How to Get Your Board Ready for a Capital Campaign
In our work helping organizations prepare for capital campaigns, we often see a curious disconnect when it comes to board members’ understanding of the campaign.
FACT — Board members care deeply about your organization.
They dutifully come to meetings and review reports and vote on the budget. They help shape a plan for the future and are excited about the prospects of expanding the program and serving more people.
But when it comes to raising the money needed to make that plan a reality, your board has only a vague sense of how to do it.
How Your Board Members (Mistakenly) See a Capital Campaign
Most often, when confronted with the prospect of a capital campaign, your board members’ thoughts go to making a nice fundraising brochure, or perhaps planning a fundraising event or two.
And as you well know, brochures and events do not add up to a successful capital campaign.
Capital Campaigns Happen Only Occasionally
Capital campaigns are special in the fundraising world for two reasons.
First, organizations do them only every once in a while — perhaps only every 10 to 15 years. So, unlike annual fundraising which most board members have some experience with, very few board members have organized or managed a capital campaign.
Even those board members who have been involved in a campaign before have probably only worked on one small segment of it.
So, your board members probably have little or no experience with capital campaign fundraising. It’s no wonder they think of brochures and galas. That’s what they know.
Capital Campaigns Rely on Really Big Gifts
The other reason your board members don’t understand is that capital campaigns rely extensively on very big gifts — gifts that are probably far larger than your organization may have received before. And if your organization doesn’t have a “fundraising board,” there may be no one on your board who has any idea of how to raise gifts of $500,000 or more.
Your board members may be fully committed and well meaning, but if they don’t have deep philanthropic pockets they’ll have trouble imagining where those really big gifts will come from, or how their organization might get them.
Thus, There’s a Large Disconnect
Your board members are eager to see the organization grow and become even more successful. But unless they can understand and imagine a successful capital campaign, they’re likely to resist and sit on the sidelines.
And that’s what we often hear:
“My board members are wonderful, committed people, but they’re not stepping up for the capital campaign.”
And can you blame them?
It’s hard to step up if you can’t imagine the possibility of success.
3 Ways to Help Your Board Grasp a Successful Capital Campaign
If you want your board to get excited about a capital campaign, you’ve got to bring them along and help them understand what it will take to be successful.
Here are three things you can do to help your board to really “get it.”
1. Develop a Gift Range Chart
A gift range chart that shows the pattern of gifts you’ll need to reach your goal has a way of clarifying what it’ll take to have a successful capital campaign in a way that nothing else does.
Take a close look at gift range charts. Even if you’re at the early stages of campaign planning, take the time to develop a gift range chart for your goal. But sure to mark it draft and date it — and then share it with your board members.
Looking at those numbers and a reasonable pattern of what gifts you’ll need has a remarkable way of getting people to understand. They might find it a little overwhelming, but they’ll probably stop thinking about mailing brochures and organizing events.
2. Find the Money and Power in Your Community
Block out 45 minutes at a board meeting — plan a special meeting if you must — to do a power mapping exercise. It’ll get your board members thinking about where the money and power are in your community.
The book of board training exercises I co-wrote with Andy Robinson has an excellent power mapping exercise to use with your board. You’ll get two important things out of this exercise:
- First, your board members will start to realize that they know people with money and power, or at least, they know who those people are.
- Second, you’ll get a great and important list of the people in your community who have money and connections to your board!
And if you’re looking for some other fun (and free) ways to prepare your board for a campaign, check out this post.
3. Bring in a Campaign Expert
Once you have a gift range chart and you’ve met with your board to better prepare them for a campaign, then you can ask a capital campaign expert to talk to your board about capital campaign fundraising. Here are a few ideas:
- Check out our free webinar, Six Things You Should Do to Get Your Board Ready for a Capital Campaign.
- Try bringing in some board members of other organizations to chat with your board members about their own capital campaign experience.
- Lastly, sign up to speak with us about how we can support you and your team through a campaign.
If you want to go a step farther with a full-blown capital campaign workshop, you’ll have to spend a bit of money.
Board Training Takes Time, But It’s Worthwhile
Don’t expect your board members to become comfortable with capital campaign fundraising overnight. That won’t happen.
You’ll have to start getting them ready in the early days of your campaign planning, and keep working with them for some time.
If you respect your board members’ need to understand and help them learn about capital campaign fundraising, you’ll find that they will get on board!
Free Campaign Guide for Board Members
Download our free campaign guide for board members to help them learn everything they need to know about a capital campaign.
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