In the following three chapters, I look at needs that can only be met with large gifts, and I discuss using a time-limited intensive strategy to raise that kind of money through giving campaigns.

The three campaigns discussed reflect an organization’s three types of financial needs, as introduced in Chapter Six:

Annual Funding: Annual funding is the money the organization needs every year. Donor gifts to annual funding generally come from their annual earnings. In order to be able to increase an organization’s annual funding, it encourages as many donors as possible to become major donors. It may do this through a major donor campaign.

Capital Funding: From time to time, an organization needs something it doesn’t need every year. For this kind of need, additional money has to be raised beyond the annual budget. For small capital needs (new computers, ergonomic office furniture), an organization may just add money to its annual budget and raise it with an extra appeal, or it may submit a proposal to a foundation or an appeal to a generous major donor. When the capital improvement involves buying, retrofitting, or renovating a building, however, the organization usually needs to conduct a campaign to raise the money from a number of sources. For capital funding, a capital campaign encourages donors to give larger gifts, which often come from assets.

Endowment Funding: Organizations that think they will be needed forever, or at least as far into the future as they can project, will want to invest some of their money and use only the interest from the investment to provide part of their annual income. The principal that is set aside to be invested is usually referred to as an endowment. Donors traditionally give to endowments through estate gifts bequeathed in their will to be distributed after their death. However, in this section I present an option for raising endowment funds through a campaign with living donors giving from assets during their lifetimes.

The last chapter in this section looks at feasibility studies: how to evaluate whether a big campaign may be successful, how and when to do such a campaign, and, very important, when not to.

Sometimes organizations feel that they must be more sophisticated or have more infrastructure in place in order to conduct a capital or endowment campaign. I find that actually starting these large-scale fundraising efforts is a great way to get sophisticated in a hurry and to see clearly what needs to be quickly put in place. Campaigns in particular are fun; they bring out the latent competitiveness in many of us, and excitement and creative tension are built into racing to meet the goal. Capital and endowment campaigns often stimulate volunteers far more than an ongoing (and from the volunteer viewpoint, never-ending) annual needs effort.

Large-scale fundraising strategies are loaded with details, and like special events, many details build on others, so there is not much room for mistakes or carelessness. Further, you don’t want to open an endowment and then never mention it again, or start a capital campaign but then stop when you become discouraged. As with all fundraising (and I may have mentioned this before), persistence, attention to detail, and a willingness to take some risks are key to success.