Campaign 101: Why Campaigns Matter
Running your first comprehensive campaign? Here are four reasons why it matters.
by Kimberly Verstandig
Whether you're a first-time college president, head of advancement, or a newly promoted senior fundraiser, at some point in that journey you will be charged with driving your first comprehensive campaign.
In my experience starting and leading multiple campaigns, I have found that leaders, staff, and donors often don’t have a shared understanding of why a campaign matters. As a result, I’ve seen teams lose their way amid all of the work that goes into these efforts, which typically run across years, involve massive commitments of time and talent (and the proverbial treasure), and can make or break careers.
Because this collective understanding is so important and can be elusive, I wanted to share the key reasons why campaigns matter—reasons that are relevant for any mission-driven organization, and particularly for colleges and universities. In this first part of a three-part series, Campaign 101, I’m starting with the four key reasons why campaigns matter that are imperative to communicate to your trustees, boards, alumni, and donors to create the momentum that leads to campaign success:
1. Fulfill the Long-Term Strategic Vision
Every mission-driven institution has a vision—an aspiration, a dream, a view of a better future, whether it’s opening the doors to ever-more-talented students regardless of their means, making transformative discoveries, or lifting the human condition. A comprehensive campaign must have its own sub-vision focused on that larger purpose, and it must provide donors the path to making that ambition a reality.
2. Create a Catalyst for Community Investment
A comprehensive campaign is a catalyst for community engagement and investment in the institution’s strategic plan. As such, its purpose extends beyond financial contributions. It also should foster partnerships, collaborations, and a culture of giving that show the community how they are part of something larger together. In higher ed, the community should see and hear the stories of how donors are benefitting the lives of students–and of how stakeholders like them are shaping the future. And they should know, thanks to the campaign, that they share in the success of the campaign and the institution itself.
3. Strengthen Market Position
Campaigns don’t succeed simply when they raise the necessary funds. They should also raise the institution’s position in the marketplace. Launching a new academic program, building a cutting-edge facility, boosting athletic potential– each milestone achieved through the campaign should reinforce the institution's standing and communicate its commitment to progress and innovation. It should be clear that in this campaign, the operational, reputational, and fundraising goals come together.
4. Build a Strong Fundraising Profile
When a campaign is over, the confetti has fallen at the celebration, and the money is in hand, then what? A good campaign doesn’t end there. It does something else: It sets up the next one. And that means from the start campaign leaders should be clear that one of their major goals is expanding the institution’s community of donors. Through strategic engagement and effective communication of the institution's vision, successful campaigns do more than attract immediate support. They also lay the groundwork for sustained philanthropic backing, a community poised as it never could have been without the campaign for continued fundraising growth and impact.
In my next post, I’ll share the seven key components of a successful campaign that brings these promises to life. In the third and last part, we’ll dive into the phases of a comprehensive campaign and a workable timeline.