Partnership between capital campaign efforts and your major gifts strategy is absolutely vital for both to be successful. And creating a strong foundation for capital campaigns requires a structure that will create collaboration and communication throughout the organization.

In today’s podcast episode, Jeff chats with Amy Eisenstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Capital Campaign Toolkit, and gets answers to some commonly asked questions about capital campaigns. Amy also shares some valuable tips about how to create collaboration with your capital campaign and major gift fundraising strategies.

Learn more about creating a capital campaign by downloading the Step-by-Step Guide and Checklist from Capital Campaign Toolkit.

Introducing our Guest:

Amy Eisenstein is the CEO and Co-Founder of Capital Campaign Toolkit. Amy is a veteran fundraising consultant and has been working in the non-profit sector for over 20 years. She has rich experience in both major gift fundraising and capital campaigns. Learn more about her here.

Read the Full Transcript here: 

Jeff Schreifels 

Have you ever wondered if a capital campaign is right for your organization, or been concerned about how to set up a capital campaign to be successful, without alienating your major gift team? We’ve heard these and other questions from clients throughout the years, especially in our major gift work. That’s why for today’s podcast, I’ve invited a very special guest to join me to answer all your capital campaign questions, and give you clear strategies for how to create collaboration between your capital campaign and major gift efforts.

Amy Eisenstein 

Welcome to the Nothing But Major Gifts podcast from Veritus Group featuring Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels. Twice a month, we bring you the latest and best thinking about major gift fundraising, so you can develop authentic relationships with your major donors. Here are your hosts, Richard and Jeff.

Jeff Schreifels 

Welcome to the podcast today. I’m Jeff Schreifels. Richard is off today. But I’m really excited to have a special guest with me. We regularly get questions about capital campaigns. And we’ve worked with a number of clients who’ve done those campaigns. The collaboration between major guests and your capital campaign efforts is really crucial. And sometimes we’ve actually encountered some really sticky situations. And this is why I’ve invited Amy Eisenstein, CEO and co-founder of Capital Campaign Toolkit. Because not only is she a veteran fundraising consultant, and has been working in this nonprofit sector for well over 20 years, but she has this rich experience in both major gifts and capital campaigns. Plus, she’s just a really cool person. And so I’m really excited to have her on the podcast today. Welcome, Amy.

Amy Eisenstein 

Thank you so much for having me today. Jeff, I hope you could see me smiling through the through the microphone.

Jeff Schreifels 

I did. Yes. You know, as we get started with this conversation today, I would really love to have you share about the key differences if there are any, between major gifts and capital campaigns, since a lot of times in the nonprofit sector, we really think of them as two distinctly separate fundraising functions.

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, that is such a good question. And maybe after our conversation today, people will think of them a little less like two distinctly separate fundraising functions. Because so yeah, I mean, in, in my experience, capital campaigns are really the epitome of major gift fundraising. I often refer to campaigns as opportunities to supercharge your major gift fundraising program, or your efforts. You know, capital campaigns are such special opportunities. We call them at the Capital Campaign Toolkit, “once in a while campaigns,” because organizations often do them only once every 10 years, sometimes every 20 years. And really, it’s an opportunity for the fundraisers at an organization to have very specific tangible requests, which we know donors love. So they’re specific projects that are going to help get the organization to the next level of service. And, you know, it’s really an opportunity for fundraisers to add zeros to a gift that they might normally be soliciting, because the project and the vision is so big. And it’s so exciting to donors that this is really a great opportunity for major gift fundraisers.

Jeff Schreifels 

That’s really true. Why don’t you get specifically how, how do these capital campaigns actually enhance the overall major gift efforts? What have you seen in working with your clients? How does this work?

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, so I mean, a campaign should be organization-wide, right. Everybody is focused and attention in the fundraising office should turn towards a capital campaign. Yeah. And so, you know, that doesn’t mean that the annual fund is left to suffer. And I want to make sure that listeners really understand that an annual fund should stay the same or even thrive during a capital campaign for a variety of reasons. But, it’s not that the annual fund goes away or disappears. That continues and we can talk about how that happens. But really, campaigns are opportunities for major gift officers to focus on big projects and point their donors to this huge vision that the organization’s having that only comes along once in a while. So basically, you know, the mechanics are you ask all donors to continue their annual support, whether it’s a major gift or a recurring gift, or whatever it is, and make a special one time gift that’s over and above their normal giving for the capital campaign effort. Does that make sense?

Jeff Schreifels 

It does make sense. And I guess the one thing that I want to add to that is, so we’re all about, as you know, really trying to figure out what a donor’s passions and interests are, and how it relates to all the things that they’re doing and matching that up, obviously. And so sometimes we’ve heard from fundraisers major gift fundraisers who are starting to think about whether their organization is trying to go into a capital campaign, they’re like, Well, what if my donors aren’t interested in the capital campaign? And what’s, what I have? What I’ve witnessed, though, is, if you’re really good, putting this capital campaign together, it’s going to have multiple offers within that campaign that, you know, pretty much every one of your donors has some interest in. Because, yeah, okay. Because, um,

Amy Eisenstein 

Go ahead. Sorry. Go ahead.

Jeff Schreifels 

I mean, I just, it’s one of the fears that we hear from major gift fundraisers is that, well, we got this capital campaign, and they feel like it’s this whole different thing. And they’re like, I don’t know if I want to introduce my donors to that, because, you know, I don’t think it’s gonna fit what, what they are actually passionate about, and I usually say, Well, gosh, any good capital campaign is gonna incorporate all kinds of different things. It’s not just about one thing that they’re going to fund.

Amy Eisenstein 

That’s right. Usually, a campaign doesn’t just focus on one specific thing, often we’ll see a building, but not always. But a well-planned, well-thought-out capital campaign elevates the entire organization. So if the donor truly believes in the mission and the cause, then there have got to be aspects of the campaign that overlap with that donor’s interests. And I think that that is the opportunity. And the challenge of a good fundraiser is to find where the donor’s interests intersect and overlap with the campaign goals and efforts. You know, the one thing that we don’t want to see happen is for either a donor to give grudgingly, you know, that’s not good for the organization or a donor. And we don’t, you know, and we don’t want the organization changing to fit a donor’s needs or interests. I mean, you know, sometimes you have to say to a donor, you know what, this really isn’t the opportunity for you, maybe there’s an organization down the street, that would better meet your needs. And yeah, you know, I know, I know, most fundraisers don’t want to be giving away their donors. But the reality is that you don’t want, you know, it’s bad for donors. And it’s bad for organizations for there to be a mismatch. And if there’s just not an interest overlap, it’s time to let that donor go and focus on someone who is excited about your campaign and your mission.

Jeff Schreifels 

Yeah, I mean, that’s awesome advice. And it’s true, we’ve seen that happen. And you know, when you do something like that, it usually comes back in a good way towards the organization, when you’re focused on the donor and their needs. That always works.

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, yes. Even if it means that they that the opportunity isn’t right for them this time. Yeah, they will, you can go back to them next time. But, you know, in my experience, really, if a capital campaign, like I said, is designed to raise the, elevate the whole organization to the next level of program and service, which it should be, if the donor really does care about the mission, I mean, 99% of the time, the campaign’s going to be in line, if it’s a longtime donor, it should, it should line up. But if you can’t find a match or an overlap, you’re going to find yourself in a rabbit hole, and you probably want to say, Okay, I shouldn’t be spending all my time with this donor anymore. Yeah.

Jeff Schreifels 

Yeah. Another thing that I’m really interested about is with capital campaigns, the whole thing about a feasibility study, and how they could be a really great opportunity. To engage the key donors in your organization, prior to the campaign, talk about how that works and why it works and what you’ve seen with your clients that you work with.

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, I mean, to me, the feasibility study is really the ultimate opportunity to engage your donors prior to a campaign. And it really is an exciting opportunity and a unique opportunity, because it’s, it’s a chance to invite some key donors and community leaders to be insiders. Yeah. And really insiders for the campaign. Right. They’re the first to see the campaign plans, they’re invited to give their feedback. I mean, often, when we talk about raising major gifts, you’ll know this, we want to ask our donors’ advice and get them engaged and get them involved. Exactly. There’s no better opportunity than a feasibility study to do that.

Jeff Schreifels 

So that kind of like, ignites maybe the passion behind it, obviously, you know, and you, you really, when you hear all that great feedback from donors, I would wonder, is it, how do you… How do feasibility studies also help kind of reignite maybe lapsed, major donors as well? I mean, is that part of it as well?

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, I mean, I think, listen, well, during a feasibility study, there’s an opportunity to interview and talk to a limited number of people in the community. Yeah, mostly, you’re going to be focused on the people that you think have the potential and inclination to give the biggest gifts to the campaign. That may include a small handful of lapsed donors. And actually, I think it is an opportunity with certain lapsed donors to say, you know, what, you were a supporter of this for a long time, we’ve got this big new, exciting project, you know, we hope you’d be interested in learning more. So I think it is, you know, I just want it before, I don’t know, if you’re ready to move off feasibility studies. I do want to say one more thing about them.

Jeff Schreifels 

Okay.

Amy Eisenstein 

The traditional model of a feasibility study is that an organization would hire an outside campaign consultant to come talk to your donors, right? You know, it, it’s tried and true in many senses, but there are many flaws in terms of how it actually works and how it’s executed. So, at the Toolkit, we recommend an alternative model to that traditional feasibility study model where an outside consultant does the interview, because we believe so strongly that it’s an opportunity for nonprofit leaders to be building relationships with their donors. So we actually support organizations and guide the nonprofit leaders in interviewing their own donors, as we call it a guided feasibility study, because we guide the leaders through it. But you know, if we’re talking about it as an opportunity to engage with your key donors before you ask them for a gift, we want nonprofit leaders getting comfortable sitting down and talking with their donors. And it’s just, it’s just a different, a different model, a different way of doing things. But however you decide to do it, it’s critical that somebody talks to your donors before a campaign.

Jeff Schreifels 

I really love that approach versus the outsider coming in, because you’re right. And we we often run up against this with the organizations that we work with where the leader is not so comfortable, necessarily. With fundraising, and, you know, working I can see working with that leader during and being in present during these feasibility study interviews with donors, it could really help them see the power of the, of all of fundraising and help them get comfortable with it, because in the end, they’re probably going to need to make some pretty big asks. And if they’re not comfortable, that’s gonna be that’s difficult to do.

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, I mean, it’s nice to let nonprofit leaders go have these conversations, because they know specifically that they’re not asking for a gift. So it takes that added pressure off the table. Right? You know, we do prepare them very well and role play and practice those conversations, provide them with questions that they’re going to ask but ultimately, it is a less charged situation because they’re not asking for a gift and they do get to build some rapport with a donor and practice having those pre-campaign conversations. It’s a really great model.

Jeff Schreifels 

Yeah, I love that. So let’s start talking about how major gifts and capital campaigns really can integrate together and kind of dispel any fears for major gift officers around the capital campaign. So talk about who actually manages the donor relationships during capital campaigns. Because, you know, that’s one of the fears that NGOs have around this is that somebody is going to come from the outside, and they’re managing the campaign. And all of a sudden, they’re, in a sense, quote, unquote, taking their donors away. So trust that fear.

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, that’s so interesting. It’s such a good question. And I think, you know, that in a well-planned-out and executed campaign, major gift officers should not be losing their donors, but they should be invited and encouraged and required to be asking for major gifts for their, you know, their recurring gifts, and for the campaign on a special one time campaign gift. So I may not, we encourage all of our clients to have the whole team working together collectively to raise money for the campaign and for the ongoing operations of the organization, and everybody needs to be involved. So yeah, your question is about who manages the donor relationships. So I think whoever normally manages them, whether it’s the Development Director, or major gift officer, you know, the CEO may manage a few relationships. But, you know, ultimately, the the CEO, the executive director, the board chair, the campaign chair may wind up asking for a majority of the biggest gifts. But the major gift officer still plays a key role in setting up those meetings and doing follow up and tracking and in helping, I mean, they’re really the ones that are managing the relationship. Even if they don’t do the ask, they’re still in charge of that relationship. Does that get at what you were thinking about?

Jeff Schreifels 

Yeah, I think that is, so what I’m hearing from you is, hey, this major gifts stuff and the capital campaign stuff, it’s, it’s, it’s all related together. It’s not like you, you have to change anything, you’re still managing these donor relationships the same way, you just now have some incredible offers to inspire your donors with that maybe you didn’t have before.

Amy Eisenstein 

That’s exactly right. It should be seamless, honestly, major gifts and the capital campaign should be fully integrated with one another. And, you know, the donor may give to multiple things to various things, they may give a gift to annual operating, or, you know, the operating fund, as they always have. And they may give a special gift. And that’s going to be bundled into one ask opportunity. Yeah, exactly.

Jeff Schreifels 

So this is this is interesting, because I feel like your approach, Amy and the Capital Campaign Toolkit has a very different approach than traditional capital campaign companies out there. What I would like to know, what do you see is the major differences between the traditional ones that, you know, we all heard of those, versus what you what your you and your team are doing with organizations? Because, the way you’re talking about capital campaigns is different than what I’ve heard from other folks.

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, thank you so much for asking that question. I mean, we really do see ourselves as a different model than the traditional capital campaign consultant, who comes in and, and does everything or takes over, right. I mean, we’re starting with the belief that the leaders at the nonprofit organization, both the staff and the volunteers, should be in the driver’s seat of the campaign. They know their donors, they know their mission, they know their programs, they know the community better than any outsider ever could. And what we do is we’re a support system for them. We give them the tools, the resources, the guidance, the advice, the cheerleading, the accountability, you know, everything that they need to run a successful campaign. You know, we’re not leaving them out in the wind high and dry. It’s not a do-it-yourself situation. It’s, we’re there to hold their hand and guide them every step of the way. But they are the ones who were in charge. They’re leading the campaign because it’s their community and their organization. And we’re just there to give them the support and resources so that they can do it successfully.

Jeff Schreifels 

I love that. I love that. And it’s, it feels, I’m just thinking about as a major gift officer or director of major gifts in a in an organization, that feels much better. Because it’s like, we want to be part of this, the staff has saved the major gifts staff. And oftentimes, we’ve when we’ve been a part of previous capital campaigns, it feels like we’re left out or we’re not as important to the whole process. Other people have come in, they hire some other people that, you know, to, to work on that campaign. And we’re out here, well, you guys just get that annual gift. And, you know, we’ll leave it to us to do this. And so —

Amy Eisenstein 

That is, that’s such a strange approach and philosophy to me, because the major gift officers are the ones with the relationships with the donors.

Jeff Schreifels 

Exactly.

Amy Eisenstein 

And you know that that is so strange to me, because the biggest donors and the most loyal donors to your organizations are the ones who are going to carry the campaign. And the fundraising team is critical to that operation.

Jeff Schreifels 

We’ve just talked to so many folks, for the organizations that we’ve worked with now and in the past that really have been alienated out of because when they bring in this capital campaign, and that’s why listening to how you approach this is so refreshing, because it’s the opposite. You know, you’re using the people that know, their donors know, their community, the best to run this campaign. And I just really appreciate how you approach this versus some of the more traditional capital campaign companies that are out there. What I would like to ask you, though, when you when you go into this, is there ever a time where you, you look at the staff that’s already working with major donors and say, Hey, you actually need to hire someone, and then they’re saying, Hey, we can’t afford to hire people. How do you deal with that, when you’re kind of evaluating the staffing of the organization around a capital campaign?

Amy Eisenstein 

Yeah, so one of our recommendations is often to staff up during a campaign. And, you know, we want the most senior people, the most experienced people, the people with the longest relationships to be the people asking for major gifts, at most organizations. And so, often, we will actually recommend that they bring in not more major gift officers necessarily, but more junior people, maybe they need another administrative person, maybe they need a development associate, maybe they need a database manager, there’s a lot of work that goes into a campaign and we want to free up the people at the top of the organization to build those relationships and to go out and do the asking. So, but, you started to talk about how organizations don’t want to staff up. So in the nicest possible way, you know, we say, all right, you’re raising whatever it is a million dollars a year now and you want to raise $5 million a year for the next three years, you know, five times as much without any additional staff or resources. I mean, it’s just unrealistic. So let’s look at how we do that. And there’s actually a pretty simple formula that we use. Okay. And that is whatever the campaign goal is, we build a campaign budget of, you know, starting point of 10% of the campaign goal to be used over three years for things like staffing up. So it’s not part of the operating budget. It’s not part of the annual budget, right. It’s not part of the regular organizational budget. It’s a separate campaign budget. And so then, when you look at it that way, there is there is funding for staffing up and, you know, ultimately, we hope that they’ll have grown their their fundraising operation enough throughout the course of the campaign that they’ll be able to keep those staff members and integrate them. Yeah. And so what we do is we say okay, in year one of the campaign, the campaign budget pays for 100% of those campaign new staff member salaries right? In year two, the campaign budget pays for two-thirds. And the operating budget takes over 1/3 of the salary, in year three, it flips and 1/3 of the campaign budget pays for them and then two-thirds so that by year four, the organization has grown enough that they that the operating budget can withstand the addition of the new staff.

Jeff Schreifels 

Got it. I love that because I was gonna ask, okay, when the thing is, when the campaign is over, and you have the staff, how do you? Do you absorb the staff? Or do you let them go or, but it sounds like in this approach, you have a whole plan for because everything is going to rise up together and the donors are going you have enough donors, you’re able then to fund the continued the, you know, there’s the staffing from there on. So, I love that.

Amy Eisenstein 

Ideally, I mean, that is what should happen because a campaign, you build the fundraising infrastructure, you may get new donor systems, you may, you know, your branding may get enhanced, your publicity and your public awareness. So you do attract new donors. So hopefully at the end of the campaign, you can absorb those new staff members, because you have a higher functioning development office. Yeah.

Jeff Schreifels 

Yeah. Awesome stuff. Well, I just want to thank you so much for this insight, and the tips that are going to help people develop their skills in this area. Well, but before we wrap up the conversation, I want to make sure that our audience knows how they can connect with you and learn more about your services.

Amy Eisenstein 

Thank you. I appreciate that. So they can just visit our website, capitalcampaigntoolkit.com. And right on the homepage, there is a free downloadable, that gives them a step-by-step guide to a capital campaign. It’s a great resource, but we do have lots and lots of free resources on the Capital Campaign Toolkit website. That’s probably the best place for them to start.

Jeff Schreifels 

Awesome. Good. Well, thank you so much, and I hope everyone goes out and checks out the Capital Campaign Toolkit and explore all of Amy’s resources. Thank you for listening today and we’ll see you next time.

Recorded 

Thank you for joining us for the Nothing But Major Gifts podcast from Veritus Group. Richard and Jeff also write an ongoing blog that you can subscribe to for free at veritusgroup.com Please join us again next time.