Campaign 101: 7 Key Ingredients of a Successful Fundraising Campaign
Looking for a recipe to serve up a fundraising campaign that truly delivers? Here are the seven essential ingredients that drive impact and deliver results.
Whether a fundraising campaign is a national, multi-year effort that activates thousands of donors or a local, all-hands-on-deck sprint focused tightly on an immediate need, successful campaigns share the same seven key ingredients.
In the second part of my Campaign 101 series, I’m sharing these essential elements that every organization, no matter their size or aspirations, should prioritize for a successful campaign that positively impacts the lives and causes it serves.
1. Clear vision.
Whether removing financial barriers to a college degree, protecting threatened habitats, or building a state-of-the-art performance venue, every successful campaign starts with a compelling vision of what can be. This vision is sharpened for many institutions through a strategic plan that answers fundamental questions: Why does this work matter? How can we scale our impact? What do we want to become in 5, 10, or 20 years? Successful campaigns start by explicitly defining an audacious and compelling future vision centered unequivocally on your “why.”
2. Powerful leadership.
The most impactful campaigns are led by individuals who inspire every member of the organization to become champions for its goals. With the right leadership, people at every level of the organization understand and are passionate about the vision and equipped to sell it.
3. A rock-solid plan.
Translating vision into action requires a thoughtful campaign plan that operationalizes and monetizes the organization’s goals. This means identifying key verticals—for example, building new programs to expand community engagement, investing in athletics facilities to support student-athletes, or funding new scholarships to expand access. Then operationalize these verticals by defining fundraising targets, setting key milestones, and identifying performance indicators. While highly detailed, effective plans must also be built with enough agility to adapt to opportunities and unforeseen circumstances that will inevitably arise during the campaign.
4. Right-sized infrastructure and resources.
Campaigns present an excellent opportunity to assess operations so that every role can focus on achieving the campaign’s goals. In our work with clients, we often start by evaluating the team’s organization and resources and recommending actions to advance their goals best. These recommendations can include everything from adding expertise (such as in the use of digital tools or knowledge about charitable annuities) to rightsizing the number of gift officers necessary to fully activate your prospect pool to maximizing the CRM’s capabilities. Investing time in this crucial groundwork allows organizations to pursue their goals with both realism and optimism.
5. An undeniably compelling story.
Donors want to personally connect to causes that matter and know their gift will make a difference. Compelling and authentic messages that speak to your vision’s tangible promise and your prospective donors’ values and dreams are essential. To stand out from the myriad causes seeking support, organizations increasingly need to be as specific as possible about the difference their donors can make. And these stories must be told throughout the giving cycle to keep donors engaged.
6. A community of ready donors.
The number one reason campaigns fail is that organizations either underestimate the number of prospective donors they have or overestimate their willingness and ability to give. Conducting research on who your prospective donors are and what matters most to them, and understanding where your organization intersects with their philanthropic capacity and interests, are essential steps in tailoring authentic and meaningful outreach and engagement.
7. Favorable tradewinds.
While large campaigns typically last six to seven years, even highly focused yearlong campaigns can be impacted by unforeseen events. If an organization has the six components above in place, it can pivot and adjust the strategy when obstacles outside of its control arise. This may mean, for example, fast-tracking an initiative you had planned for year five to year three due to changes in leadership or economic conditions.
No matter your campaign’s size, scope, and ambition, this special strategic endeavor can engage donors like no other approach in driving your mission forward.