INSIGHTS
Thinking out loud about what it takes to build a funded organization.
Frameworks, perspective, and hard-won thinking from 17 years of sitting beside organizations at their inflection point — on fundraising, organizational development, and what it really takes to go from resource-scarce to resource-rich.
Is Your Organization Ready for Its First Capital Campaign?
First-time capital campaigns fail in predictable ways.
That's not a pessimistic observation. It's a useful one. Because predictable mistakes are avoidable mistakes, and most organizations that find themselves mid-campaign, behind on goal, wondering what went wrong, can trace their situation back to one or two decisions made before the campaign ever launched.
After working alongside more than 200 tax-exempt organizations, COGEO has seen every shape of campaign difficulty. The following five patterns account for the vast majority of them.
The 7 Stages of Professional Fundraising
Most organizations that come to COGEO asking about capital campaigns are asking about the third step in a three-step process.
They've skipped the first two. Sometimes intentionally, because they didn't know they existed. Sometimes because someone told them they could. Either way, skipping them is one of the most common and costly mistakes in fundraising.
Understanding why starts with understanding what a capital campaign actually is — and what it isn't.