Measure Twice, Cut Once
Lilly Skok Bunch
President of
Lilly Skok Bunch Consulting, Inc.
& Telosa Reseller Partner
www.lsbconsult.com
www.telosa.com
If you want to be successful in any fundraising campaign, measure twice, and cut once.
In other words, do your homework and plan ahead. Whether you are launching your first annual campaign to support operations or announcing a multi-million dollar capital campaign to build a new clinic, library, or homeless shelter, remember these important steps before you begin:
Your campaign should be carefully planned and executed, using staff, board members and other volunteers to expand the resources you have at your disposal. Especially when using board members and other volunteers as solicitors, make sure that the following steps are complete before you begin.
- Develop a clearly
defined case for what your campaign is funding. Even if your campaign
is for operations/annual fund, you must be able to clearly make a case
for why it is important to support "x" organization (rather
than "y") and note what impact the lack of support will have
on the cause you are addressing. (Example: "Without your support,
hundreds of children will go hungry").
- Establish realistic
goals based on solid research or analysis. For capital campaigns, this
may mean a more elaborate Feasibility Study. For operational campaigns,
this means analysis of how much you have raised in the past and the
likelihood of raising an increased amount this year.
- Create a realistic
gift range chart given your organization's particular donor history.
The general rule is: 90% of the gift total comes from 10% of the people
(up from 80% giving total coming from 20% of the people just a few years
ago). But these rules don't apply to all organizations.
- Analyze your existing
data. If you're launching a capital campaign, be certain that you have
identified those likely to fund capital projects and focus on them first.
But, don't limit yourself to just those who you KNOW have the capacity
to give major gifts. Use some simple prospect research tools like Google,
Guidestar, and the Foundation Center to learn about the capacity of
your donors. If your campaign warrants it, use a reliable outside vendor
who can provide valuable information about the people in your database
by using a rating system.
- For annual campaigns,
your prospect pool may be your entire database - but don't think too
broadly. If you say, "our prospects are everyone in the phone book"
you haven't done your homework.
- Segment your
prospect group to identify those more likely to give your top-level
gifts; review past donations, those prospects identified by board members,
and others who are most likely to give.
- Assign staff/board
members who have relationships with your prospects and use them to solicit
the donations.
- Focus your energies
first on those prospects who are most likely to give the largest gifts.
Always remember, one $100,000 gift is equal to 100 $1,000 gifts.
- Before you start soliciting, remember the traditional fundraising cycle is tried and true. First, do your research and know who your prospects are. Second, cultivate your donors before making "the ask", and prepare your solicitation materials. When the donor and you are ready, make "the ask"and follow-up consistently and persistently. Finally, continue to steward your donors until they make a gift, after they make a gift, and while they you are in the middle of the fundraising cycle.
To accomplish these goals, Exceed Premier and Basic can help you measure before you cut, and measure your success as you go. Once you've used Exceed to plan your campaign, you'll be ready to starting "cutting" by launching your next successful campaign. Good luck!
Learn more about how Exceed! Premier 7.0 can help you manage your next campaign here.
Lilly Skok Bunch
President
Lilly Skok Bunch Consulting, Inc.
www.lsbconsult.com