A CEND-directed planning and feasibility study is the first step toward a successful campaign. It prepares your organization for a capital campaign by assessing institutional capacity, building the fundraising infrastructure, testing the case for support, and identifying the willingness and readiness of prospective campaign leaders and major gift donors to lead and give. Using a combination of personal interviews with major philanthropic supporters and surveys of interested constituents, the Campaign Planning Studies process is coordinated with a committee of prospective campaign leaders. We then work with these leaders to make sure they possess a transformational vision, clear plans, and the philanthropic interest to successfully undertake a major fundraising initiative.

The foundation for a successful campaign is a thoughtfully designed and strategically executed feasibility or planning study. The former includes an audit to determine your organization’s readiness to embark on a campaign. The feasibility or planning study serves as a road map for how to run a campaign, including an analysis of scope, goal, donor base, and potential support. A planning study, while similar, may utilize different methods to gauge the best way to position the project in the hearts of your donors. If you want real information from your “feasibility” study so that you can make informed and strategic campaign decisions, then the CEND Campaign Strategy Study is for you. We have moved beyond the old feasibility study model and created a six-phased process that evaluates your organization’s readiness — externally and internally—to successfully conduct a campaign.

The Campaign Strategy Study was developed to expand on the traditional “feasibility study” to ensure that an organization is prepared to successfully execute a campaign at the highest possible level Since 2016, we’ve conducted more than 20 campaign planning studies, working with organizations pursuing their first major fundraising initiatives.

The study looks not only at the likely contributions from your top donors, but also assesses the giving capacity of your entire constituency base through our Constituency Capacity Analysis. In addition, we conduct a web-based survey to gather feedback from a broader cross section of your stakeholders, for marketing the campaign and to give us an element of “interest and buy-in” that we can overlay on the Capacity Analysis. The CEND Campaign Feasibility Study goes beyond simply determining if a campaign is “feasible” by providing strategies and specific actions that should be implemented in order for the campaign to not only succeed, but also to be a great experience for your volunteers, staff, and donors.

Campaign Feasibility Studies

The main characteristics that differentiate a strategy study from a traditional feasibility study are:

1. The report’s emphasis on providing concrete and specific recommendations for action, so that the campaign can get underway with positive early momentum.
2. CEND does not position the study interviews as confidential. All too often we have found that counsel conducts these type of interviews under the promise of confidentiality, only to violate that promise by either overtly or covertly sharing the content of the conversation. We don’t feel that your donors should be treated in this way. Therefore, we are clear with interviewees from the onset that we are collecting information, which we may share as appropriate, so that sound decisions can be made. We believe our credibility and yours are at stake in how information is gathered and used.

Campaign Feasibility Study – A Six-Phased Process

There are six phases of the Campaign Strategy Study, all of which are equally important in determining how prepared your non-profit is to launch a campaign.

1. Phase I

Determining Internal Campaign Readiness

2. Phase II

Developing the Case Summary/Campaign Prospectus

3. Phase III

Engaging Your Volunteers in the Campaign Strategy Study

4. Phase IV

Discussions with Your Prospects: The Study Interviews and Web-based Survey

5. Phase V

Assessing Your Constituency: Constituency Capacity Analysis

6. Phase VI

Results: Recommendations for Action to Undertake the Campaign

What Will Be The Focus Of The Study?

The Campaign Strategy Study will focus on the following three major areas, which are basic to the success of any campaign:

1. Case for Support

• What will be the most compelling components of the campaign?
• What are the needs? Are the financial objectives commensurate with those needs?
• How will the campaign enable your institution to better serve your constituency?
• What will be the most persuasive presentation?