If you find yourself at the point that successful nonprofits reach where they must grow their facilities to continue advancing the mission, then you are considering a capital campaign. And if you are considering a capital campaign, then you must consider a feasibility study.

In general, feasibility studies are designed to give you honest feedback from your prospective lead donors about your vision for growth, your campaign goal, and their interest in supporting the effort. Feasibility studies also allow your donors to offer their advice and to become connected to the effort during the planning stages, before they are asked to make a gift. When you go to donors with a specific plan, ask for their advice, and incorporate their overarching feedback into your messaging, that effort will resonate with them when you make your ask later during the campaign.

On the other end of the spectrum, you may learn that the project you have in mind is not important to your donors.

Hiring an experienced consultant to conduct your feasibility study interviews and analyze the results is an efficient approach to gathering this information and finding out if your campaign goal is reachable. However, we believe a comprehensive feasibility study should do much more to fully prepare you to enter a capital campaign, and we have structured our process with that in mind.

What are 5 goals all nonprofits should expect from their consultant-led feasibility studies?

1. Prepare Your Leadership

We believe a comprehensive feasibility study should prepare you, your staff, your board and your prospective donors for what's to come in a capital campaign. It should address multiple levels of strengths and weaknesses relative to your campaign readiness:

• Do you have the right software to manage a campaign?

• Is your staffing sufficient to address the extra workload created by a campaign?

• Does your board understand and feel accountable to their campaign duties?

• Do potential campaign leaders and donors understand and have buy-in to your campaign vision?

Our Campaign Planning Study process (our title for a comprehensive feasibility study) begins with an internal dive into your organization. This process is designed to identify fundraising strengths and weaknesses within the organization regarding staffing, software and board support. It also provides the backdrop for the development of a trust-centered, synergistic relationship between the nonprofit and the consultant.

During interviews of all board members and key staff members, we listen closely to what they say so we understand the needs being addressed by the project, and how fulfilling those needs will benefit your clients and your region. We also measure your organization’s ability to operationalize a campaign, which includes your capacity for managing prospects and pledges over an extended period of time.

If there are challenges to be addressed regarding board support, staffing or software needs, those should be handled before moving forward with the process.

2. Elicit Advice

As the old fundraising adage says, "If you want advice, ask for money. If you want money, ask for advice."

We work with your board and staff to identify your donors, potential donors and community leaders and invite them to share their views on your organization and on your project.

We ask specifically about their opinions on the strengths and weaknesses of your board and staff and the capacity of your organization to take on a capital campaign. We ask what parts of your project are most interesting to them and if they would be willing to support. We use this information to help you improve, address any concerns, and prepare for your campaign.

3. Identify Prospective Leaders and Donors

Our interview process always proves insightful. It allows interviewees to express their thoughts honestly and fully on a potential campaign, including what they like and/or dislike about it, and their willingness to make a gift and champion the project to others. Through this process we identify prospective leaders and donors who are interested in participating in the capital campaign.

Our process includes unlimited and non-confidential interviews. We share a summary of each interview, including interest in leadership and any gift amounts shared, with you in the campaign planning study report issued before you enter a campaign. You will have a true picture of your community’s perception of, and its willingness to support, the project.

Our interviews with potential campaign leaders and donors are conversations that take us down many paths. We specifically ask community leaders if they would champion a campaign for the nonprofit, would they open doors to others, would they give, and if so, how much. This will give a good picture of your known allies, potential leaders, and any gift amounts they share.

4. Initiate the Donor Education and Cultivation Process

The Campaign Planning interview process also provides our team the opportunity to share your vision and your project in a face-to-face, personal way. This conversation with donors provides us with important insights that will shape the capital campaign. We learn the driving motivations behind gifts (benevolence, legacy, ego, etc.), which will allow us to draft a Case for Support that will engage potential donors.

We also ask them to share names of others who they believe would be interested in learning about your campaign, who we can then add to our interview list as potential allies. Furthermore, we inquire about other campaigns planned, in process or recently completed in your area that might create competition. We end by asking what else the nonprofit should consider before taking on a capital campaign to draw out any additional information. Again, all of this information is shared with you in the interview summaries of the campaign planning study report.

5. Devise a Capital Campaign Goal and Campaign Plan

The Campaign Planning process aims to gather sufficient information to devise a realistic capital campaign goal and a campaign plan that aligns with your nonprofit's vision.

Under our process, your final report delivers much more than a statement on if or how much money can be raised. It unites information from the study, the philanthropic culture of your service region, along with our professional experience to build your overall fundraising strategy and creating your month-by-month blueprint for success.

Our final report includes detailed findings on your nonprofit's image in the region and how it will help or hinder a capital campaign; a compelling Case for Support that will motivate your potential-donor community to fund the project, and a list of the internal and external leaders who are willing to champion the capital campaign. The report also includes a list of key donor prospects – individuals, corporations and foundations – that are capable and willing to make leadership gifts to the campaign, and a list of local, regional, and national foundations that are donor prospects. The report also offers overviews of all interviews, including self-identified gift amounts and willingness to lead, along with a realistic campaign goal and the best month-to-month plan for the organization to reach its goal. We believe these are the types of information you should expect from your campaign planning study report.

Your Duties During a Campaign Planning Study

Your consultant will carry the bulk of the load during your study, conducting interviews and producing interview materials, conducting research and analysis and preparing the final report. However, the nonprofit will have its share of duties alongside the consultant. You'll need to provide your consultant with background and donor information, review and approve materials, and send out invitation to interview letters.

Most importantly, you will have to prioritize scheduling interviews to be conducted by the consultant. This is important because you want to be the first point of contact with your donors and your community. These are important relationships for you and making them a priority will increase your capital campaign success, along with future fundraising success. This is the most time-consuming of your duties and will probably take you or someone on your staff two or three hours a week over several weeks. Take this duty seriously and your study will proceed smoothly.

Take Action

A Campaign Planning Study has a shelf life. If you spend six months educating your top donors, empowering your board and preparing your administration for a major fundraising project, you should ensure that your organization has the time and financial resources to quickly enter into a capital campaign once the study concludes.

We have seen numerous examples of nonprofits that have deliberated about starting their campaign for over one year and then found that the data collected during the study was no longer valid. For example, other organizations might initiate projects that capture the community’s attention, or major donors might have committed their resources to another campaign, or the nonprofit’s leaders have moved on physically or mentally. Take action quickly after your study.

Want To Learn More?

If you’re interested in learning more about campaign planning, download our Guide To Capital Campaigns or contact us for a free capital campaign workshop for you and your board.

Melissa Sais is a CampaignCounsel.org vice president and partner.