By Matt Vuorela / Chief Executive Officer of Steier Group
The first step in a capital campaign should always be a feasibility study. In fact, at Steier Group, we call them campaign planning studies for a reason – a well-run study will acquire the right information to allow us to customize a capital campaign plan to best achieve fundraising success.
During a capital campaign feasibility study, your entire donor database is invited to participate and voice their opinions about the goals of a capital campaign. You will learn important information about the goals most important to your community and the giving capacity of your donors. This vital information will allow you to adjust the capital campaign to best meet the interests and fundraising capacity of your community.
Feasibility studies reduce the risk of your capital campaign. Much like you wouldn’t want to get on an airplane that doesn’t have a flight plan, you don’t want to launch a capital campaign without a feasibility study. Having as much information as possible strengthens the fundraising strategy of a campaign.
Definition and Purpose of Feasibility Studies
A feasibility study is a research-based planning process that evaluates whether your organization is ready to launch a successful capital campaign. It includes donor interviews, data analysis, and an objective review of your fundraising goals, giving capacity and community support.
The primary objectives for a study include testing fundraising goals, assessing donor readiness, evaluating internal capabilities and identifying key stakeholders.
Testing fundraising goals
The biggest objective of a capital campaign feasibility study is to test your campaign goals. While you may believe you know what your donors are thinking, you won’t know for sure until you ask as many of them as possible. And what projects rank highly for leadership may be a low priority for your donors.
Testing your goals allows you to have all the information on hand when creating a campaign plan. You may need to adjust your expectations and goals based on the feedback from your community.
Preparation and Internal Readiness
A capital campaign is large scale effort. It goes above and beyond the capacity of most development offices. Preparing for a feasibility study allows you to assess your organizational capacity. Do you have the staffing, leadership and infrastructure to conduct a campaign on your own? For many schools, churches and other organizations, the answer is no. Which is where hiring a campaign consultant will help your organization reach its fundraising goals.
Once the feasibility study begins, we will review your past fundraising performance – from annual and weekly giving to your previous capital campaigns. While previous campaign performance is not an indicator of how much can be raised this time around, it can be an indication of the larger giving capacity of your community.
Stakeholder Identification and Engagement
While you likely already know the most active and engaged donors in your community, a feasibility study provides an opportunity to identify even more key stakeholders and start the process of building trust with these important folks.
Key stakeholders to identify through the feasibility study process include:
- Campaign chairs
- Major donors
- Volunteers
Other stakeholders, like board members and staff, should also participate in the feasibility study process. Their insights into your community can prove vital.
By engaging these important members of your community in the process, you will receive honest feedback and inspire buy-in from key leaders in your community. You will build trust and also provide transparency on what is to come during the campaign.
Step-by-Step Process of a Capital Campaign Feasibility Study
Step 1: Define Clear Objectives
This step actually starts before you hire a consultant for a feasibility study. You’ll need to analyze your community and your vision for the future. Identify the short comings or areas that need to be addressed.
This will provide clear objectives for you fundraising effort. A campaign without a clear focus is destined to struggle. Here are a few ways you can define your objectives:
- Conduct a facility assessment: Take a close look at your facilities to find the places that need maintenance or may need to be replaced entirely. Are there any new facilities that would be helpful for your community?
- Lead a long-term planning session: What are your organizations goals for the next five years? Ten years? Defining your long-term goals and objectives will allow you to better analyze potential campaign goals.
- Talk with your community: A feasibility study is a formal review of the thoughts of donors about a potential campaign, but that doesn’t mean that leadership can’t have informal conversations before a study. Chat with supporters to see what they would like to improve about your community. It will provide some guidance.
Step 2: Choose the Right Fundraising Consultant
After you’ve defined your campaign objectives, it is time to find the right consulting partner. They will guide you through the feasibility study, create a thorough campaign plan and keep it all on track. Some things to consider when picking a consultant:
- Mission/value alignment: Does the consultant’s mission and vision align well with your organization? Have they worked with similar nonprofits?
- Services offered: What kind of services do they offer? Do they align with what your organization needs? Some consultants provide a full-service approach with design, grant writing and data analysis provided. Others provide only consulting but other aspects will be handled by third parties.
- Hands-on consulting: There are different models for consulting for a feasibility study and campaign. Some consultants offer a hands-on approach, working on site alongside you multiple days each week. Others consult from afar, working with multiple clients at the same time.
Step 3: Identify Key Stakeholders and Top Donors
Before the study officially begins, you’ll want to identify key stakeholders, top donors and other leaders in your community. Their feedback will be important in shaping the capital campaign.
Don’t just look at your largest donors. Identify others that will provide value to the campaign. Who is most energetic in your community? Who is well respected? Who are your biggest cheerleaders?
Step 4: Conduct Stakeholder Interviews and Data Collection
A well-run feasibility study should seek feedback and input from the entire community. That includes one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders and major donors. It also includes conducting written and online surveys of the rest of the community. The goal should be as high of a participation rate as possible.
Step 5: Analyze Findings & Interpret Results
After the interviews and surveys are complete, the consultant will compile the data, analyze the findings and interpret the results. The results will show which potential projects have support from the community and projections on how much you can raise. It will also provide a list of potential campaign leaders, campaign volunteers and major donors.
Step 6: Report Findings & Build Leadership Consensus
Next, the consultant will report their findings to your leadership team. They provide key insights on what the data says about the giving capacity of the community based on the fundraising objectives tested. Your leadership team needs to find consensus on whether to move forward with a campaign or not.
Step 7: Develop and Refine the Case for Support
Sometimes, the goals of leadership do not align with that of the community of supporters. That means that goals may need to be refined and redeveloped. It is important to listen to the community. You can develop a case for support based on the study results, focusing on the projects most supported by the community.
Step 8: Develop A Campaign Plan & Next Steps
Campaign planning is the final step of a feasibility study. At the Steier Group, we customize our campaign model to fit each community and campaign. Assuming the study showed good support for a campaign, we also recommend that clients begin a campaign immediately following a study. We’ve found that delaying the start of work on the campaign even just a few weeks or months can limit the amount of money raised.
Developing the Case for Support
Your case statement is your main capital campaign communication piece. A feasibility study provides you with the context and information to develop a strong case for support.
Crafting a compelling vision and funding priorities: When creating your case for support, you must share your vision for the campaign and how a successful campaign will set your community up for success in the future. Inspire your donors to support the campaign with a compelling vision. Your funding priorities should align with the goals most supported during the study.
Aligning campaign goals with organizational mission and community needs: Crafting your campaign case requires balance. You need inspiring projects and aspirational fundraising goals. But your goals need to be attainable for your community. Tier your goals. Create phases with plans to reach your ultimate goals, if one campaign will not reach.
As consultants, one of the things we most hate to see is a campaign with goals that are overly ambitious. A community can raise a lot of money – exceeding the feasibility study projections – but feel like it has failed by falling short of unattainable goals. So be ambitious when setting goals, but make sure they are achievable.
Methods of Data Collection and Analysis
At the Steier Group, our methods of data collection and analysis include both qualitative and quantitative – combined, they paint a thorough picture of a community’s campaign prospects. Qualitative methods include key stakeholder interviews, in-person interviews with major donors and small group discussions. Our quantitative methods include seeking feedback from the entire community through online and mail surveys, analyzing donor giving data and wealth research.
After acquiring that data, we analyze it, compare it to similar campaigns we’ve conducted and create projections. This analysis provides comprehensive insight into the community’s feedback on the campaign goals as well as the giving capacity.
Traditional vs. Guided Feasibility Study Models
There are two models for conducting a feasibility study – traditional or guided.
A traditional feasibility study is led by a consultant, focused on learning as much about the community and its feedback to the potential campaign goals as possible.
A guided model is led by the staff or board members with input from a consultant.
The traditional model works for a reason – it is an external evaluation from an unbiased perspective. Additionally, it takes a lot of the work off the plate of your staff. At the Steier Group, our managers conduct many interviews in just a few short weeks of a study. That is not something most staffs can do on their own.
Role of Consultants in Feasibility Studies
Consultants play an important role in a capital campaign feasibility study. They provide an external, objective perspective on the campaign goals, feedback from the community and more. All backed by years of study and campaign experience.
A consultant should design any feasibility study materials, then collect and analyze the data. Finally, they will provide recommendations about the potential campaign plan. Evaluating and interpreting the study results requires the experience of a consultant.
Action Planning Based on Feasibility Study Outcomes
The feedback and projections of your feasibility study should guide your next steps.
If there is strong support for a campaign, don’t hesitate and proceed to the campaign immediately. Maintain the momentum created by the feasibility study. You are ready for success!
If there is support for a fundraising effort but priorities of the community are split, you may want to reframe the campaign on the goals most popular with the community. Focus on the ones most likely to succeed.
If there isn’t enough support for a campaign, you should consider pausing the effort. Take more time to clarify your goals and priorities. Strengthen your relationships with donors. Focus on building and developing stewardship in your community. Communicate your successes and struggles with your supporters.
Conclusion
The effort required for a capital campaign can be intimidating. But the proper planning and right partner can make a campaign easier to manage. The first step in that planning is a capital campaign feasibility study. Hire a consultant, listen to the feedback of your community and set your sights on ambitious but achievable goals.
If you are interested in learning more about partnering with the Steier Group on a feasibility study or capital campaign, please contact us.
