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Podcast: Resilience Through Disaster: How a Small Fundraising Team Sustained Their Capital Campaign During Hurricane Helene

By Capital Campaign Pro Team

Season 4, Episode 47

In this episode, Amy Eisenstein hosts a conversation with Stephanie Wilensky, Development Director at CooperRiis Healing Community, and Capital Campaign Pro Senior Advisor Xan Blake. Together, they share a compelling story of how a small fundraising team kept momentum alive in the face of extraordinary circumstances, including a devastating hurricane that left the organization temporarily disconnected and without water.

Tune in to learn how one team turned challenge into opportunity, and why long-term vision can withstand even the toughest storms.

Listen Now:

Stream the episode above, or click here to find it on Spotify. You can also find all episodes on your favorite streaming platform.

Amy Eisenstein:
We are going to talk about a capital campaign and an amazing resilient development team and small shop and development director who got her campaign over a huge hurdle of going through Hurricane Helene.

Hi, I’m Amy Eisenstein. Andrea’s taking the day off. And today I have two very special guests with me. First up, we have Xan Blake, who’s an advisor, a senior advisor on the Capital Campaign Pro consulting team. And we have Stephanie Wilensky, who’s the development director at CooperRiis Healing Community. And I am so glad that they are joining me today to talk about the amazing progress that CooperRiis has made on their campaign journey and the incredible disruption that their campaign had with Hurricane Helene and how they’ve overcome some of those challenges.

So welcome, Stephanie, and welcome, Xan. Thank you both for being here.

CooperRiis Healing Community’s Capital Campaign through Hurricane Helene

So Stephanie, why don’t you start first by telling us what your campaign’s for. What are you raising the money for? What is your working goal? How much are you trying to raise? And tell people where you are in the country too?

Stephanie Wilensky:
Sure. So we are in Western North Carolina, and our organization is Residential Healing Community. Our capital campaign is to raise money for a permanent endowment, and our working goal is 6 million in cash. And then also, we have a planned giving component and we have a goal to get 10 documented planned gifts.

And currently, we just raised over half of our cash goal. So that’s something that we’ve been celebrating and it’s very exciting. And we are hoping to go public in November of this year.

Amy Eisenstein:
Awesome. Oh my gosh, that is so exciting. First of all, let’s just pause to celebrate with you getting to that halfway cash towards your working goal milestone, which is huge. We are just so proud of you over here and all the hard work you’ve done.

So I want to come back to that idea of a bequest goal in a few minutes. But Xan, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your work with Stephanie and CooperRiis. And what was going on for the campaign maybe before the hurricane? And then what happened?

Xan Blake:
Yeah, sure. So the campaign had progressed in the normal way. We thought deeply about what our goals were and what the organization needed. We conducted a Guided Feasibility Study where Stephanie and the CEO of the organization and the founder of the organization went out to the community and asked them about their willingness and inclination to support a campaign like Stephanie just described.

And we had moved along and I think, Stephanie, if I remember right, we’d gotten at least one of your lead gifts in the door at that point. And then Hurricane Helene hit. And as Stephanie said, they’re in Western North Carolina, and for those of you who remember, that was the epicenter of some major damage from the hurricane.

In the CooperRiis community, there’s actually a residential component to it, so CooperRiis is responsible for where people live. And throughout the course of the hurricane and its progress, Stephanie had major damage to her home. The founder had major damage to their property. Eric, their CEO, was struggling to keep people safe. The community didn’t have water. We had a couple of meetings where I don’t think any of you, Stephanie, had had any running water for a long time.

So when I think about the struggles that a campaign faces, I always think about CooperRiis and the fact that they had this really big major natural disaster that landed in their laps. And I think what they were able to do and have been able to do ever since is really inspiring.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, it definitely sounds that way.

The Aftermath of the Hurricane

So Stephanie, take us back in your memory of the aftermath of the hurricane and maybe the conversations that were happening internally about whether to proceed with the campaign, how to proceed with the campaign, how to deal with the current needs that arose as a result of the hurricane.

Stephanie Wilensky:
Yeah. So it was obviously a lot, and one thing that was very difficult was, even before the biggest part of the storm hit, we lost all communication, so there was no… You couldn’t call anyone. You couldn’t look at the news to figure out what happened or how widespread it was.

Personally, I didn’t understand. I sort of thought, “Oh, it just our area got hit really hard, our neighborhood for some reason.” And then the more and more people I had talked to, they’re like, “Oh, Asheville got hit and this area got hit,” and sort of quickly learned how widespread the damage was. But it was very hard to be cut off from communication with anyone. So no one was able to talk to colleagues or even understand that they were safe and okay.

So I don’t believe I got to talk to Eric until, Eric is our president and CEO, until Monday, maybe Tuesday after the storm, after we evacuated. And in talking to him, I know just everyone in our programs, program leadership, direct care staff, they did everything that they could to mobilize, ensure that our residents were safe and really connecting with families who were so obviously worried about their loved ones in our program. And with communication just not available, I can’t imagine how scary that was for our resident families.

So that was sort of a long-winded answer, and I don’t know if I got to everything that you asked, but yeah.

Amy Eisenstein:
That’s fine. Yeah, no, I think it’s important to share what was happening in order to paint the picture. So that must’ve been terrifying.

A Pivot Point

So I’m sure there was some pivot, some discussion of immediate fundraising needs versus campaign needs. So I’ll ask you to start and then Xan to chime in because I’m sure she has a different perspective as an outsider advising you on what was happening at the time. But do you remember how you were thinking about fundraising for immediate needs versus the campaign priorities?

Stephanie Wilensky:
Right, yeah. So once I finally did get in contact with Eric, our team obviously had to make a huge pivot. We had lots of immediate needs and our community stepped up just in incredible ways. Even before a campaign was, I think organized or put online, we were already hearing from so many people and getting so much love and support.

So yeah, everything really shifted to all of our immediate needs, taking care of our residents, our staff, and our programs. And that happened all very quickly, and everyone responded just with love and care, and it was really, really incredible. Yeah.

Amy Eisenstein:
That’s great to hear. Xan, what do you remember about working with this group at that moment in time?

Xan Blake:
Well, I guess first thing, just as a human being and one who wasn’t having the sort of physical experience that they were having, in the same way that they were trying to care for their community, I was kind of trying to care for them. What do you need from us? How could I be helpful? So there was that.

So Stephanie and I did have a couple of meetings real quickly about how these gifts were coming in, and sometimes it was unclear what their intent was and how Stephanie was going to actually utilize them. There were some gifts that came in to support staff and their immediate non-work needs. So we figured some of those things out. They weren’t technically capital campaign, but they were important at the time.

I think relative to the capital campaign, the goal was just to not lose the work that we had done. And maybe to see a little bit about these donors who were coming out to help because of the hurricane, could that relationship become more than that? Was it just emergency fundraising or was their emergency giving a manifestation of their love and concern for the organization?

And of course, I think there’s a lot of places they could have given their money after Hurricane Helene. They chose CooperRiis, and so that was a strong indicator of at least some potential going forward. And just to try to support them and let them know that I was supportive of whatever choice they made relative to the capital campaign. But we had done so much of the work and the preparation, it would’ve been a shame to throw that away.

Ultimately, they decided not to throw that away, to hang on to it. And I think, and I know Stephanie will talk about this more, but I think it’s because the hurricane sort of reinforced the need or the campaign, not the other way around.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. Stephanie, why don’t you tell us about that? Tell us about how the hurricane strengthened the need. We were talking a little bit about it before we hit the record button, so what did that bring up for you all?

Stephanie Wilensky:
Yeah. It just really solidified the need for what we were doing with the campaign, having in place an endowment to support through unexpected things that come up like a hurricane, that’s a pretty big one. And there are always things that come up that are unexpected.

So yeah, it really solidified that the work that we’re doing in the campaign is just incredibly important, and it’s important that we move forward with the project because it is so incredibly valuable, important for our sustainability as an organization.

And going back to, Xan, you mentioned something about how post-hurricane, we had tremendous support from our community and we heard from people we hadn’t heard from in a long time, and that was amazing too. So it reconnected us with those community members, and we have been able to rebuild those relationships, and they came through for us at such a difficult time. And now we’re in conversation with some of them about our capital campaign.

So that’s been pretty incredible to reconnect with these community members we haven’t heard from in a long time, and just start building those relationships again. That piece has been wonderful. Yeah.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah. That’s great. Just remind us, Stephanie, how many months has it been? How long has it been since the hurricane?

Stephanie Wilensky:
About seven.

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, just for context, just because it did bring all these donors sort of back into the fold and the idea that you have been able to sort of rekindle and maintain some of those relationships into the campaign. I think in a lot of people’s circumstances, they would’ve thrown up their hands and said:

“We can’t continue with the campaign. We need to pause. We need to not do this now.”

So the story I hope listeners are taking away is this resilience and this renewed spark for the need.

A Capital Campaign Without a Building

So another thing that’s special and a little bit unique about your campaign is that there’s no building. We frequently get questions about can we do a campaign when there’s no building? So talk a little bit about the sustainability piece, because I think a lot of people are curious, can we do a campaign when there’s no physical thing involved? So say a little bit more about your case and why you felt it was important to do and how donors have reacted.

Stephanie Wilensky:
Right. So in the beginning, as Xan mentioned, we did a Guided Feasibility Study, and the response from the community of people that we interviewed was really just, “Yes, of course, an endowment makes sense,” overwhelmingly. And we had obviously heard this is different. This is not typical in a capital campaign. And for our organization, it really made sense.

And then when we went through the interviews, everyone agreed. And Xan was really supportive in that process and encouraging. And for our organization, I think it just really makes sense and people have been responding really well. Yeah.

Amy Eisenstein:
Amazing. And just for listeners who are unfamiliar with this idea of a Guided Feasibility Study, Xan, you brought it up earlier, and Stephanie, you just referenced it. It’s Capital Campaign Pro’s model of feasibility study where we partner with you through a typical feasibility study process, except the key difference is that your leaders, the leaders at the organization do the interviews. You are in the room with your donors, not us.

So we work very closely with you through every step of the process to prepare you leading up to the donors, helping identify which donors to interview, coaching you through the arc of the conversation and role-playing and preparing you for it, and then, of course, helping you analyze the data and the conversations you had at the end so that you can plan the strongest campaign possible. And this was a really successful model, it sounds like, for you guys at CooperRiis. Stephanie, you’re nodding, I’ll just acknowledge that.

The Feasibility Study and Case for Support

Xan, talk a little bit about you helped the folks at CooperRiis prepare for their feasibility study and even crafted their case for support, which is a little bit different than a building campaign.

Xan Blake:
Absolutely. So I’m going to start with the last question first, which is how did we craft their case for support? And I don’t know that this kind of campaign would fit everybody, but for this organization, I think we haven’t exactly clearly articulated so far in our conversations the fact that this organization really works on the issue of mental health.

So for the folks that they serve, some of them receive treatment. And Stephanie, please correct me if I say anything wrong here, but they received treatment for shorter time period, and then some people are there for quite a bit longer. So the idea of having a long-term sustainable fund that could go into their operating budget over the long haul was really appealing because the payer systems for them will change over time. Maybe even the way that they enact their model might change over time. But these are services that people often need for, it’s not just a day and it’s not just a week. This is a commitment that they make to the people that they serve.

So consequently, the idea of having long-term, sustainable, consistent funding meant that we could simply take everything that they do and everything that they’re good at, and that’s what we put in the case statement. So they have an incredible record of the folks that they work with returning to work, returning to school, returning to independent living.

So we could talk about all of those things. We could talk about, essentially instead of it making it restricted, as we often think of conversations of endowment, we actually just flipped that idea on its head. It meant we could talk about everything that they do because this endowment was going to go support everything that they did. So that part, once we have that aha moment, was actually quite easy because they can talk about what they do all day long.

Amy Eisenstein:
I love that.

Xan Blake:
So the way that we just prepare them, and this would be similar for any client that had a Guided Feasibility Study, is once we get the idea of the case statement down, and once we look through the donor pool and make some critical decisions about who we would ask to be interviewed, and people in Stephanie’s role are critical to that decision, right? Because they know the folks and know their giving histories and things like that.

Then I worked with them to prepare an interview guide. And then we had some training sessions on how to do the interview, how to talk with people, why it’s important to start with the donor’s historical connection to the organization before you dive into your door needs and why you’re doing the campaign, and to ask them pretty clear questions about their willingness and inclination to support the campaign.

And Stephanie, if you don’t mind, my recollection of you in this process was when you first started out, you were hesitant, as almost every one of our clients is. And then after you’ve got a couple of them under your belt, you came to our next meeting and you said some version of, “Xan, this is kind of fun. We hear from people all the things we do that they like.” And sometimes there are things that they don’t like, but for the most part, as I recall, you had a pretty good time in those conversations. You enjoyed them.

Direct Feasibility Study Interviews with Donors

Amy Eisenstein:
Yeah, Stephanie, why don’t you tell us about your experience doing those feasibility study interviews?

Stephanie Wilensky:
Sure. Yeah. To be honest, I was incredibly nervous going into it. It’s not something I had ever done before, and I was a brand new fundraiser, so it was a little bit intimidating. We did practice and prepare, and I was a part of all of the interviews, some with Eric, our CEO, and then some with Don, who is our founder and board chair.

And it actually, yes, it was really fun and it was an incredible opportunity, not just gauging people’s interest in the capital campaign and what they thought about what we are trying to do, but just being in front of our community members who have shown up for us for so long, and getting to have these structured conversations and getting to know them better. It couldn’t have been more perfect for me as a new fundraiser, just getting to interview all of them. So it was, yeah, good, really wonderful on a couple levels, I guess.

Amy Eisenstein:
That’s amazing. We do hear how magical these opportunities are in helping staff and board members prepare for a campaign. So talk a little bit about how going through this feasibility study process where you were interviewing your donors helped you prepare for some of the asks that came down the road. Now you’re halfway to your goal, so you’ve made some of these big fundraising asks. Do you feel that the feasibility study interviews helped prepare you to make those solicitations? And how?

Stephanie Wilensky:
Yes, definitely, because we walked, well, one, we walked away from many of the interviews knowing what to ask for, because people, a lot of our community members would just share in the interview, so it was we didn’t have a lot of… We just had an understanding of what people were wanting to contribute to the campaign, so that part was incredibly helpful.

And then just hearing from people what they value about the work that we’re doing, that was really helpful. Also, in the interview process, we were connected, the people that we interviewed connected us to a lot of different people that we had had never talked to before. So we formed a lot of new relationships that we didn’t have before, and that’s been incredible too.

Amy Eisenstein:
Amazing. Amazing. So listeners, if you’re getting ready for a feasibility study or a campaign or thinking about one, I hope you’ll visit the Capital Campaign Pro website and sign up to talk to us and see if a Guided Feasibility Study might be right for your campaign and your organization.

Bequests and Planned Gifts

Okay, Stephanie, right all the way at the beginning, you talked about your goal, your working goal being $6 million, you’re halfway to that cash goal. You also have a goal of 10 documented new bequest intentions or planned gifts. So tell us how that came about and how that’s going.

Stephanie Wilensky:
Sure. It came about because it was something that Xan recommended, if I’m remembering correctly, the planned giving component. Like I said, I’m relatively new to fundraising, and I know historically, our organization hasn’t focused on planned giving, and it wasn’t part of the conversation. If I’m remembering correctly, Xan just offered like, “This is a great time to do that and bring that in.” And it made a lot of sense. And even in the feasibility study, and even before that, I think we learned that some community members already had us in their estate plans, and-

Amy Eisenstein:
That’s exciting.

Stephanie Wilensky:
Yeah. Yes. That was really great. So now it’s just always a part of the conversation, it feels more natural. And a lot of our community members, donors like the idea of a planned gift and are open to conversations about it if they haven’t considered that before. But yeah, I really think Xan supported us in making that a part of our campaign.

Amy Eisenstein:
I think what you just said is such a powerful message to listeners, because I think most people are nervous to talk to donors about planned gifts. You’re talking about death in many cases, money and death, which is two probably of the most intimidating topics out there, combining them to talk to donors. And you’ve had such a good experience and you said it feels natural. I just love that.

Why a Planned Giving Goal Matters

Xan, talk a little bit about why you think having a bequest goal or a planned giving goal, I should say, is important. And how do you think through that with clients?

Xan Blake:
Well, I think in the case of CooperRiis, where the whole campaign is about the long haul, it’s about keeping the organization in a good place for the long haul, for the people who would need now, but in the distant future too. The endowment is about the long haul, right?

So it just seemed like a perfect partner, a natural pairing to talk with folks about would they want to place CooperRiis in their estate plans for, and we didn’t… People oftentimes, we get all caught up in the, well, do we need the amount? Or do we need them for a percentage? And really, what we want to do is we want to talk with people about the legacy that they want to leave.

And what we know about planned giving is if you can get somebody to begin to think about it and to take the important step of documenting it, that it really doesn’t matter what size the gift is. You will grow in their world, you will grow in their… Your organization will increase in the donor’s mind in terms of importance. So to me, as somebody advises organizations on fundraising, simply getting those documented gifts, that’s what’s really important. And not to assume where they come from and not to assume that you only want the biggest of gifts.

I worked on a campaign once, so that was for an independent school, and we managed to surface in that campaign, I think it was at least 10 documented gifts, the vast majority of which were from the teachers at the school. So I think that taught me that don’t assume, and these gifts are out there, it’s just that people haven’t told you yet. So if you document them, then the organization, you, the organization, will treat this person like a major donor, which they are.

So it’s about sort of organizing your stewardship and how you approach these people. But for me, relative to CooperRiis, it just seems so logical. All of this is about the long haul.

Amy Eisenstein:
All right, Stephanie, I’m wondering if there’s one piece of advice you could give to development directors who are heading into a campaign, something that you wish you knew a year or two ago that would serve you well, what would that piece of advice be? I’m going to give you a minute to think about it. I’m going to ask Xan a question, and I’m going to circle back to you. And if that doesn’t come to mind, maybe think about what you’re looking forward to as you do the second half of your campaign. So I’m going to come back to you in a minute.

Lessons Learned

So Xan, what are you most proud of in terms of CooperRiis’ ability to overcome some massive hurdles in their campaign and their resiliency? What would you point to that you think would be good lessons learned?

Xan Blake:
The more I work with the folks at CooperRiis, what I sort of realize, feel like is that they sort of bring some of the principles of their work to fundraising. And I kind of bring some the principles of fundraising to them. But in this process, what they demonstrated was it doesn’t have to be this or that. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. We can do both.

They also demonstrated that we need to show care for the immediate. So when somebody or something is in crisis, you have to deal with the crisis. You have to deal with the thing that’s right in front of you. But in doing so, you don’t have to give up on the bigger goals. You don’t have to give up on the thing that you really want.

Certainly, I’m not an expert in what they do, but I imagine this was in part sort of what they do internally, which is, yeah, we might be working through a crisis and we have bigger goals. And one of their themes is about hope, that you don’t give up on hope, that they’re a hopeful and healing community. And I think they demonstrated this in this, they demonstrated that philosophy in this moment.

So that’s what I’m most proud of. They hung on, and they’re going to get where they want to go.

Amy Eisenstein:
That is beautiful. Okay, so Stephanie, either, what’s one thing you wish you knew or one thing that you’re looking forward to as you finish out this campaign in the coming year or so?

Stephanie Wilensky:
I guess one thing that I wish I knew for certain is that working on a capital campaign is only strengthening, I feel like there’s been so much learning and it’s only strengthening everything we are doing as an organization in terms of fundraising. We have gained so many new relationships and people in our community, it’s just really strengthening everything that we are doing.

So although initially, it seemed intimidating, especially as a new fundraiser. However, it’s been incredibly valuable to strengthen our work in development and as an organization as a whole. And it’s been really incredible to how it’s strengthened my relationship with both our founder and our president, and really amazing how we’ve grown to work together as a team. It hasn’t always been like rainbows and unicorns, but I feel like we are very strong team and working on this campaign has done that. Yeah.

Amy Eisenstein:
Amazing. Amazing. Campaigns are magical that way. They’re not always unicorns and rainbows, but at the end of the day, they do some magical things.

Xan, is there anything that I didn’t ask about the campaign or anything, final thoughts that you want to share about this experience?

Xan Blake:
Well, Stephanie has alluded to it, but she hasn’t exactly hit the nail on the head as hard as I would’ve, which was Stephanie was brand new to fundraising pretty much when this started. Brand new. She has learned and been a good student of, and I think if the definition of bravery is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to overcome fear, Stephanie’s one of the bravest people I know.

Amy Eisenstein:
Amazing. I think that’s a perfect place to end. Thank you both so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom and your lessons learned and your experiences. I really appreciate it. So thanks, Stephanie. Thanks, Xan. And thank you listeners, and we’ll see you next time.

Filed Under: All About Capital Campaigns Podcast

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