5 Steps to Pivot Your Capital Campaign When the World Falls Apart

If you’re in the midst of a capital campaign and you’re wondering how to proceed in the face of the Coronavirus crisis and so much economic uncertainty, a number of steps can help you reassess your plans.

5 Steps to Pivot Your Capital Campaign

I’ve put a great deal of thought into the best way to handle these uncertain times. Here are five steps that will help you pivot to take the right course.

1. Do NOT stop fundraising.

It’s tempting to stop your fundraising with the fear that people won’t want to give. Indeed, many organizations will do just that. But you should continue asking for gifts. Some of your donors — the ones closest to you — will want to give. They will want to make sure that your organization continues on and may well want to help with that.

Making assumptions about whether people will want to give is always a mistake in fundraising. Your job is to let people know how they can help and invite them to do just that.

2. Talk to your largest donors.

If you’ve been asking donors for large gifts for your capital campaign, you should reach out to those who have already given. Find out how they are and how the crisis is effecting them. You might even ask them if they would like to extend their payment schedules to allow the market to rebound.

3. Be flexible about your campaign’s goal and timetable.

Campaigns have two variables:

1. the goal
2. the timeline

In the best of times, we tinker with those variables. And now, in light of a full-scale crisis, you can reevaluate both of them. However, don’t do so until the future is a bit more predictable. So, you might want to delay your campaign work for a bit and then reconsider your goal and the timeline of your campaign.

4. Figure out how your organization can address immediate needs in your community.

During the Coronavirus crisis, you should look at the immediate needs of the community you serve and consider how your organization is best suited to address those needs. Consider switching from your normal activities toward more immediate relevance. In many cases, you will be able to pivot to current needs using current staff. In other cases, you will see a need that doesn’t require staff work at all.

Ask yourself this question:

In light of the Coronavirus crisis, what are the pressing needs of our community and how can we best address them?

Once you answer that question, you can shape a short-term fundraising campaign accordingly.

5. Launch a “Pivot Campaign” to raise short term money to help you carry out your plan.

Once you have a plan for how you will focus your resources on serving a pressing need, you have the essentials for a short-term fundraising campaign to raise funds for your organization. Organize it as though it were a capital campaign, compressed into two or three months.

In these times of need, many people want to help. They may not wish to draw funds from their investments, but they may be perfectly willing to give out of their cash reserves.

You will be well-served by betting on people’s better angels. While not everyone will be in a position to make a contributions, some people will — and they will be happy you asked.

Sign Up for a FREE Pivot Campaign Strategy Session

Through my work at the Capital Campaign Toolkit, we are offering free Pivot Campaign Strategy Sessions. Click the link below to sign up and speak with one of our campaign experts:

Sign Up for a FREE Pivot Session

We’ll learn more about your situation and help you figure out the best way to move forward during these challenging times.