3 Questions to Test if Your Nonprofit is Ready for a Capital Campaign

Here’s a quick three-question test to help you determine if you’re organization is anywhere near ready for a capital campaign. While there are a great many things required to be fully ready for a campaign, the questions here points to the most important, must-have items.

Many of the other conditions we look for to determine whether an organization is ready for a campaign can be developed during the campaign itself. But the three things we ask you to itemize in this post are things that should be determined before you move into a campaign.

Test if Your Nonprofit is Ready for a Capital Campaign — 3 Simple Questions

This simple test will help determine how ready your organization is for a capital campaign. The instructions are simple:

• Don’t look at any reference materials or check your database. In other words, don’t scramble to research the answers.
• Pull up a blank document or copy these three questions into it.
• Set a timer for 15 minutes, and then see if you can answer each question simply and clearly.

Question 1:

What will your campaign raise money for and why does it matter to anyone outside of your organization?

(An itemized list with one explanatory paragraph is a good answer here.)

Question 2:

Who are the twenty people or organizations that you believe will make the all-important big gifts to your campaign?

(A simple list will do for this answer.)

Question 3:

Which of the people / organizations on the list you’ve made above do you believe already know about your project and feel involved and engaged in your planning?

(Put a check next to each one.)

That’s it. Super-simple, right?

Next Steps:

If you weren’t able to clearly write what you want to raise money for, come up with 20 names, and put a checkmark next to at least 10 of those names, then you’ve got some important work to do before you’re ready for a campaign.

However, if you worked your way through these questions with relative ease, download one or more of our more comprehensive assessments:

These cover the readiness of your board, your development office, your systems, as well as your overall readiness. Best of all, they’re all completely free — no strings attached.

Lay the Groundwork for Your Campaign FIRST…

Capital campaigns depend on the top ten to twenty gifts to raise well over half of the campaign goal. The groundwork for those gifts should be laid well before you go to those donors for money.

That’s why the Capital Campaign Pro approach begins with pre-campaign planning. Just because you aren’t quite ready doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get started.

In fact, the sooner you start, the better!