The Moving Millions two-part webinar series addressed the importance of the strategic planning process and its vital role in successful fundraising. Panelists Lisa New, President & CEO Zoo Knoxville and David Walsh, President & Chief Advisor, Canopy Strategic Partners joined host Elizabeth Knupel, President & CEO of Skystone Partners, a national full-service fundraising consulting firm, to discuss how to take the leap from strategic planning to transformative fundraising.
Part One explored the what, when, how, and why of strategic planning, and provided real-world experiences demonstrating how proper planning yields big financial returns. In Part Two, the panel guided the audience through the process of executing a fundraising campaign to best communicate an organization’s mission and goals to potential donors. We provide key takeaways and a link to the webinar recording for your reference:
When’s the best time to start a capital campaign?
- The best time to begin laying the foundation of when you really kick off your campaign is when you’re crafting your strategic plan. Build those networks so that when you’re ready to roll out the plan, you have bought-in advocates to support your capital campaign. Link the plan and campaign together in an integrated planning process. The actual launch of the plan may come soon after the strategic plan is launched or take some time so that you can build other foundational elements to best position the campaign for success.
- Zoo Knoxville commissioned a campus assessment as part of their strategic plan to assist with donor and stakeholder communications and to drive priorities for their master plan. Once that strategic plan was completed, the Zoo conducted some initial steps including rebranding and a feasibility study before launching their campaign.
How can an organization plan for changing priorities due to bumps in the road (construction, fundraising blips) and/or unforeseen circumstances?
- Ensure the strategic and master plans are living, breathing documents as priorities will shift and flexibility is important.
- Options and alternatives are good to have from both a physical and programmatic side.
- From the strategic planning side, ensure:
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- Your stakeholders (staff, board, and external) are a part of the process and understand how you developed the priorities.
- Develop decision-making criteria (matrix) to help evaluate and make those decisions on resourcing, staffing, community issues, etc. Assess how these priorities match up to the matrix evaluation criteria.
- Zoo Knoxville included a backup plan in its overall master plan to address a prioritization of needs.
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- When the Board, etc. questions prioritizations, the Zoo evaluates these inquiries against the business plan to confirm and ensure everyone is in alignment and “on board.”
- There may be projects of opportunity within the backup plan too.
When is the strategic plan ready to be developed into an external story to share with donors and other audiences?
- The plan is complete when all key stakeholders understand the why and how within the plan. You need agreement of everyone participating in the process on the destination and vision identified in the plan.
How do you best identify community members who aren’t board members to engage in the planning process?
- Determine who’s in that closer inner circle. City or county partners? Foundation members? They’ll have a pulse on giving priorities within the community. Business influencers? Many large corporations are philanthropic. Share your plan with these groups along the way.
- Have a smaller committee of your board members meet with these groups, then report back to the entire board with their feedback.
- Take the plan to community stakeholders through a fundraising feasibility study. Does this plan resonate with you? How much money can you raise?
How should staff prepare during the strategic planning process before engaging other stakeholders?
- Work with your development team to clean up the donor database, identify low-hanging fruit, and ensure your systems and processes are in order.
- Cultivate friendships and steward past donors to maintain relationships.
How do you manage projects within your master plan that don’t raise enough money?
- Don’t fundraise for a project, fundraise for a vision (a collection of projects).
- Ask yourself: why weren’t those projects attracting the donor attention and engagement? Are there flaws? Review the data. Does the plan need to be adjusted?
- Balance raising funds for sexy projects vs. boring projects (i.e., new exhibit vs new roof) by selling the campaign as a vision packaged together for the success of the organization.
How do you best utilize public/private partnership Board compilation?
- Create a capital campaign committee/cabinet or steering committee. This could be an offshoot of a board sub-committee.
- Annual giving and capital campaign support don’t have to compete, and they won’t: a piece of their contribution goes to the success of the plan. The Zoo shows them the result of their contribution. This helps build your operational and capital support.
How do you convince staff to buy into your strategic plan and capital campaign?
- Sell them the vision the same way you do for external stakeholders: set them up for long-term success.
- Should there be a monetary gift beyond participation? Ideally, all staff should make an annual contribution based on their means. It’s important to your community to see that internal stakeholders are bought into your plan. This includes the board too.
- Establish a board sub-committee to drive staff and volunteer donations. The amount doesn’t matter because the organization can say “X% of staff donated” when talking to the community.
- Host fun activities to encourage the staff to give: a picnic with a dunk-the-CEO tank, etc.
What elements of a stewardship plan can accompany a master plan?
- Bring stakeholders in to wow and thank them.
- Celebrate exhibit milestones with specific donor groups such as breaking ground and topping off ceremonies and an unveiling ceremony to build excitement and camaraderie.
Remember, fundraising never stops!
View the full webinar recording.
Canopy Strategic Partners can assist you with strategic planning, master planning, and program assessments. Learn more about our services.
