Implementing Proven Solutions To Complex Problems
Capital Campaigns
Preparation, assessment and research are the building blocks to success. Time invested there propels you toward, or limits your success. But, can your organization be nimble enough to respond to an opportunity that presents itself suddenly? You should be and you can be!
Let Craig Smith Consulting come alongside your organization for a thorough look at your mission and vision, whether it’s time to begin specific planning for that campaign or you are just farsighted enough to know that the time is coming . . . it’s just a matter of when, and you want to be ready.
The first few gifts, if not the first two gifts, will determine your financial goal. Starting right, at the starting point, makes all the difference. Your campaign leadership and your planned timeline are factors that some organizations overlook, much to their detriment.
The build up to your public announcement can generate your campaign momentum which translates to organizational momentum, or it can be a slow slog that drains personnel and financial resources.
Craig Smith Consulting specializes in capital campaigns of $5-$10M where organizational resources are already stretched. Make no mistake, you must invest resources for success, but Craig Smith Consulting can help you maximize those resources within a small development staff.
The idea of the $1M gift is often tossed around by organizations that understandably dream about such a transformational gift, and many times as the cornerstone, or at least a significant gift in a capital campaign. See the blog article for characteristics of organizations that attract the $1M gift.
Enrollment Management
You certainly know that mission-appropriate families are a key building block for your school’s success.
You probably know the financial lifetime value of a student that begins in your Pre-K or Kindergarten and graduates from your high school. You should also know the cost of adding just one family that isn’t mission-appropriate or worse yet, toxic. More than you know, as they say!
Is your enrollment sluggish or just in need of a little fine tuning? Craig Smith Consulting can effectively audit your process and design a market-specific solution tailored just for you, including strategies to grow enrollment in specific grades because those gaps can stay with one class for a long time!
Perhaps your enrollment is beginning to decline or has been for several years. With the right commitment on your part, you can still reverse that trend.
While private school enrollment is on the decline, there are still new families entering the private school market every year. Those families will gravitate toward strong schools that show commitment to their needs, while also articulating the expectations on those families.
Enrollment has to be the mission of the entire school community beginning with the board, the administration and certainly the faculty and staff. See the blog article to see if you are on the path to a healthy enrollment.
There are practical ways to create your own checklist to make sure you are doing the right things to succeed in enrollment. Read more here.
Major Gift Fundraising
This one is your lifeblood in fund raising. And specifically, major gifts from individuals are the quickest (which doesn’t mean quick exactly, just quicker than other ways) and most sustainable path to fund raising success.
Organizations have successfully grown with their donors and their donors have grown with them—in affinity, financial capacity and commitment to the long-term success of those organizations.
Do you know it’s a good idea to be investing in major gift fund raising, but you have a million other things to do and you just need someone to help you create a plan to move forward?
Maybe you’ve just gotten started in major gift fund raising, you see it’s potential, and while you know relationships are the key, you need some coaching in methodology, organization and best practices.
Maybe you have a full major gifts staff, but they’re lacking organization and real, fair and measurable accountability.
Craig Smith Consulting can organize a program from the ground up or jump start the one you have, but you will need to have a commitment to the long haul to see results that will truly impact your mission.
Things aren’t business as usual in today’s marketplace and savvy organizations know it. There are motivators in the new economy that you need to understand and conform to, for success. See the blog article for more details.
Direct Mail Fundraising
Direct mail fund raising is still the engine behind many successful development programs. True, the math has changed and it’s more expensive, but it’s also possible to solicit larger gifts by mail if you handle the relationship appropriately.
While social media is increasing in popularity, and you’ll be left way behind if you’re not using it, direct mail is still king for raising money at a grassroots level, especially among Boomers, who are contributing most of the money anyway.
Direct mail is effective, and no other method offers the level of personal touch next to a phone call or personal visit when done properly.
The essence of direct mail fund raising is communicating as personally as possible to one person, according to their relationship with the organization, to receive a gift and cultivate that person for further giving.
It’s important to know that the donor who recently gave their first gift of $100 is far different from the person who gives $10 per month over the same year, and has done so for several years. The dollar amounts are the same within the year, but that’s where the similarity ends.
Knowing how to respond to each, beginning with the thank you letter—something that most organizations spend far too little time on—sets the tone for the next step in the relationship or the lack thereof.
Targeted, genuine copy that reflects the relationship, that acknowledges the last gift and the timing of it, along with a sensitivity as to how often the donor should be asked are all part of the comprehensive art and science that will have money arriving in your mailbox.
MONTHLY GIVING CLUBS
Monthly Giving Clubs are the natural offspring of a successful direct mail program with costs and renewal rates that will even make your CFO smile. A targeted group with a branded strategy can be the beginning of a special thing.
One such group grew from humble beginnings to $25,000+ in monthly income because of the commitment and persistence to see it through.
FOUNDATION STRATEGY/GRANT WRITING
Foundations are a very important component of a successful development program. After all, they are the only entities whose full-time job is to give away money!
It’s important to understand that foundations will typically buoy your efforts, but not be your engine. But some of those buoys can be very substantial.
Foundations need to be approached as people. Yes, they have regulations that must be adhered to, but the decision maker is still a person or a group of people.
Foundations come in all shapes and sizes, and have all areas of interest. A key is finding one who shares your mission and goals, and who hasn’t already invested all they are going to invest in your particular type of mission.
There is a unique opportunity, too, in recognizing foundations. By creatively highlighting their partnership with you in the community, you can create a long-term win-win relationship.
Foundations are a source of financial strength to be relied on by non-profits who will invest the time and energy for a mutual partnership. A successful relationship can lead to referrals to other foundations, and some foundations are eager to bring program expertise and partner at a deeper level in your mission.
See the blog article for practical tips on successful relationships with foundations.
BOARD DEVELOPMENT
So many organizations spend so little time getting this one right. It’s a shame because the foundation you lay with the creation of your board can speed you to success or it can be your greatest limiting factor.
Boards who truly understand their roles—and when and when not to wear each hat of governance, volunteer and implementer—are the boards who understand the foundation of success.
Board members who are passionate about your cause, who commit to structured and focused training, and who evaluate themselves as directly as they do the chief executive, are successful boards. And successful boards are the foundation of successful organizations.
The right plan for your board is as important as any planning your organization will ever do.
A board member job description and a board member recruiting plan, including an ideal board member profile, are cornerstones that will give strategic focus and understanding.
The right board plan will also attract top candidates who want to be a significant part of a significant organization.
Money. Without it, a board has little credibility no matter how committed they are to volunteering and doing their very best to help. But money alone is a bad reason to recruit board members if they don’t understand their full roles and responsibilities.
Not every board member will be a major contributor or volunteer the most hours or lead you to additional contributors, but the blending of skills and giftedness, with the right plan and commitment, can make all the difference in the world.
ORGANIZATIONAL/DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIC ASSESMENT
When you understand where you really are, it’s much easier to create a map to where you want to go.
Wise organizations and wise chief executives know the value of an independent assessment even if it’s mainly to confirm what they already know. Inevitably, there are data points, as well as information gleaned from interviews, that provide that aha perspective that is so valuable to know before embarking on any strategic initiative.
Detailed year-by-year data analysis of your development program, geared to your specific constituency, can show you what was successful, what wasn’t and everything in between. More importantly, it can show you who your most valued supporters really are and where the gaps are, which becomes the basis of your planning for the future.
An organizational assessment can help make the healthy organization even better and help the struggling organization quantify and qualify its challenges. With the proper assessment, your organization can begin its trek to better accomplishing your mission and the people you serve.