. If you accept the notion that planning is just that – a plan, that changes with new circumstances and opportunities – then you most also accept and be able to convey the expectation that the plan will be reviewed periodically and will be revised and added to in the future. That means, of course, that an effective plan is not one that you adopt only to let it sit on the shelf in an attractive bound folder.

Managing By Your Plan
It is amazing the number of organizations that – often through inadvertence – invest substantial time and money in developing and then do not pick it up again until the plan is about to expire.

The planning retreat has been held, everyone leaves energized and with a long list of ideas and “to do’s” from the session. The “plan” is compiled. Timelines and accountabilities have been set. And then it sits…. and sits. Sure, you can respond with some conviction that you have a “strategic plan,” but are you working the plan to make sure you meet your goals and objectives?

Once the plan is developed, the most effective organizations change their way of doing business to monitor their progress in accomplishing the plan. In a capital or endowment campaign, the monitoring of that progress occurs almost naturally and with regular frequency. It’s easy to tell how well you are accomplishing the plan’s objective by your fundraising progress and how quickly you are achieving your goal.

After the project is complete, challenge yourself and your board to continue that momentum by employing some new methods of governance: Consider reorganizing your committee structure around your plan. Rather than organizing your board meetings around a traditional structure of approving minutes, hearing reports of past activities, and a report on finances, ask your committee chairs and staff to tailor their reports to accomplishment of your plan’s goals, objectives and timelines, i.e., “How well are we doing in relation to the plan?” Do the same thing in staff meetings. It will keep your plan moving along, will help you stay on track (and on time) and will solidify the importance of accountability for everyone, from board leadership to staff.

Jeffrey Byrne & Associates, Inc., offers strategic and business planning, both as a stand-alone service and in helping clients prepare for a campaign. To learn more about these services, or to arrange for an informational interview, contact us at 1-800-222-9233 or visit our website at jeffreybyrneandassociates.com