Whatever your specific vision for your capital campaign, thorough preparation is the key to success. This is why you’ll need to undergo a careful campaign planning process. Let’s explore a few do’s and don’ts you can apply to your next nonprofit capital campaign planning effort.

Do: Set specific objectives and goals

Your campaign objectives are what you plan to raise money for. You may have your eye on one specific project, like establishing an endowment or upgrading your organization’s facilities, but you might also have a mix of different but interrelated objectives.

Get specific about your objectives. For instance, if you plan to remodel your animal shelter’s facility, consider why the improvements are needed and how they will benefit your mission. It may be that you need more room to accommodate additional shelter animals or to improve your pet medical care program.

For your goals, first identify a working financial goal (you can refine this later on through the planning process and feasibility study). Also think through non-financial goals you have for your campaign. For example, do you want to strengthen relationships with your major donors? Or, do you want to establish several diverse income streams to support your organization throughout the campaign and beyond?

Ensure that your objectives and goals are achievable. To determine if something is realistic, confer with your organization’s stakeholders and consult past campaign data. Your insights from a feasibility study will also help you refine your goals.

Don’t: Rely on generic messaging

Capital campaigns aren’t casual fundraising efforts, and how you market your campaign should reflect your organization’s needs and investment in the success of its chosen project. One of the best tools for ensuring your campaign messaging is up to par is a case for support.

A case for support is just what it sounds like: a document in which you literally make the case for why someone should support your campaign. The best cases will include:

• Your vision for how the money raised in the campaign will impact the world.
• The problems that are keeping you from achieving that vision.
• A simple explanation of your plan to overcome the outlined problems.
• A summary of anticipated campaign costs.
• Your “why now,” or a statement about what makes the campaign urgent (or what will happen if no action is taken).
• A call-to-action that lays out how supporters can get involved.

In the initial stages of planning your campaign, you’ll create a draft of your case for support to share with stakeholders during your feasibility study. From there, you’ll refine it to use in the "quiet phase." Then, when you reach the campaign's public phase, you can adapt the case for support into different marketing materials, like branded brochures or a series of social media posts. Using your case for support as the source for your campaign’s core message will ensure consistency throughout the campaign.

Do: Conduct a feasibility study

A feasibility study allows you to test your campaign plans and goals before you launch your campaign. This involves getting advice on your initial plans and materials from your largest donors and other stakeholders.

The traditional way of doing a feasibility study requires your organization to partner with an external fundraising consultant, who will handle the process for you. The downside to this approach is that the main event of the feasibility study — sitting down and speaking with stakeholders — is done without you in the room. While many claim that stakeholders are more likely to be honest with external parties, these are actually valuable connection opportunities that your team shouldn’t miss out on!

Instead, consider a guided feasibility study, where your team handles the process from beginning to end, with an expert coaching you along the way. This allows you to build stronger relationships with your stakeholders and fully understand your feasibility study results from the get-go.

This hands-on approach is becoming more popular. In a 2024 benchmark study, Capital Campaign Pro found that two-thirds of organizations involve staff and board members in feasibility study interviews, signaling a shift from the traditional model.

Don’t: Neglect the value of outside expertise

It’s no secret that capital campaigns are challenging. They are years-long fundraising efforts that require energy and focus from everyone on your nonprofit’s team. Plus, they can be quite complex to carry out, especially if you’re running your first campaign.

While some organizations prefer to embrace a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to capital campaigning, others may find that leaning on a capital campaign expert is the best way forward.

You’ll typically have two choices when it comes to campaign consulting:

• Working with a campaign advisor to carry out the campaign on your own: Some nonprofits want expert assistance but also don’t want to miss the valuable experience that comes from running their own campaigns. Working with an experienced campaign advisor who offers both the tools and knowledge to successfully manage your campaign can make a huge difference in what you’re able to accomplish.
• Investing in full-service capital campaign consulting: There are hundreds of campaign consultants out there who will come in and run your fundraising effort for you. While your team will still be heavily involved, the consultant will handle the strategic direction of the campaign to ensure you reach your goals.

The type of outside assistance you need will depend on your organization’s preferences. Do you want to take direction from an outside consultant, or would you prefer to call the shots? Similarly, would you like to increase your organization’s institutional knowledge about capital campaigns by getting hands-on experience with the whole process, or are you content to be more removed from the overall campaign strategy?

Consider what type of experience you want your team to have, and look for outside assistance that aligns with your priorities!