Podcast: Is There Ever a Bad Time to Run a Capital Campaign?

Season 5, Episode 23

There is always someone in the room who believes the timing is wrong, the moment feels uncertain, and waiting sounds safer than moving forward.

In this episode, Amy Eisenstein and Andrea Kihlstedt tackle one of the most common objections heard in boardrooms and leadership meetings: the belief that now is a bad time to raise money. Drawing from a real dinner conversation and decades of campaign experience, they unpack why this concern surfaces year after year and why it continues to stall bold plans.

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Amy Eisenstein:
There’s never a good time to fundraise or so some of your board members think.

Hi, I’m Amy Eisenstein and I’m here with my colleague and co-founder, Andrea Kihlstedt. And today we’re going to be talking about the idea that now, whenever now is, is not a good time to be fundraising because if you’re thinking about a capital campaign specifically but in general fundraising, someone at your organization is going to say, “Is now really a good time to be raising money?”

Is Now a Good Time to Raise Money?

Andrea, tell us how this topic came up for you recently.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yes. Thank you, Amy. And hi everybody. Last night, I went out to dinner with a group of five women.

Now, I didn’t know them very well, so at some point it came, we were talking about what each of us did and I said I was in the fundraising business and one of the women, who I happen to know is the wealthiest of them or she is quite wealthy, said to me with a puzzled look on her face:

“Well, it must have been a terrible year because this is a terrible time to raise money.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes. Yes. We hear that all the time. Honestly, no matter what the season, what’s going on economically, politically, environmentally, people tell us this is a bad time to raise money or to do a capital campaign. We hear it again and again, whether there’s a pandemic. Go ahead.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
I think part of it is that if you decide it’s a terrible time to raise money, then you actually don’t have to do it. You can wait for something, right? Or, if you’re not successful in your own personal fundraising for whatever, then you can assume that it has nothing to do with you, and it has to do with the fact that it’s a terrible time to raise money.

It’s Almost Always a GREAT Time to Raise Money

But Amy, as you introduced this podcast episode and said, “This is a terrible time to raise money.” What was going through my mind is that this is a great time to raise money. In fact, most every time is a great time to raise money.

Amy Eisenstein:
Right. Well, we’ve found, over the years, whether through recession or pandemic or global catastrophe and wars and presidential races, we find again and again that organizations that have a compelling case for support and strong leadership and passionate donors raise more and more and more, year after year after year. And I mean, that’s sort of what we’re talking about today, right? Some of it is about mindset and do you want to raise money or do you want to have an excuse not to raise money?

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yeah. And do you want to say to be safe and decide that you’re going to fail? And then when you fail, it’s fine, right? I mean, that’s terrible. So, we thought you might enjoy hearing Amy and me sort of have a little fun, a little dramatic action here, where I’m the person who says, “Gee, this is a terrible time to raise money.” And Amy plays my role, last night, in telling me why that’s nonsense, right?

We’re just going to try it out a little and then we’ll see if we can just pull some lessons from that that you might find useful when you’re talking to your board members, who of course have decided that, “This is a terrible time to raise money.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Or maybe your executive director has decided it’s a terrible time to raise money. Who knows?

Somebody at your organization is saying, “Well, maybe it’s not a good time to raise money right now.” Yeah. Okay, go ahead, Andrea.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
All right. Amy, I think this is a terrible time to raise money. Your business must have had a rough year last year because everybody knows it’s a bad time to raise money.

Amy Eisenstein:
In fact, last year was a great year to raise money. Our clients collectively raised well over a $100 million, and we didn’t find with anybody that it was a terrible time to raise money, so tell me more about why you think it might’ve been a bad time to raise money.

Making the Case to Raise Money During Uncertain Times

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Well, let me start with this. Everyone knows that globally we are really unsettled, right? That it just feels uncertain, right? The world feels uncertain, our country feels uncertain, our leadership feels uncertain. It doesn’t feel like a time when things are stable, and that’s got to make people anxious about giving.

Amy Eisenstein:
Well, that is true. It definitely is an uncertain time, but actually what that does is, for many organizations, highlights the needs and makes their case for support even stronger. And donors step up because they want to help. They see the instability and they want to do something meaningful and important. And the way they can do that and play their small part is by being generous. They want to help the organizations that they care about stay strong through the instability, so it actually can motivate giving.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
What bothers me about these times is that this instability makes me worry about my own future, even though I have enough money. When things are so unstable, you sort of think about the financial markets coming to an end or it just makes me nervous and if everybody is nervous —

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes, for sure. I think every donor has to reflect on what their finances are and how risk averse they are or how important it is. The truth is that, for the past few years, the stock market has gone up and up and up. Now, of course, we can’t predict the future, but the reality is that most people that are giving to charity in significant and meaningful ways have more assets and more wealth than they’ve ever had.

And there are all sorts of ways to think about giving to charity to make sure that your assets are protected and that you can still be generous and have some tax advantages or capital gains benefits. So, there are lots of ways to think about how can you be generous to charity and still make sure that you have enough to live as comfortably as you want to.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Yeah, I know that’s right. Emotionally, it feels a little uncertain, right? To do that, even though, as I said, I have plenty. So, it’s silly, I suppose, to feel that way. I mean, the other thing, the reason I think it’s not a good time to raise money, is that all of us old people are dying off.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes, it can feel that way, doesn’t it? Listen, I think, people are not dying off at any different rates than they have been probably for any other time in the recent past, but you may be more acutely aware of it now, if you’re of a certain age. That being said, I think it’s a great time for organizations and for donors to think about planned giving and how donors can include organizations, nonprofits in their legacy plans and their charitable planning. So, it won’t affect your current income or the money that you need to live off of, but you can be generous after you don’t need it anymore.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Amy, do you really mean to tell me that in your business that you really see that people are giving and still giving generously, that they’re not holding back?

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes, yes. In fact, almost every single week we have organizations reporting in that either they’re approaching or surpassing their campaign goals, which is super exciting, or that they’re receiving million dollar gifts for the first time in the organization’s history. And so they are really rising to the challenge.

The case for support for their campaign and their vision is strong and they’re working with donors and partnering with them in new and innovative and creative and thoughtful and strategic ways, and donors are stepping up now more than ever. There’s huge need in this country and around the world in the areas of science and education and healthcare and all sorts of areas, and those campaigns are going strong.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Well, Amy, it’s nice to know that. Now, let’s come back into today’s world. This was sort of a reflection of the conversation I had last night with my friend around the dinner table, right now.

Amy Eisenstein:
Is there anything that you said last night that I didn’t cover? I know we didn’t practice. We didn’t prepare.

Loyal Donors Are Stepping Up

Andrea Kihlstedt:
No, I think you covered at all. I think I leaned in a little more to the idea that people are concerned about the organizations that they regularly support as they see federal dollars being pulled away or state money being pulled away. Rather than pulling back, it motivates them to lean in, right? To really want to help the organizations they care about. So, while it may be harder to get new donors to an organization, it’s a great time to be going to donors who have been supporting organizations for a long time and saying, “We need you now more than ever because of all these reasons of insecurity.”

So, I sort of flipped the script on her. I said:

“This insecurity is really helping organizations that use it well.”

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. Let me give you a really concrete, specific example of organizations that either pulled back because they said, “It wasn’t a good time.” Or plowed ahead. And that is, just five years ago now, when the pandemic started, and we had organizations working with us at Capital Campaign Pro in all stages of campaign, just thinking about it, really getting started with their planning, mid-campaign. And the pandemic in March, April, May, June, July of 2020 was in full swing and every organization had a discussion, “Is this a good time to raise money? Should we be raising money now?”

I will tell you, fortunately, I think all of our organizations continued and they are long done with their campaigns. But I still talk to organizations, organizational leaders that were not working with us at the time but are now looking for help saying, “We were planning, or we were preparing for, or we were about to get ready to start a capital campaign, or we were mid-campaign, and we stopped.” And they say, “Because it wasn’t a good time to raise money.”

Well, guess what? They haven’t started their campaign, they haven’t finished their campaign, they’re still struggling, but the organizations that kept talking to their donors, made their case for support, they are long finished with their campaigns. And I think that that’s such a really important thing to remember and be able to share with your leadership that organizations are successful raising money in good times and bad and maybe even more successful in difficult, challenging times because the case gets stronger and the will is there even more to accomplish your goals.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Can actually make them thoughtful about what they want to give, about having donors lean into their own philanthropy as opposed to backing off because they think it’s not a good time to be giving, right? Is it a good time to be asking? Is it a good time to be giving? If we decide it is a good time to be asking and a good time to be giving, then the whole field moves up, right? Then everyone gets excited about it.

Really, what has to change, I mean, the big differentiator between whether people do really well in their fundraising or don’t is how well they do their fundraising, how well they do their stewardship, how well they talk to their donors. And the idea of having conversations with your donors and saying, “How are you feeling about giving in these uncertain times?” Is a really powerful kind of conversation to have, right? Where you can explain to your donors how it’s affecting you and your organization, and they can explain to you how these times are affecting them as donors.

Share This Podcast and Lean Into Your Plans

Amy Eisenstein:
So, I think you should jumpstart this conversation by sharing this podcast episode with all of your board members and leadership team. Go ahead, if you haven’t already, hit the like and follow button, go ahead and rate us and give us five stars if this episode was helpful, but share it. Share it with your leadership team and schedule a time to have a conversation about why this is a great and important time to continue with your fundraising, to be planning a campaign, to lean into those campaign plans more strongly now than ever.

I think one thing that we haven’t talked about, Andrea, specifically with regard to campaigns is that campaigns are long. And if now seems like a bad time for fundraising or donors can’t make a decision because of something going on in their lives or with the economy, the chances are strong that the campaign’s going to still be going strong six months from now, 12 months from now, 24 months from now, and times will have changed, so the idea that you shouldn’t start something because this moment seems bad or feels bad, if you do your good planning now, you are still going to be asking when the economy changes. Anything you want to add to that timing issue?

Final Thoughts

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Amy, I just want to add one thing to this conversation, which is that through good times and bad, through thick and thin, how you respond to a donor that does give makes a huge difference. Your commitment to great stewardship, to reaching out to people who give in a personal way really quickly after they’ve given will make all the difference in when they give their next gift. That makes a much bigger difference than whether the times are good or bad about fundraising.

What makes a difference is how they feel about their last gift to you. And if you really made them feel great about giving, guess what? In good times and bad times, they’re going to give again.

Amy Eisenstein:
They’re going to be there for you.

Andrea Kihlstedt:
They’re going to be there for you, exactly.

Amy Eisenstein:
That’s great. So, the next time you hear in your boardroom, on your leadership team, someone say, “This is not a good time to raise money.” You can say:

“You know what? I’ve got a podcast about that.”

Andrea Kihlstedt:
Right. Do I have a podcast for you.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes. All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for listening. Andrea, great topic, and we’ll see you next time.