Capital Campaign Committees: The Essential Guide for Success

Every capital campaign has hundreds of moving pieces, from marketing to fundraising appeals to donor recognition, and more. This is why we often say campaigns require all hands on deck; you’ll need more than just your team of staff members to succeed.

This is where capital campaign committees come into play, which are headed up by volunteers and can fill nearly any function you need them to. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about committees:

• What Are Campaign Committees?
• How to Recruit Great Committee Members for Your Campaign
• 3 Campaign Committees to Engage Volunteers Before Your Campaign
• 6 Campaign Committees to Engage Volunteers Throughout Your Campaign
• Our Free Capital Campaign Committee Org Chart

As you consider which committees you need for your capital campaign and who to ask to serve on those committees, remember that committee service can be an excellent way to engage a long-time volunteer or committed donor in your project. Let’s dive in.

What are Campaign Committees? 

A capital campaign committee is a group of dedicated individuals responsible for planning, executing, and guiding a specific aspect of a nonprofit capital campaign.

These committees are typically composed of the organization’s leaders, staff members, board members, and volunteers.

Depending on the size of your organization and the scope of its capital campaign project, you may have just one committee steering the entire campaign or create several committees focused on different campaign areas. Below we’ll explore several different types of committees you can create to meet your campaign’s needs!

How to Recruit Great Committee Members for Your Campaign

Recruiting the right committee members for your campaign is critically important. Excellent committee members will bring valuable skills, connections, and energy to your campaign, while the wrong ones can drain resources, frustrate staff and volunteers, and even slow the progress of your campaign. The last thing you want is for a bad volunteer to sour the experience for good volunteers!

As you recruit for your committees, consider the following:

What Makes a Good Campaign Committee Member? 

There’s no one-size-fits-all committee member. In other words, most committee members will be stronger in some areas than others. While it’s nice when you do find a unicorn, most volunteers fill certain needs but fall short in other areas.

An ideal campaign committee member is:

• Genuinely passionate about your organization’s mission
• Experienced in fundraising
• Able and willing to commit time and energy to the campaign
• Connected to a strong network of contacts in the local community, a specific industry, or your donor base, and open to using those connections to help spread the word about your cause
• An effective communicator who can help generate excitement and enthusiasm for your campaign
• Reliable, meaning they’re quick to respond to emails and phone calls and have a strong track record of following through on their commitments
• Able to work collaboratively with other committee members, staff, and volunteers (some may even be willing to take on a leadership role in the campaign)

In contrast, a bad committee member is one who: 

• Lacks commitment
• Is unreliable
• Has poor communication skills
• Is not a team player
• Does not have the time to consistently pitch in, even if they want to

Concrete, Specific, Clear Roles Help Volunteers Succeed 

Many campaign leaders make the mistake of believing that they need to recruit an enormous committee from the start and that will last for the duration of the campaign. However, most people don’t want to commit to three or more years of service. Also, you won’t have constructive roles for many people over such a long period of time and all the phases of your campaign.

Instead, recruit volunteers who fit the needs of a specific task or committee. For example, some volunteers may be good at soliciting gifts for your quiet phase, so you recruit them to your Nucleus Fund Committee. Or, another group of volunteers may love to plan events, so you ask them to be on your Kick-Off Committee.

Each volunteer can be listed on your overall umbrella campaign team or committee, but that doesn’t mean they need to have volunteered for the full duration of the campaign. Ensure volunteers can come and go as needed.

Aim to Include Diversity on Your Committees

It’s important to consider diversity when recruiting committee members for your capital campaign. Diverse committees can bring a wealth of experience, skills, and perspectives to your campaign.

Think outside the box and your normal network to recruit people of different races, genders, ages, skill sets, and more to ensure functional, well-networked committees.

Now, let’s dig into the different types of committees you may want to recruit for:

3 Capital Campaign Committees to Engage Volunteers Before Your Campaign Even Begins

Big donors often want you to consider their opinions before they invest in your project. By providing them with an opportunity to review and comment on plans before finalizing them, you give them insider status.

You can easily see how committees should be laid out throughout your campaign with this handy downloadable Capital Campaign Committee Org Chart.

Here are descriptions of the three campaign committees best suited to involve the biggest prospects for your campaign.

1. Core Campaign Committee

The Core Committee is a small group of dedicated individuals (4-6 members) which will be the driving force throughout the campaign. This committee will include:

• Executive Director / CEO
• Director of Development
• Board Chair / President or the Fundraising Chair of your board
• Campaign Chair (once they are identified)
• One or two other current and former board members

Members of this committee often commit to serving throughout the campaign (3 + years) and meet on a regular basis (often monthly), and come together as needed. They will:

• Develop campaign objectives
• Calculate a preliminary working goal
• Draft an early version of the case for support
• Recruit feasibility study and planning committee volunteers
• Make critical decisions throughout the campaign

2. Feasibility Study Committee

The Feasibility Study Committee is the first opportunity to recruit a few of your biggest donors to “see behind the curtain”.

The committee usually comprises staff and board members, plus one or two additional volunteers who could be key contributors to the campaign. This group will oversee the feasibility study process.

There are three ways to conduct a feasibility study to test the case for support and working goal with your largest potential donors and community leaders. The three options for a feasibility study:

1. Traditional study — hire an outside consultant to conduct interviews
2. DIY donor conversations — organizational leaders conduct a set of interviews with their top donor prospects
3. Guided study — organizational leaders conduct interviews/conversations, and are guided by an experienced campaign advisor, who prepares them for each interview and helps analyze findings

The Feasibility Study Committee includes:

• Executive Director / CEO
• Development Director
• 3 to 4 Board Members
• 1 to 2 experienced campaign volunteers

This committee is a short-term commitment and may only meet 3 times. Their core responsibilities include:

• Hire a consultant if using an outside one
• Review case for support and working goal to be tested in study
• Identify individuals to be interviewed as part of study
• Review the report before making a recommendation to the board

3. Campaign Planning Committee

Once the Feasibility Study is complete, the Planning Committee is another short-term committee which comes together to finalize a campaign plan. This is one of the larger committees and engages the largest group of volunteers to date.

The Planning Committee includes:

• Executive Director / CEO
• Development Director
• Campaign Chair
• Key Board Members
• 12 + Most influential and wealthiest volunteers you can recruit

Over the course of two or three meetings, this committee will:

• Review the feasibility study results
• Create a campaign plan (review documents developed by staff)
• Review revised working goal, case for support, donor recognition plan, campaign policies, campaign timeline and budget
• Make lead gifts
• Lend their names to the campaign

By the time you’re ready to begin the silent phase of your campaign, you should have involved most of your leadership level donors in one or more aspects of getting ready for your campaign. If you involve them before you’re ready to solicit lead gifts, your lead gift prospects will be well aware of your campaign plans and more inclined to make a gift when you solicit them.

6 Capital Campaign Committees to Engage Volunteers Throughout Your Campaign

Once you have your campaign plans finalized, you’ll be ready to start soliciting gifts.

1. Steering Committee

A Steering Committee will consist of many of the same members of the Planning Committee. These are people who want to have continued involvement in your campaign, who are willing to be good advocates and even solicit gifts on behalf of your campaign.

The Steering Committee includes:

• Executive Director / CEO
• Development Director
• Campaign Chair
• Key Board Members
• 12+ of the most influential and wealthiest volunteers you can recruit

This committee will meet 4 to 6 times per year for the duration of the campaign and will:

• Oversee the campaign
• Monitor campaign progress and recommend course corrections
• Advocate on behalf of the campaign and make first gifts to the campaign

2. Nucleus Fund Committee

The Nucleus Fund Committee is often a sub-committee of the steering committee and solicits gifts during the quiet phase of the campaign, including the lead gifts and gifts from the full board and campaign committees.

The committee includes:

• Executive Director / CEO
• Development Director
• Approximately 5 of the best volunteer solicitors from the steering committee

This committee will meet monthly during the quiet phase, until all lead gifts, board and committee members have been solicited and 65% or more of the working goal has been raised.

The Nucleus Fund Committee will:

• Solicit all leadership level gifts (generally about 50 prospects, which will become 20 lead gifts)
• Solicit all board members
• Solicit all campaign committee members

3. Kick-Off Committee

The Kick-Off Committee is fun, fun fun! The Kick-Off Committee is responsible for planning a celebration event announcing your campaign to the community.

This is a committee of people who love to plan events and pay attention to details. They will plan your official campaign Kick-Off — when you announce your official campaign goal. Until this point, you’ve been in the quiet phase of your campaign, without any press releases, public events, campaign brochures, or wide-spread announcements.

Your Kick-Off event should match the culture and nature of your organization. A grass-roots, scrappy organization should not plan a black-tie affair. Your guests might be more comfortable under a tent with punch and cookies as you put a ceremonial shovel in the ground.

This Kick-Off Committee will include:

• Development Director
• Board liaison
• Volunteers who love to plan events and are committed to the success of your campaign

This committee is tasked to:

• Decide on the type of event your kick-off should be
• Select a date and location
• Plan the details

4. Community Gifts Committee

While the Nucleus Fund Committee focuses on securing lead gifts and other major gifts during the quiet phase of the campaign, the Community Gifts Committee will lead the charge on soliciting gifts during the Public Phase.

This committee will include:

• Executive Director/CEO
• Development Director
• Board members willing to help with fundraising
• Volunteers interested in helping you with fundraising

The Community Gifts Committee will be responsible for:

• Connecting with donors at all giving levels
• Soliciting donations of all amounts during the public phase

5. Post-Campaign Planning Committee

Even when your capital campaign is over, it’s not really over yet! The Post-Campaign Planning Committee meets after you’ve completed your public phase and reached your fundraising goal. They will debrief on the campaign’s success, lessons learned, and the next steps your organization needs to take (such as stewarding certain donors or wrapping up your construction project).

The Post-Campaign Planning Committee includes:

• Executive Director/CEO
• Director of Development
• Board Chair
• Other Board Members
• Major donors and committed volunteers who can provide perspective on how the campaign went

This committee will be tasked with:

• Reviewing and reporting on campaign data
• Assessing whether you met your campaign objectives and identifying what went well and what could be improved in future campaigns
• Determining next steps, such as target deadlines for project completion and donor stewardship activities

6. Ad Hoc Committees

Ad hoc committees are all the additional capital campaign committees you can form to address any need or aspect of the campaign. They’re great for tackling a very specific part of your capital campaign project and engaging volunteers or donors for a short amount of time (or longer, depending on your needs!).

Any of the following can be involved in an ad hoc committee:

• Organizational leadership staff members
• Board members
• Volunteers
• Donors

Here are a few examples of focus areas for ad hoc committees:

• Event planning
• Marketing and communications
• Donor recognition and celebration
• Sponsorships
• Peer-to-peer fundraising
• Legacy and planned giving

Our Free Capital Campaign Committee Org Chart 

Want to see how all of these committees fit together in your capital campaign’s timeline? Download our capital campaign committee org chart or check out the image below. It offers a great visual model to follow to structure your committees.

Capital Campaign Committees Are Critical for Success

Your nonprofit’s team can’t bear the weight of a capital campaign all on its own, and there are plenty of people in your organization’s community who are willing to be involved in some sort of capacity. Use capital campaign committees to your advantage to get board members, volunteers, donors, and other individuals involved in your work and invested in your project!

Want to check out some additional resources for planning and carrying out a successful capital campaign? Here are some recommendations:

• Capital Campaign Plan: 11 Essential Elements & Top Tips
• Capital Campaign Gift Range Chart: How-To Guide & Templates
• When and How to Hire a Capital Campaign Consultant: 7 Steps