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601 6th Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95818
© Copyright 2017, River Trail Consulting Inc.
SO, WHY IS NOW THE TIME TO EXPLORE THIS EXCITING AND UNQUESTIONABLY CHALLENGING VENTURE?
American individuals, estates, foundations and corporations contributed an estimated $390.05 billion to U.S. charities in 2016, according to Giving USA 2017: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2016. Giving to all nine major categories grew, making 2016 just the sixth time in the past 40 years this has occurred. The nine categories are religion; education; human services; giving to foundations; health; public-society benefit; arts, culture and humanities; international affairs; and environment and animals.
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME FOR YOUR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION TO ENTER A CAPITAL CAMPAIGN? SIMPLY PUT: NOW.
WHETHER YOUR ANSWER IS YES OR NO TO THESE QUESTIONS,
RIVER TRAIL CONSULTING IS HERE TO HELP
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
601 6th Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95818
© Copyright 2017, River Trail Consulting Inc.
Granted, no organization is 100 percent ready to enter a capital campaign. Unless the ink is still wet on your 501(c)(3) application, you are in a good place to start testing your organizational readiness.
Before going much further, however, let’s cover the basics. What is a capital campaign? This is a strategic, well-planned effort by your organization to raise money above and beyond your annual fund to support a new and important endeavor. Whether it is for a new building, scholarship fund, or endowment, for example, the campaign must be clearly aligned with furthering your mission.
If your board and staff are ready to enter a capital campaign, we can assist with a thorough Feasibility Study and report of findings. We can then prepare a thorough campaign plan and timeline specifically tailored for your organization. The level of assistance from River Trail Consulting typically is most intensive during the first several months of a campaign while the foundational elements are being built. Usually the consultant’s role and involvement scale down as the campaign progresses.
If your board and staff are not yet ready to enter a capital campaign, we can help you build the infrastructure for a successful campaign through prospect pool analysis and expansion, fundraising training and education for staff, board, and key volunteers, and the writing of development collateral materials such as case statements.
River Trail Consulting is happy to assist regardless of where your organization falls on the campaign readiness continuum.
Rest assured, the time truly is now.
“This report tells us that Americans remained generous in 2016, despite it being a year punctuated by economic and political uncertainty,” said Aggie Sweeney, CFRE, chair of Giving USA Foundation. “We saw growth in every major sector, indicating the resilience of philanthropy and diverse motivations of donors.” The rise in total giving was spurred largely by giving from individuals, which increased nearly four percent in 2016.
There is no denying we are currently in a sweet spot in charitable giving in the U.S. One of my colleagues, a well-respected veteran fundraising consultant, recently quipped, “If you’re not in a campaign already, you better be soon!” Granted, there may be other non-profits in your area that are fully ensconced in a capital campaign at this very moment. Their mission, however, is not yours. Nor is their donor base. Capital campaigns are one of the single best ways to let your uniqueness shine. A capital campaign reminds not just your board and donors of how critical your work is, it resoundingly reminds the community at large.
As mentioned earlier, most organizations are not 100 percent ready to enter a fully functioning capital campaign.
Here are some questions we ask non-profits to help gauge their campaign readiness:
• Is the campaign goal more than 10 times what is raised through your annual fund?
• Do you have a donor with the capacity to make a gift of at least 15 percent of your goal?
• Do you have at least two donor prospects for each of the top 10 gifts needed for
......the campaign?
• Will 100 percent of the board participate and make gifts to the campaign?
• Do you have the development office infrastructure in place to successfully manage a ......capital campaign?
• Are there organizations in your community that have successfully completed campaigns ......with similar goals?