Capital Campaign Planning: A Complete Timeline for Readiness
- Dave
- Apr 1
- 8 min read
You’ve likely heard the saying, “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” While it may be a cliché, it rings true with many nonprofit fundraising efforts, especially capital campaigns. The quality of your fundraising plan for these large-scale undertakings can make or break your organization’s success.
In this guide, you’ll learn all you need to know to effectively prepare for a capital campaign that brings your nonprofit’s staff, board, volunteers, donors, and community together to make major strides for your mission. We’ll cover:
Let’s get started by diving deeper into the benefits of capital campaign preparation before we look at how to create a plan for your organization.
Why Capital Campaign Planning Is Important
The contemporary capital campaign landscape is becoming increasingly complicated each year. Between higher competition for individual donations in the nonprofit sector, a greater demand for transparency and accountability from supporters, regulatory challenges, economic and political turbulence, and evolving technology, there are many complex factors to navigate when conducting these efforts.
Going into a capital campaign with a solid plan will better equip your organization to:
Secure buy-in from key stakeholders like your board, major donor prospects, and campaign leadership candidates.
Run an efficient campaign in which volunteer and staff teams work together seamlessly.
Manage changes that arise once you’ve launched your campaign and keep it on course from start to finish.
Capital campaigns are all-hands-on-deck efforts, requiring extensive support from inside and outside your organization every step of the way. Preparing thoroughly will ensure your entire team stays on the same page from the beginning.
Capital Campaign Planning Steps & Timeline
As capital campaigns typically last several years, thorough advance preparation is an important part of the process. Begin at least a year in advance (two if possible), and use the following timeline to guide your efforts:
12+ Months Out: Strategy Development & Organizational Readiness
Every successful fundraising initiative starts with a clear direction. Begin your capital campaign planning process with the following strategy-centered activities.
Confirm the Campaign’s Proposed Priorities
Capital campaigns typically have focused goals, such as funding the acquisition or expansion of property, major equipment purchases, new or expanded programming, or endowment creation. launches. The best way to zero in on campaign initiatives is by referencing your organization’s strategic plan, which should be developed through a process that incorporates all key stakeholders.
Then, set your goal using the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound). Once finalized, it will help you identify the priorities which will form the basis of an initial case for support.
Complete a Market Survey & Analysis
A market survey involves surveying key stakeholders by email or phone, and it often includes interviews or focus groups with key supporters for more in-depth feedback. It will help you better understand:
How your community views your organization
What aspects of your current programing your supporters care most about
How important the philanthropic support your community provides to your nonprofit is relative to other organizations and causes
The qualitative and quantitative information you collect will help inform your organization’s marketing, communications, and public relations initiatives and improve your profile with constituents.
Orient Your Internal Team
Your nonprofit’s entire staff and board need to be involved in capital campaign planning from the start, along with volunteer leaders. Begin familiarizing them with capital campaign concepts, best practices, and past results. These efforts will give team members a sense of what their roles will be in a campaign and help you identify potential gaps in your staffing.
Conduct an Internal Readiness Audit
This important step will examine and confirm your preparedness to manage a campaign internally, exploring:
Whether your campaign’s strategic plan is ready to be adapted for practical use
Annual giving trends and overall stewardship efforts, which will provide the backbone for your campaign
The state of current research on individual, corporate, foundation and other major and gift prospects and their relative engagement with your organization
The state of your fundraising infrastructure (donor database, prospecting tools, engagement tools, etc.) and whether a campaign will require upgrades or investment
Fundraising consulting services can be particularly helpful in confirming readiness. An experienced consulting firm will provide an outside perspective on your overall level of organizational readiness and identify where you need to put in additional work prior to launching a campaign.
6 Months Out: Campaign Feasibility Study
A campaign feasibility study (also known as a planning study) tests interest in your campaign’s initiatives and quantifies potential support to them prior to beginning campaign activities. It will also serve to further cultivate your best prospects and gain valuable insight on how to refine your case for support.
These studies typically involve conducting 30-40 interviews with key stakeholders to determine how likely you are to garner enough support for a successful campaign. The interviews will provide specific guidance and recommendations on:
Factors that will assist or challenge your campaign effort
Direct feedback on the draft case for support
The level of interest and the potential range of support from those interviewed
Volunteer leaders available for the campaign
An assessment of potential for attaining the campaign’s fundraising goals
The proper timing and stages for the campaign
The staffing and administrative resources needed to support the campaign
Any recommended, cost-effective role for campaign consulting resources
The Sheridan Group’s feasibility study process also delivers a comprehensive campaign operation plan, including:
The overarching strategy for the campaign
A campaign organizational chart for volunteers, staff, and counsel
Roles and responsibilities for all volunteers, staff, and counsel involved in the campaign
A detailed quarterly timeline of campaign activity, including:
Leadership recruitment and engagement
Case for support refinement
Top Prospect Development
Annual giving
Planned giving
Marketing and communications
Donor recognition preparation
Logistical and operations support
A budget of projected campaign revenue and required campaign expenses
Going Forward: Early Capital Campaign Priorities
With a comprehensive campaign operating plan in place,, it’s time to hit the ground running with planning the practical details of your capital campaign. If there are any areas you need to address coming out of these activities (e.g., purchasing and setting up new fundraising software or conducting additional research), complete those tasks before moving forward with the following steps:
Recruit Internal and External Leadership
Of the volunteers you recruit for your capital campaign, your campaign chair (or co-chairs) is the most important, as they’ll lead the whole undertaking. The chair will be your public-facing campaign spokesperson, oversee and motivate various committees, and assist in refining your campaign strategy along the way.
Larger organizations with broader audiences may add vice chairs to their team to reach more constituents—for example, universities with alumni in various cities often benefit from recruiting regional vice chairs to cover a larger geographic area.
Additionally, you’ll need to form a steering committee to keep the campaign on track, which can be made up of internal and/or external stakeholders. Your volunteer coordinator, development team, and other senior staff within your organization will also need to be highly involved as you kick off the campaign.
Create Solicitation Materials
To equip your campaign fundraisers, communications team, and coordinators with everything they need to execute their responsibilities successfully, you’ll need to develop various materials they can reference and utilize. These include:
A case for support. This document outlines the purpose, rationale, and importance of supporting your capital campaign, which the constituent feedback you received during the feasibility study will shape. It serves to guide all of your conversations with stakeholders, marketing and public relations efforts, donor presentations, and any other way in which your team communicates about the campaign.
Promotional materials. These should be based on your case for support and include content for both online marketing channels (e.g., emails, social media posts, digital ads, and website content) and offline methods (such as direct mail and phone call talking points). Make sure to also include press releases and other public relations materials so you can get the press to cover your nonprofit’s campaign and widen its reach.
Training documents. Create different materials for each of your committees and volunteer teams, as well as your chair and board. These should get them up to speed on their responsibilities and expectations for executing them, as well as educate them on all aspects of your campaign.
Gift range chart. This tool guides major gift and leadership fundraising by showing how many contributions you plan to solicit at each level to achieve your goal. For example, if you plan to raise $1 million in major gifts, your gift range chart may include one donation of $200,000, two donations of $100,000, four donations of $50,000, eight donations of $25,000, 10 donations of $10,000, and 20 donations of $5,000.
Make sure you can easily revise any of these documents as the campaign progresses. This is particularly important with promotional materials so you can use them in different situations and personalize your messages to individual supporters.
Identify & Prioritize Top Prospects
For your capital campaign to get up and running quickly, you need to be prepared with lists of the first supporters you’ll reach out to. Research and develop solicitation strategies and assignments for:
Prospective major donors for the quiet phase of your campaign
Other leadership contributors like board members and your campaign chair
Potential corporate sponsors for campaign events
Grantmaking organizations offering funding opportunities that coordinate with your campaign goal and that you could use to supplement your individual fundraising efforts
Prioritize each of these lists according to how likely the supporter is to respond favorably to your requests and by how much they’re capable of giving. This way, you can reach out to the best prospects first and secure more support while saving time and resources.
How We Can Help With Capital Campaign Planning
To facilitate capital campaign preparation execution, it's always helpful (and often necessary) to involve outside expertise.
At The Sheridan Group, we’re always happy to review the several components of reaching campaign readiness with you. And, as you navigate and complete this essential process, we would welcome the opportunity to partner with you on a feasibility study and plan development which will set you on a course to success.
Since our founding in 1983, we’ve supported more than 250 nonprofits and associations across various verticals by developing tailored fundraising assessments and strategies. Explore our case studies to see our expert methodology in action with nonprofits like yours!
Additional Capital Campaign Planning Resources
By following the systematic preparation process in this guide, your nonprofit can plan and launch its capital campaign confidently and see better results as it continues. After your campaign, set aside time to evaluate your planning process, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and make note of these considerations so they can inform your future efforts.
To learn more about capital campaign fundraising, check out these resources:
TSG Education Series: Building Major Gifts into Your Annual Campaign. Effective annual fundraising and capital campaign fundraising both hinge on major gifts—learn how to solicit them successfully in this guide.
TSG Education Series: Leveraging Campaign Success. Explore strategies to maintain your organization’s momentum after a successful capital campaign and accomplish even more goals.
TSG Education Series: Managing Your Capital Campaign Through Economic Uncertainty. Discover how to keep your capital campaign running smoothly even when the larger economic environment is more turbulent.
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