3 Smart Ways to Propel Your Capital Campaign’s Donor Outreach

Are you stuck in the mud with your capital campaign fundraising? Tired of looking at spreadsheets and organizing committees and writing your case for support?

Do you feel like you’re not ready enough to actually contact your donors? Like you don’t have enough time? Perhaps you’re not even sure who to contact.

Don’t wait another day — try these three simple, but effective practices.

3 Tactics to Boost Capital Campaign Donor Outreach

These three tactics will propel your capital campaign forward with an eye on what drives your campaign — your donors.

The more donor contacts you have, the stronger your relationships will be and the more successful your campaign.

1. Schedule ‘Stand-Up Meetings’ to prioritize donor activity.

Schedule a regular 20 minute meeting every week to review the top 20 donors you want to get in touch with. Don’t sit down for these meetings — stand up!

Standing creates a sense of urgency

When you’re standing, it’s hard to get comfortable. Most people aren’t happy to stand for very long, so the people at these meetings will be eager to get the work done quickly and efficiently.

Invite the three or four people who have roles in developing your donor relationships. Perhaps your ED, campaign chair, DD, campaign director and campaign assistant. Someone should be responsible for bringing a simple list of donors to the table for assigning action.

Go through the list. No more than two minutes per donor — less if possible. Focus on next steps and who is responsible. If you can’t figure it out in two minutes, just let that name go for the moment.

Follow up with a to do list for each person. Start your next Stand-Up Meeting by reviewing the to-do list and checking off actions.

These meetings really work. They set up action and accountability while creating energy and excitement.

2. Organize ‘Get-Work-Done Meetings’ to do just that.

Though most meetings are full of talk about what to do after the meeting, you can (and should) organize campaign meetings for actually getting the work done.

Follow these 6 steps

1. Schedule a two-hour meeting with your Executive Director to get in touch with donors.
2. Staff members (often the campaign director and manager) prepare a list of donors with salient and useful information and a note about the suggested action.
3. Staff members sit in the Executive Director’s office while she gets the work done.
4. Staff members prep the Executive Director for donor calls and sit with her while she makes them.
5. Staff members also suggest text for emails and sit while she sends them out.
6. In addition, staff members strategize with the Executive Director about next steps for each donor.

When the list of donors is done, the meeting is over.

While campaign meetings don’t tend to be action-oriented, these Get-Work-Done meetings can accomplish a whole lot in a short period of time. Give them a try.

3. Have ‘Brown Bag Donor Lunches’ with your Executive Director.

To go along with the action-oriented meetings suggested above, you should set up an easy and powerful cultivation opportunity to invite donors. Ask your Executive Director to host brown bag lunch meetings for potential donors in her office on a regular schedule.

What’s a brown bag lunch meeting?

Your ED might, for example, set aside the second Tuesday of every month from 12 to 1:30. Knowing that she’s available, you can invite donors to come to one of those lunches.

In some cases, perhaps she’ll have three or four people meet with her. At other times, no one will show. But having a regular schedule of times gives you and other people working on the campaign a simple and predictable way to invite donors to get to know her and learn about the plans.

These brown bag lunches are easy to do.

They don’t take any of the onerous work of official donor events. All you have to provide is water, coffee and cookies. Tell the people attending to bring their own lunch. Or, if you’d rather, you can order in.

The ED should be prepped to use these meetings well, taking time to learn about the donors as well as sharing the organization’s plans. She should, of course, follow up with a quick thank-you email that highlights ways the person might become more involved in the campaign.

Get the Ball Rolling with Your Capital Campaign

So if you feel like you’re stuck in a capital campaign logjam, try one or more of of these strategies to get the ball rolling. You’re likely to find that going to work every day has just gotten more exciting.