Your roof is leaking, your programs are stagnating due to a lack of space, and your fantastic new initiative can't happen without some serious renovations. You need a capital campaign, but how do you get one off the ground and keep your annual fund running strong?
Many nonprofit leaders have faced this exact challenge. Even the most diligent nonprofit leaders sometimes find their campaigns falling short of expectations.
Here are three of the most common traps even successful organizations fall into, and how to avoid them.
It’s easy to think you know your donors inside and out. After all, you’ve invested your career in building relationships! But life (and people) are often quite unpredictable.
We worked with one organization that was confident they had $4 million in verbal commitments from four key board members. So confident, in fact, that they chose to skip a planning study altogether.
They launched the campaign with high hopes. Then the unexpected happened:
The result? $4 million evaporated, and the campaign had to be abandoned entirely.
The takeaway: Without confirmation, planning, and a collaborative approach with your board and donors, assumptions can derail your efforts before they truly begin.
It’s natural to want to share good news as soon as possible. But in fundraising, announcing your campaign too early can be a major mistake.
Once your plans are public, donors start asking for updates and if the numbers aren’t climbing fast, enthusiasm fades. Quickly.
In fact, we’ve seen this so often, we can summarize it with a common scenario:
An organization launches its campaign with excitement and a public fundraising thermometer on its website. But when early visitors see little progress, they wonder if their gift will even make a difference. Donations stall. Momentum slows.
The takeaway: Announce your campaign only when you’ve secured early commitments and built the quiet-phase momentum needed to inspire confidence.
Here’s a fun language fact: The word "priority" used to mean just one most important thing. Using "priorities" to mean many important things is a newer idea. It changes the original meaning, which was that there’s only one top priority.
So, can you really have several "most important" things when running a capital campaign? The answer is no. Here’s why.
We recently worked with an organization that viewed their campaign as a siloed part of development rather than the organization's central focus. Because they tried to focus on both their annual fund and the campaign:
The takeaway: For a campaign to succeed, it must be the organization’s clear, unified priority, shared across staff, board, and donor communities.
If any of these pitfalls sound familiar, you’re not alone. Launching and running a campaign is challenging enough without falling into these traps, traps that smart, mission-driven organizations encounter all the time.
Avoiding these missteps takes clarity, communication, and a unified strategy.
A successful capital campaign takes more than just good intentions. It requires expert guidance and a proven plan. AmPhil can help you achieve real results with your next campaign. Discover practical steps in "The Ultimate Guide to Capital Campaigns", or connect with an AmPhil fundraising expert today to set your campaign up for lasting success.
Benjamin Domingue serves as a Director, helping AmPhil’s clients build and lead their development departments. His particular focus is on major gifts, planned giving, strategic planning, direct mail fundraising, capital campaigns, and transformational “non-transactional” fundraising.
Before joining AmPhil in 2021, Ben served as a major gifts officer with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and as Director of Development with ACE Scholarships in Denver. He received his MBA from the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, with a concentration in Catholic Philanthropy. Ben earned his bachelor’s degree in International Trade & Finance from Louisiana State University, where he played on the SEC Championship football team. Ben resides in Littleton, CO, with his wife and children.
You can connect with Ben on LinkedIn here.