Contributed Line helps nonprofit organizations set and meet campaign goals.
Contributed Line leads organizations through the capital campaign process, giving you the frameworks, timelines, strategy, document generation, systems, and project management you need to to complete the transformative campaign your organization needs.
Frameworks
In the words of business strategist Steve Lover, “Frameworks are thought patterns or belief systems. Frameworks are the key to a person’s behavior. It is the secret for why people do what they do.”
Over the years, Contributed Line has both studied the frameworks of successful capital campaigns AND worked with clients to create frameworks for their own capital campaigns.
The process of providing frameworks involves orienting staff and board members with literature and easy-to-understand infographics that illustrate some fundamental truths and best practices about:
- Capital campaigns in the 2020s
- Philanthropy in the 2020s
- Momentum building in fundraising
- Concurrent work in the three channels of capital campaigns (Fundraising, Business Planning, and Construction Management)
- How to address the “feasibility study” question
- Goal setting
- Building naming opportunities
- Donor recognition and signage
Timelines
Capital campaigns can be complex, multi-faceted, protracted processes. You need someone to help you see the future and make your ambitions seem manageable. You need to know what has worked for other organizations in the past and what is working today.
Drawing upon the timelines developed by the clearest and most effective industry leaders, Contributed Line contextualizes the unique factors of your organization to develop a sequence of actions that transform lofty milestones into achievable tasks.
Our timelines help you understand both the large-scale universal truths of all capital campaigns AND what you can do to keep building momentum when so much is out of your control.
Strategy
Strategy is the sequencing of tactics aimed at achieving a goal. Tactics are individual actions undertaken to accomplish smaller goals.
When Contributed Line helps nonprofit organizations with capital campaign strategy, we are helping with the prioritization and sequencing of the daily and weekly and monthly actions that help us achieve the larger vision. In many cases we model or work collaboratively to determine the smallest details of exactly how the action is undertaken. For instance, rather than simply agreeing that we must “schedule a meeting,” we will discuss the words used in the outbound email requesting the meeting, what people should be included in communications, and how frequently attempts to set meetings must occur.
And when to change tactics.
A helpful (if tired) metaphor here would be “Eating the elephant one bite at a time.”
Document Generation
No capital campaign can begin without a narrative or a budget — often several narratives and budgets. And no capital campaign can move forward without shared agreement among stakeholders about the narratives and budgets.
Contributed Line can help you create the essential documents that donors and other funders are looking for when they seek to understand your vision.
While a mere suite of well-written, beautifully designed documents will not serve as a magic bullet, compelling narratives, budgets, lists, and images always serve as a necessary anchor in the process.
Systems
You are about to transform your organization. You are trying to adopt new frameworks. You are about to expand and enhance your organization to build the systems that your community needs.
Are you ready for the largest donation your organization has ever received? Are you ready to manage several multi-year pledges? How do we oversee the largest construction project of our careers while simultaneously embarking on the largest fundraising project of our lives?
When we take time to anticipate the implications of receiving large donations and the complexities of multiple lines of business, we are building greater readiness and resilience. And thereby, we are creating greater chances of completing the project on time and on budget — for a greater future for everyone.
Fundraising Project Management
With the proper infrastructure concerns addressed (frameworks, timelines, strategy, documents, systems), the processes of raising money will be optimized for success.
Contributed Line will serve as a project manager for the fundraising process: shared tracking the progress of relevant donor conversations in a shared spreadsheet, co-leading committee meetings to ensure regular progress on moving conversations forward, and offering insight, guidance, and language regarding best practices for how to:
- Propose, schedule, lead, and follow up on meetings
- Listen to, solicit, remind, acknowledge, and recognize donors
- Write and submit grant applications / manage grant requirements
- Adjust and refine strategy as we go
- Keep momentum going
I love working on capital campaigns. It would be my pleasure to learn more about your project to determine whether I can be of assistance.
— Kevin Mahler, Owner & President, Contributed Line
To discuss whether Contributed Line is the right capital campaign counsel for you, please reach out to Kevin at kevin@contributedline.com.
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