Podcast: Are You Ready for a Capital Campaign? Key Insights from a Readiness Assessment

Season 4, Episode 45

In this episode, Amy Eisenstein welcomes two experienced Capital Campaign Pro advisors, Paula Peter and Kristin Raack, for a deep conversation about assessing campaign readiness. With decades of combined experience guiding nonprofits through the early stages of major fundraising initiatives, Paula and Kristin offer practical insights to help organizations determine if the time is right for a campaign—and what to do if it’s not yet.

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Amy Eisenstein:
If you are wondering if your organization is ready for a campaign, you’ve come to the right place. Hi, I’m Amy Eisenstein, and today Andrea is taking the day off and we have two very special guests to talk about campaign readiness and how to assess your readiness. And they are brilliant advisors on the Capital Campaign Pro advising team.

We’ve got Kristin Rock and Paula Peter, who have been advisors on our team for about five, six years each. They’ve worked with dozens, probably a hundred or more campaigns over the years, and we’re just thrilled to have them here to talk about campaign readiness and helping you figure out if you’re ready for a campaign and what you need to do to get ready. So welcome Paula and Kristin, thank you for being here.

Assessing an Organization’s Campaign Readiness

So you guys have done recently, we’ve done a standalone readiness assessment with a handful of clients who are thinking about contemplating campaigns and trying to figure out if they’re ready in the next six to 12 months for a campaign and really how they get ready.

So Paula, why don’t you kick us off with what is the big thing, one big thing that you’re looking for and helping organizations assess their campaign readiness?

What Do You Want to Raise Money For?

Paula Peter:
Thanks, Amy. The one big thing I am always looking for is whether they have a clear sense of what it is they want to raise money for, why it’s important. And even more importantly, have they engaged the full community in determining that priority for doing a campaign? So by that I mean:

• Have they done strategic planning?
• Have they engaged the board?
• Are the board and staff on the same page about what they want to do? And can it hold up?

I want to say hold up in court, but that’s the wrong phrase. So just does it stand? Does it have legs? So that’s the first thing I’m looking for. It’s often the hardest thing to get from a client.

Amy Eisenstein:
Good. I’m glad you clarified a little bit, but I’m just going to circle back. You said the whole community, so is that the board and staff leadership? Is it bigger than that? What’s the whole community in your experience?

Paula Peter:
Well, to me it is the internal community. Thanks for the clarification. Yeah. It’s really board and staff because ultimately you want to test that vision more broadly in feasibility with your larger community, your donors, your clients, the people you serve.

But at the outset, we need to know that they have determined what they need from a process that engages the clear stakeholders, the internal stakeholders for the organization, and frankly that they have done the due diligence to figure out the costs of those priorities.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. Okay. That’s so helpful. I want to circle back to that in a minute. First I’m going to turn to Kristin, but then I’m going to come back and ask you how often or when you see that board and staff are not on the same page. But Kristin, what do you want to add to this conversation about big vision and strategic thinking?

Kristin Raack:
I’m glad that Paula clarified that we’re really looking for that internal shared vision at the onset. But I’m also keen to point out that it needs to be community focused. Because often in the readiness assessment we hear people saying:

“We as an organization need a new building. We need upgraded infrastructure technology. We need this.”

And yes, those are important components of planning for the campaign, but part of our questions to them are clarifying what impact would those investments have on the community and how do we begin to think about a case for support that will inspire others because of the ripple effects it will have? And so I’m really glad that Paula talked about it starts with that inner circle of stakeholders, but then we need to think about how that message will then be transformed into something that galvanizes the broader community.

Getting Board and Staff onto the Same Page

Amy Eisenstein:
That’s great. So Paula, I’m curious how often you find that board and staff are not on the same page and what organizations can do to help get on the same page?

Paula Peter:
I think quite often… I would say more often than not, there has not been the organization or the facilitated discussions across board and staff lines to come to a common understanding about what our priorities are. And I don’t think it’s for bad reasons. I think it’s just everybody’s running fast, everybody’s trying to get things jump started and rarely feel they have the luxury to take the time to actually facilitate conversation and a planning process.

And to me, some people are process oriented, some people aren’t. Many leaders get to the top without that gene or without that experience. So I think to me, if we can encourage clients to really step back and invest in that early conversation across all of the internal stakeholder groups, that the magic that happens starts to flow. Without that, we’re always trying to push against somebody’s disconnect.

Amy Eisenstein:
Right. I think that’s such a good point. And just to make it a little bit more concrete, an example might be an organization where the executive director has the big vision, but the board hasn’t bought in yet, or vice versa, the board thinks they need to go somewhere and the staff feels overwhelmed, overworked, unprepared, not ready, whatever the case may be.

So it’s really about getting on the same page through perhaps a strategic planning process. Right. Kristin, what would you add?

Kristin Raack:
Yeah. If I can add, I think one of the biggest values of a readiness assessment is uncovering that the visions or the apt or interest in a campaign or willingness to take on the risk are different right now between the board and the staff.

And so opening those lines of communication through the readiness assessment process is solid gold. It helps clarify what are those next steps? How do we get on the same page? Because sometimes, as Paula said, it is not out of bad intentions, it’s just simply the organization has a lot of different things on their plate. And so the readiness assessment says:

“Let’s all have a conversation about this, and here’s where we’re seeing our visions are different or our timelines are different, and how do we come together around a shared goal.”

So I think if nothing else, or if you’re feeling like there’s some divide within your organization, a readiness assessment can really bring some clarity.

The Preparation Work We Do with Campaign Pro Clients

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. And just so listeners know, we have a very relatively short-term engagement, one to two months, fairly low investment where we work with clients who are questioning:

• Are we ready for a campaign?
• How do we get ready for a campaign?
• What are the next steps?
• What do we need to do?

So if you’re curious or if you’re contemplating, you can visit the Capital Campaign Pro website and sign up to do a readiness assessment with Paula or Kristin or somebody else on our team and really just help bring everybody together and identify next steps so that in the next six to 12 to 18 months, you are much more campaign ready.

One of the things that we talked about in getting ready for this conversation, Kristin, I think you used the term getting staff and board go, no go on their decision. How do they find alignment? So I’m curious, how does a board or staff members or together collectively decide whether they’re ready for go on a campaign or when they’re no go?

Kristin Raack:
Yeah. It’s a great question. I think it looks different for many different entities. I find that many of the readiness assessments we’re doing are those smaller organizations who’ve never done a campaign before, and that’s why they need this insight to help them determine is it possible? And if so, what does that look like?

Adopting a Campaign Mindset

I think one of the things that I find most important and that I’m always listening for in a readiness assessment process is what I call campaign mindset. Do they have the commitment? The perseverance? Are they certain that this is a good investment of their time? Because all nonprofits have too much on their plates. There will never be a chance to cross everything off their to-do list, but I want to know when the campaign gets hard or when there’s a bit of a slog, are they going to give up or are they so certain that this is what the community needs, that is what is the next right step for the organization, that they will find a way through those challenges or barriers?

And so I’m really listening for that commitment both from board and staff to persevere for the greater good. To really put it all on the line and know that campaigns have one of the highest returns on investment, and therefore maybe some of the smaller things need to be let go of. Maybe that event that is just really taking a lot of staff time needs to be scaled back or put on hold. And so I want to see that they realize the value and opportunity and are willing to make some of those hard decisions. And those are the folks that I think are ready for the go. They will find a way, even if the odds are stacked against them. And as campaign advisors, we can help them figure out how to do that. But if they don’t have that inner drive, it’s going to be really hard to be successful.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. I think that’s such a good point. Every client comes to us and says, “We’re overworked. We’re under resourced. We don’t have enough staff. How are we going to do this? We don’t have the time.” Paula, what ideas or recommendations do you have for clients that … Or how do you assess … I love that

Kristin talked about mindset. Or that the campaign’s really going to be a priority in good times and bad, and when it becomes a slog. How do you think about this issue?

Paula Peter:
Well, for me, again, I’m looking for that engagement. Who’s at the table? Who has discussed these issues? To Kristin’s point about mindset? And if it’s a slog, will they give up? It all goes back to whether they have all bought into the priority, whether they all know why it’s important that they do what they’re about to do. And if that conversation has had and if they fought out their differences about what the nuance of this campaign should be, and then they all come together finally and say:

“All right. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re all moving in the same direction.”

Then you have a mindset of … Just a clarity about what we’re about. And so I’m looking for that. I’m asking a lot about process when I do an assessment. Who’s been talking? Who have you been talking to? How long has this been going on? What has been the planning process? Who’s been engaged? And then it’s about how active are people? Is the board just sitting there trying to make a decision that you will go out and do, or do they understand their role in furthering a campaign or even the campaign planning process or engaging through the feasibility study? And many boards have no idea. They’ve never been there. They’ve never done this. And the whole idea of fundraising is frightening to them.

So often I’m looking for, well, where are they on the continuum of experience with campaigns or awareness of what it takes for a board? And it doesn’t mean that if they’ve never done it, they’re not ready. It means are they hungry to learn? Are they willing to have those conversations and to figure out their place in it because they really believe in the mission and the priority that is surfacing for this campaign. So that mindset piece has a lot of nuance to it.

And sometimes it takes getting several people’s opinions about where that is when you’re doing an assessment. So a CEO might tell you, here’s where the board is, and a staff person might tell you, well, here’s my take on where the board is, and a board chair might say something else. So really understanding whether they get each other, are in conversation in a constructive way, and whether we can help facilitate that through the assessment recommendations.

Amy Eisenstein:
When I’m talking to organizational leaders about a prospective campaign and whether they want to work with us, it’s always pretty clear when it’s just the development director talking to me and, oh, the executive director couldn’t make it. They canceled, whatever happened. Or another organization. Everybody shows up. The executive committee, the development committee, the board chair, everybody. The executive director, the development director. I’m like:

“Okay. Everybody’s in. Everybody gets that this is a team effort and they’re ready to go.”

And it doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “We have to do this. We’re ready to do it. We don’t know how we’re going to do it.” Because that’s where we come in. They don’t have to know how to do it. They haven’t done it before or haven’t done it in a long time.

And so how is our job or a campaign expert’s job, but the drive, the motivation, the willingness, the wanting to that has to come from the organization.

Assessing an Organization’s Campaign Readiness for Donors

Yeah. All right. Let’s turn to donors because donors are another really important component of campaign success. So who wants to start in terms of what are you looking for when you’re assessing an organization’s readiness with regard to donors? Who wants to go first?

Paula Peter:
I first want to know what their perspective is on major gifts. What do they consider a major gift for their organization? It could be $500 for one organization, it could be 500,000 for another. What do you define as a major gift for your organization? How many donors do you have giving in those ranges and how well do you know them?

So Andrea used to always say, “Can you name your top 20, 30, 40, 50 donors?” Many organization can’t. They’ve just never really thought about it that way, and they haven’t developed the infrastructure to track their donors that way. I had an organizational president once who used to keep the list of top 20 donors on the inside of his coat closet in his office, and every morning he would open the door to hang his coat up on the inside door, and there were the list of 20 names that he wanted to look at every morning so that they were top of mind. That was a great trick.

Amy Eisenstein:
Can you imagine today, it might be your screensaver, right?

Paula Peter:
Oh, yeah. I don’t know about that.

Amy Eisenstein:
Forget your kids. Your kids are out.

Paula Peter:
You still have to hang up your coat in 2025.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah.

Paula Peter:
But yes. I think that’s where I like to start. And then to be asking questions about the top five on that list as to how long ago were you in touch with them? How do you interact with them? Are they involved with your organization? Just to get a sense of whether they have a culture of keeping people engaged.

When it Comes to Scrappier Organizations

Amy Eisenstein:
Now, Kristin, you work with a lot, for lack of a better word off the tip of my tongue, scrappy organizations. Up and coming, growing scrappy organizations. You can call them something else. So those organizations may not have a major gift program developed. They’re probably on the spectrum of what Paula said. Their big donors are 500 or a thousand dollars or maybe $5,000 is a major gift. So how do you help them think through what they might have to do to get ready for a campaign, or how do you help them assess their campaign readiness?

Kristin Raack:
That was such an important question, Amy. And I think some people don’t even explore a campaign because the small … And I love the terms scrappy because it feels right. They’re working hard, they’re in touch with the community. Often they don’t even consider a campaign like:

“Oh, we don’t have a major gifts program yet, and so we can’t even consider this.”

Well, I’m less concerned about the program and I’m more concerned about the people. So the people in terms of both your donors as well as the people on staff or on your board. Are they willing, as Paula is talking about, to go out and talk to people? Do they have that desire to connect? And then of course, we can get into the nitty-gritty in their donor database and look at who has greater capacity? Maybe people are only giving $500 because you’ve never asked them for anything larger or you’ve never had a vision that’s large enough to inspire a big gift.

And so we have tools to help them think through how to look at their existing prospects in a way that maybe they’ve never considered, and explore the potential embedded in that. I also, with small organizations especially, look at their funding mix because there’s not a perfect universal breakdown of what your funding sources should look like. It’s different for every sub sector. Some will get a lot of contracts or reimbursements from the government. Others, they’re not going to have any access to those types of funding sources.

An Unhealthy Reliance on Events

But I’m seeing, especially with a lot of small organizations right now, a really unhealthy reliance on events. And I just want to remind folks that event attendees, they might buy a ticket, they might bid on an auction item, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they have a deep affinity for your mission. We won’t necessarily assume they’re going to be good campaign prospects without having some conversation with them. And if we do events well, we should be following up with those donors. We should be taking that interest in the event and helping grow it into an interest in the mission, in the organization’s impact.

But I’m especially digging into that. What does that look like in terms of their follow-up after events? Do they actually know those folks? And I also want to address any misconceptions because I think especially small organizations, it’s easy to think, “Oh, we’ll find new lead donors somewhere out there.” Because they think their campaign is so exciting, and it probably is. But what we know as campaign experts, our largest donors are people already in our sphere of influence. People who already know our organization.

And so I’m thinking of one readiness assessment where they have some great ideas for their lead donors, but they didn’t actually have a relationship with any of them. Yes, they were in the community. Yes, they had shared values, priorities, but they didn’t actually have a relationship. And so trying to realign their workflows now so that they’re investing in those relationships and becoming more ready for a campaign then as they move forward.

So I think all nonprofits, whether they’re small and scrappy or large, should consider campaigns because they’re so effective. But those small organizations need to make sure that they’re really being intentional in their relationship development and not just relying on events or grants, but are working toward the types of relationships that would lead to gifts.

When You Don’t Have a Major Gift Program

Paula Peter:
Yeah. I want to pick up on something that Kristin just said, which is if you’ve never done major gifts and you think you can’t do a campaign because you’ve never done major gifts and whatever that means to you, understand that most organizations start to learn how to do major gifts through a campaign. The chicken and the egg thing is real here. Many organizations I’ve worked with over 40 years actually launched a major gift program coming out of their campaign because they had to learn to do it in order to do the campaign.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes. I am so glad you said that, Paula. That is so on point. And Kristin, when you said their donors have not given bigger gifts because the organization hasn’t had a bigger vision and they haven’t asked their donors for bigger gifts before. Coupled with this idea, Paula, that the vast majority of organizations launch a major gifts program because they have a campaign and they’re forced to raise major gifts or think about it and learn how to do it for the very first time. So I’m so glad you both —

Paula Peter:
And to teach their boards to do it.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yes. And to teach their boards to do it.

Examples of Organizations Assessing Their Campaign Readiness

Okay. So I’m going to ask each of you to think of one organization that you worked with in the past year or so that you took through a readiness assessment and share one or two recommendations that you made to help them get campaign ready in the next, I don’t know, six to 12 to 18 months. Because I think one of the reasons that I want to share this with listeners is because organizations are so afraid that if they do a readiness assessment, they’re going to get told you’re not ready. And we don’t say that very often. What we say are:

“Here are some things you need to do to get ready, and in six or 12 months, you’re likely to be ready. Just because you’re not ready right this moment today doesn’t mean that you can’t do a campaign In the near future.”

Campaigns are thoughtful, purposeful, strategic, planful, and the organizations that succeed plan for them. So this is just part of that process. So Paula, what’s an organization that you can think of that you worked with in the last, I don’t know, year or so that you helped get ready for a campaign?

Paula Peter:
I’m actually going to share three briefly that are different versions of what came out. One organization was not sure they were ready. And they absolutely were. They had a very clear vision on what they needed to do. There was lots of buy-in for it. They knew who their top core people would be. They knew who they would interview in a feasibility study. So they had clarity about their dollar pool that way, and they were a little nervous. And our role was to say, “You are ready. You check all the boxes. Get on with it.”

Amy Eisenstein:
I love that.

Paula Peter:
And then there was a social service organization that I was asked to do a readiness assessment for because the board was pushing really, really hard to do a campaign. And there was clarity about what they wanted to do. The building that they wanted to buy and renovate was an opportunity, a great opportunity. They were all ready to do it. Except that there were three or four major shifts in the organization’s operating model that came from external environmental reasons. So policy changes, legal changes that was requiring them to shift their whole operating structure. And the CEO was stressed to the max, just overwhelmed. And for her … She was panicked. She was panicked I was going to come back and say, “Yeah, get on with it.”

And truthfully, she couldn’t have done it. She could not have taken on the campaign on top of all that. So our recommendation was, “You get these other things cleared off your plate. Take the next six to 12 months and do these little things that you can do to start developing your donor list. Some other things that you can do towards readiness, but do not think about adding this feasibility process to your plate until these other things are behind you.” And the sigh of relief was huge. And the third —

Amy Eisenstein:
Can I just add that the board probably needed an outsider to tell them that?

Paula Peter:
Yes. They didn’t know.

Amy Eisenstein:
Because they would’ve pushed this poor executive director to the brink–

Paula Peter:
And she would’ve left.

Amy Eisenstein:
She would’ve left. That’s right. So the value add in having an outside perspective and someone with tons of experience come say, “Yes, you’re campaign ready, but this is not the right time. This is not the right moment because your staff can’t manage it. And there’s too many external factors.”, was probably exactly what all needed to hear in order for the board to take a step back. So thank you for sharing that example. Okay. One more.

Paula Peter:
There’s a third, and that is a national organization that was transitioning from a founder’s situation to a new CEO and had tremendous success fundraising in a very entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, scrappy way. Big numbers, but scrappy process. Get it done, and they did. But now they’re wanting to do a major campaign. The first really big campaign they’ve ever done. And they had very different perspectives. They being different staff people, this new CEO and the board about what that should be for.

And so for an organization that didn’t have a culture of planning, collaborative planning, we really had to step back and say, “Let’s do that work.” And they are doing it. The new CEO is very much of a planner, and she’s leading a strategic planning process now to bring all the staff and the board to the table to really both innovate and strengthen their program. And that’s been an interesting process for an organization without the culture to do that. But they are doing it.

Amy Eisenstein:
And my experience is that after that process and going through a campaign makes every organization stronger. And so for the next five or 10 years or for the future, they will be a stronger organization because they slowed down and went through that process. Great. Kristin, what’s an example of a readiness assessment that you’ve worked on recently that comes to mind?

Kristin Raack:
Sure. So I’ve got a supplement with some ones that are a little different than what Paula has shared. I’m thinking of two specific ones. One was a youth serving organization, and the other was a social service organization. One was on the east coast, one was on the west coast. And both of them really checked the big boxes in terms of the vision and strategy, in terms of that shared vision between board and staff. But really for them it was the tactical and infrastructure things that needed attention. And so in a way, I think it was really encouraging for them for me to be able to say:

“You’re ready on the big things. Now let’s focus on getting some of the small things into place so that it’s less stressful as you move into a campaign.”

So what does that look like? That is some things like data hygiene. They had not cleaned up their CRM since they started using it.

Amy Eisenstein:
In forever.

Kristin Raack:
And so let’s do some simple things. Let’s check for deceased individuals. Let’s do that change of address correction. Let’s go in and make even some notes about some of the major donors that we do have relationships with. And they just hadn’t kept up on those qualitative notes about the relationship, about what motivates that donor. And so those are very tangible things that they could begin to work on. One of them also just needed more people power. And so one of the recommendations was don’t wait for the campaign. Get a development coordinator or someone at that lower level now who can help with the appeal letters, who can help with the stewardship process, who can just keep the wheels going on all of the day-to-day operations within a busy development office.

And so again, something very tangible that they could move forward on now that would help them in their readiness process and as they moved into the campaign.

And then just in general, systems. So often it’s just they haven’t thought through, if we get a name from a board member, what do we do with it? So sometimes it’s simply thinking through what are our communication processes? How do we make sure that we don’t drop things? And that involves your CRM, but it goes beyond that, and it’s really about the people processes as well. And so those are often what the readiness assessment uncovers, are just opportunities to be more efficient and effective. We know our time is precious. And sometimes when you’re mired in it, you don’t see how easy a little tweak would be to really have a huge impact.

Those are some of my favorite assessments too, are getting into not the big overwhelming issues, but just what are those tactical things that will make our lives easier and prepare us for our campaign.

Key Takeaways

Amy Eisenstein:
I love that. Okay. So I’m going to ask you each to think of one thing that you want to either reiterate or share or shout out to listeners as they’re getting ready for their campaigns. The one most important takeaway that you want to share. And I want to remind folks that we can help with this. So do visit the Capital Campaign Pro website. You can either sign up for a readiness assessment or talk to me or someone on the team about us helping you get ready for, prepare for a campaign. And if you’re ready, let’s do a feasibility study and launch that campaign well, strong, right. Whatever the word is I’m looking for.

Okay. Kristin, what’s your one key takeaway for listeners that they should be thinking about as they head into a campaign?

Kristin Raack:
Yeah. It’s my hill to die on. Do you have a campaign mindset? Do you as whatever role you embody, whether you’re the DOD or the ED, the CEO, do you have that campaign mindset, but you also see it amongst your team? And if not, what do you need to get there? Is it that there’s just some fear and education will help mitigate that fear? Or are there bigger issues that you need to tackle? But I would just say, think about do we have that campaign mindset where we can make this a priority.

Amy Eisenstein:
I love it. Paula, what about you?

Paula Peter:
Do you have clarity about what it is and why it is you should do a campaign? And my advice to anybody who’s thinking about this at any level doing a campaign is talk to everybody in your organization. So start to facilitate conversations among your board. Think about whether planning is a process you need to do or whether you just need to bring the teams together, the board, the staff, and get clarity about what is our priority and why does it matter, and to Kristin’s point, why does it matter to the community. What will it enable us to do?

That’s the crux of your case for support. If you haven’t got buy-in, it won’t be credible externally.

Amy Eisenstein:
I love it. All right.

Well, Paula and Kristin, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your wisdom and expertise and just for some really concrete examples and things that our listeners can try.

So thank you for being here and listening, and we’ll see you next time. Bye, everybody.