A capital campaign comes with high stakes. Your organization’s financial goals are ambitious, and the projects you hope to fund are critical for moving the needle on your mission. Choosing the right support system is essential to help you navigate all the aspects of launching your capital campaign and cross the finish line.

It’s also incredibly common. At Capital Campaign Pro, we’ve learned that over ⅔ of organizations who are in a campaign or just wrapping one up hired some sort of outside help for their campaign. And around 40% of those in the early stages of planning their campaign are planning to hire outside counsel.

External consultants carry with them a variety of benefits:

  • A more objective perspective: An outside expert can provide an unbiased perspective on your campaign plans and goals, as well as your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. This objective view is crucial for honestly evaluating your organization’s campaign readiness and designing a winning campaign strategy.
  • Hands-on support for the whole process: Consultants are typically experienced in a variety of areas, from strategic planning to major gift fundraising and board training. This means they can give your organization tailored recommendations for the entire capital campaign planning and execution process. Knowing that you have a seasoned guide can be reassuring and give you the confidence you need to navigate the complexities of the campaign.
  • Access to other services: Most consultants have experience in areas besides capital campaigns. Developing a relationship with a consultant during a major project can set you up to connect with them again for other assistance, such as refining your annual fundraising strategy or conducting prospect research.

However, there are different types of capital campaign consultants, and it can be tricky to know which will best meet your organization’s needs. In this guide, we’ll explore three options—working with a traditional capital campaign consultant, a modern capital campaign advisor, or using the do-it-yourself (DIY) model.

The Benefits of Working with a Traditional Capital Campaign Consultant

Working with a consultant is the traditional way of getting support for your capital campaign. Usually, this means you’ll hire a third-party expert who embeds themself within your organization and becomes responsible for the campaign. This is a much more “hands-off” approach where you leave a majority of the campaign work to a seasoned expert.

Here are some of the benefits of this form of support:

  • Allows you to focus on your other operations: With a dedicated consultant providing your organization with a campaign strategy that helps you move forward, your team can dedicate plenty of time to its core services and programs. This means you can more successfully juggle your usual responsibilities with your campaign work.
  • Flexibility in phases: You might hire a consultant to handle one specific aspect or phase of the campaign, such as pre-campaign planning, the feasibility study, or the kick-off. One drawback is a possible lack of cohesion in the campaign.
  • Specificity of deliverables: When outsourcing a campaign to a traditional consultant, you can create specific goals and deadlines for them to ensure results.

The Benefits of Working with a Modern Capital Campaign Advisor

According to Capital Campaign Pro, there is another way your organization can get support: By partnering with a modern capital campaign advisor. This outside expert serves as more of a player-coach; someone who can provide accountability and advice while your team administers the campaign.

This approach is ideal for teams who have some capital campaign knowledge and experience in-house, but would still love to have a little bit of support.

Let’s look at the benefits of this approach:

  • You remain in the driver’s seat: The campaign advisor model acknowledges that you know your nonprofit best. When you remain in control of the campaign, you ensure that your plans and strategies stay in alignment with your mission, vision, and long-term goals.
  • Gain skills, knowledge, and experience: The role of a campaign advisor is to teach your team how to conduct its own campaign. This means that working with a campaign advisor is a learning opportunity that can increase your internal team’s capacity, skill set, and experience so you can be more independent and effective in your capital campaign fundraising efforts—and set the organization up for success in its next campaign.
  • Deeper connections with supporters: When your organization is responsible for its own campaign, you can take all the opportunities that arise to build stronger relationships with your supporters. For example, consider the campaign feasibility study. With traditional consulting, the consultant conducts stakeholder interviews for you. When you’re working with an advisor, however, you can get support from your advisor but conduct interviews yourself. This turns the whole process into an opportunity to build relationships rather than just a fact-finding mission.

The Benefits of Doing It Yourself

Some organizations have even more in-house expertise and experience when it comes to capital campaigns.

And some organizations just aren’t in the position to hire outside help, due to a previous negative experience with a consultant, budgetary restraints, or the nature of their campaign.

For campaigns like these, it may still be a good idea to seek outside help – in the form of online resources, peer communities, and ad-hoc trainings.

The DIY Essentials membership program from Capital Campaign Pro, for example, provides support for those who are DIY-ing their own campaigns.

Whatever your needs, know that options are available for even those going solo. Not every campaign needs a consultant, but every campaign could use a little help!

Making the Decision for Your Campaign: What to Consider

Both traditional campaign consulting and modern advising are useful ways of getting support for your nonprofit’s capital campaign. Deciding between them will simply come down to your organization’s current situation and its priorities.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you choose what form of support will best suit your organization:

  • Budget: As is the case when considering any investment, the first thing you’ll want to keep in mind is your nonprofit’s budget. If your organization is ready to spend big to hand over the campaign strategy to an expert, a traditional consulting engagement may be the right choice for you. If you’re looking to save while still getting guidance from experienced professionals, advising may be the way to go. Or, you may find that the DIY approach is best for your organization’s wallet.
  • Willingness to take on your campaign: Determine where you want your team’s energy to go during the campaign process. Do you want to have someone design a strategy and give you tasks to carry it out? Or, do you want to take on the work of planning, launching, and conducting the campaign all on your own—with guidance from an outside expert or online resources?
  • Long-term goals: Does your nonprofit want to build its internal capacity and increase its team’s knowledge and experience? Do you want to get to the point where you can run a capital campaign on your own? If you want your team to gain experience by conducting the capital campaign itself, working with an advisor and learning all about capital campaigns as you go will likely be the best choice.

There’s no reason for you to brave the experience of a capital campaign all on your own. Instead, turn to a trusted support system by working with a campaign consultant, partnering with a campaign advisor, or getting the tools you need to take a successful DIY approach. Use the guidance above to determine which option is best for your organization and most likely to lead you to a successful capital campaign!