Fundraising and development are part of the core work that makes nonprofits sustainable. Established nonprofits will consider a Capital Campaign to secure funding for a tangible goal at some point in their life cycle. Capital campaigns are fundraising plans to raise money for specific large ticket items like buildings, properties, remodels, and to start endowments. These campaigns are usually carried out over longer periods of time (think multiple years).

Today’s blog interviews Mockingbird's Liz Stauffer about what it takes to run a capital campaign, what this type of fundraising entails, and how to manage a capital campaign.

Liz Stauffer is the Donor and Board Relationship Manager for Mockingbird Analytics. She Is a corporate business developer turned nonprofit expert with a certificate in Nonprofit Management. She spent multiple years working with CASA of Los Angeles and at Olympian Natasha Watley’s Foundation. She has a knack for relationship building and finesse for generating exposure through creative marketing and development.

So Liz, what is your background in nonprofit work and running a capital campaign?

Liz: Capital campaigns are a natural progression from fundraising. I was the development director at NWF, so coming from a big organization and consulting, this felt like a natural progression. Also, I was just thrown into it. Organizations get to a certain level, and they need to raise a huge amount of money. So the next step in fundraising is into capital campaigns. Tangible items like equipment or buildings are much easier to sell to donors than a programmatic campaign, which is less common. People also like opportunities to put their names on something too. “Oh, they’re building this building, and my name is on it..."

I feel like most organizations will have a capital campaign at some point in time.

At what point in the nonprofit start-up life cycle would you recommend doing a capital campaign?

Liz: The first thing you do before a capital campaign-well-there are a couple of things. You really need to do an organization check to make sure your ducks are in a row. Making sure that you have a strong working board. Making sure that you've done other successful fundraising campaigns. And what does your relationship look like with the community? Before you even consider a capital campaign, those are the first things to discuss. You also have to have a firm idea of what you want to raise this capital for. Is it a new building or center? It has to be really defined. I can’t be, "Oh, I want a million dollars in my bank account." Every single one of these dollars will be restricted to this particular fund.

What are the challenges of doing a capital campaign?

Liz: The toughest part of running a campaign is understanding that they're marathons, not sprints. A successful timeline will be between 3-5 years. So the hardest part is understanding that you are in it for the long haul. To mitigate your frustration, it's important to have tangible milestones to celebrate the wins along the way.

Consider that you have to have a dedicated staff that can also dedicate all their time to this. Most nonprofits don't. I see it as an absolute positive to hire a consultant to do the unglamorous work for you. It’s rare for someone to do it 100% in-house because it's not something organizations frequently do, and there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work. You can’t have staff work on a five-year project that won't see dividends. They work on the stuff that pays today!

What would be some examples of the work you would do as a consultant?

Liz: Behind the scenes work would be cultivating relationships with influencers or the press to advertise the campaign. A lot of PR goes behind it. Also, the foundational items like designing the website, creating packages for sponsorship, there’s nothing too glamourous about it. I’m searching pretty hard to find something glamorous. There isn’t. Capital campaigns are not for the faint of heart; they're just not. They’re so tedious; but people don't see or consider the details, however, the result can be spectacular.

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Let’s talk about Abide’s capital campaign that Mockingbird is consulting on. What work have you done, and what are some of the successes you’ve seen thus far?

Liz: Let's talk Abide for sure! We had a short launch phase, much shorter than anyone would ever do, and we are trying to raise a million dollars for their birthing center. We've raised $283,000 within two months of launch! A lot of that can be attributed to their relevant and strong mission. I think it's key to a campaign to have a clear and timely mission. Their work speaks for itself, and they put the work in. It’s much easier when a funder says, “well, show me what you’re doing, show me how you've impacted the community”, and the nonprofit can show them tangible results.

I wouldn't use Abide’s quick start success as a measuring tape because the amount raised is extraordinary, and it's a testament to their ED and the work they’ve put into relationship building along their journey. I mean, we are still in the first 6 months of the 18-month timeline, so we’re not even halfway through. I think at some point, we might expand the timeline to hit their million-dollar goal, and they might want to expand it past the dollar amount. The key factor in a capital campaign is to get people who want to support the executive director and the actual work. You have to find those people to achieve your goals.

It seems like a bold move to start a capital campaign during COVID. What challenges have you seen during Abide's capital campaign?

Liz: You have to adapt at any phase during your capital campaign, especially in COVID times. I mean, look…donors can be fickle right now because of all the uncertainty. So you have to be willing to adapt your game plan and timeline according to the world. As long as you continue to assess and really adapt your goals and milestones, I think people can be successful. Another thing, there have been very few corporate donors during COVID. This is going to have an impact on nonprofit fundraising for the next several years. If we see Covid numbers drop, I think we’ll see numbers increase, but with delta, everyone is afraid of another lockdown. We have huge businesses saying they're not going back into offices until next year, which tells me they’re not confident yet.

What advice would you give for those considering this fundraising approach?

Liz: In the beginning, you always do a readiness assessment. Mockingbird has one on our website that I wrote about whether you are ready for a capital campaign. Do you have a strategy, a development plan, a CRM? If you said no to any of these, you really need to make sure you have them in place before you move forward. Three things as advice:

Have lots of patience
Be adaptable to an ever-changing world
Build a persuasive narrative and be consistent in delivering that narrative

Any final thoughts?

Liz: Don’t be afraid of a capital campaign! If your organization can benefit from it, a campaign is a good option for funding a new level of work and scaling your impact. No campaign with the right time frame is too small or too large. It should be equivalent to the size of your org and growth opportunity.