The Influential Nonprofit Episode 88: Whitney Anderson: Navigating Capital Campaigns
Whitney Anderson is the principal for camping services at Fox advancement, a fundraising firm that provides capital campaign consulting, grant research and writing, and fractional Development Officer support.
Capital campaigns involve a lot of change and tend to be very emotional.
People absorb different levels of change at different rates.
There's tons of transition and change management baked into any campaign because it’s never just about a physical move.
Nonprofits must consider doing a pre-feasibility study in which they comprehensively think about their overall campaign number. We need to know what we really need and include the accurate number when we’re asking from the donor to make sure that the project gets completed.
Document everything you know about your case from an emotional level, a financial level, and a practical level, then try to wrap all of those arguments up into a well-written document. Realize that this document is a living document that’s subject to change. Don’t aim to launch a perfect case.
When launching campaigns, hone in on what the donors are going to resonate with. Don’t stop with just talking about the building or any other material upgrades, talk about how this campaign will be able to create a greater impact in the community.
There are different levels of change that happen within a campaign and people absorb those at different rates. For some, it's easy and exciting. For others, it can be really draining and there needs to be a lot of communication and navigation around that.
Now is the time to ask for what you need. And be really clear on what those different buckets compose.
If you're always trying to achieve the perfect case, you're going to be wasting a lot of valuable time when you can at least have a core document that is open to change as you go through the process.
Reach out to Whitney Anderson at:
Website: https://foxadvancement.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-anderson-33711121/
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