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A successful campaign involves many steps, some easy to see, and some behind-the-scenes. It helps to think about your efforts in three basic categories – strategy, implementation, and follow-up.

Strategy

Plan your capital campaign so that it is an integral part of your organization’s strategic plan. Your building goals can and should bring you closer to achieving your organization’s mission and vision.

Involve your leaders or stakeholders in ways that help them own the plan. Your organization’s board, staff, and other major supporters should take part in shaping the campaign plan. Build their enthusiasm; they are your campaign’s ambassadors.

Create key messages that connect the value you deliver to the opportunities for growth and sustainability that your capital project will offer.

Test the feasibility of your plan and its goals. Validate key messages with a representative group of individuals and organizations. Establish measures of success—how will you know you have been successful? Are there indicators along the way?

Target a spectrum of donors: individuals, companies, and foundations. Look for small and medium-size gifts as well as large ones, enabling as many people as possible to engage in your organization, even at an entry level. Modest givers may increase what they give over time as their relationships with your organization mature.

Implementation

Secure leadership gifts from those close to your organization: your board, long-time donors, others (including lead staff). Have a significant amount of your campaign pledges committed before the general public ever hears about the campaign.

Mobilize a volunteer force that includes people in your community who are willing to make stretch gifts to your campaign and are willing to connect you with other potential donors. Provide volunteer training and support, and be respectful of their time. Make sure the responsibilities that you assign provide volunteers with a positive, enjoyable experience. Not only will it help your campaign, but also it will build volunteer loyalty. Don’t forget to capitalize on your volunteers’ clout in the community; make their work visible.

Announce your campaign to the public. Engage your audiences with details about goals, volunteers, and the gifts pledged already. Use public relations, newsletters, annual reports, personal letters, an event, etc. Give as many people as possible an opportunity to learn about your organization and its plans.

Raise funds that will bring you to your goal, always connecting your capital project with your mission. Raise both funds and friends.

Follow-up

Report progress to constituents and the general public. Share successes and challenges—these will be especially interesting to audiences that witnessed your initial campaign announcement. Let those close to your organization know what’s happening with personal messages. Use broad communication to create awareness, seeding future relationships.

Celebrate victories (big and small) with constituents and the general public. Share the thrill of your achievement, and remind others what this building will do for your organization. People like to get involved with successful organizations. Take advantage of your popularity, and use it to gain commitment to your mission, not just the campaign.

Maintain the relationships and the momentum your organization gained during the campaign. Continue engaging volunteers by asking for and listening to their suggestions. You may have also learned a lot about the way people perceive your organization. Apply these lessons to the way you develop your general operating fund, the way you promote your organization, the way your leaders work together, and the way you manage volunteers.