Essay one (Due ASAP)

Planned Giving Proposal

For this assignment, you will be presenting a proposal to the Board of Directors for planned giving. Before you start this exercise, go to Planned Giving (Links to an external site.) (https://plannedgiving.com/create-a-legacy-youll-never-see/ ) and review the website to gather information. Your proposal to the Board of Directors should include the following elements:

· Definition of planned giving,

· Three types of planned gifts,

· Benefits of each planned gift, and

· How your organization will utilize each of the planned gift types.

Your paper needs to meet the following requirements:

· Two to three pages in length.

· Include at least two scholarly sources in addition to the Planned Giving website.

· APA 7 Style

Essay Two (Due Monday)

 Traditional Capital Campaign Plan

As a project management for a nonprofit, you have been asked to develop a traditional capital campaign plan. Review the campaign characteristics and phases of campaign in Chapter 11: Campaigns. Your plan will discuss the following:

· Goals and deadlines;

· Specific purposes;

· Prospect lists and specific asks;

· Sequential fundraising;

· Volunteers, if required;

· Major gifts, if required; and

· Each phase of your campaign.

Your paper needs to meet the following requirements:

· Two to three pages in length,

· APA 7 Style

· Include at least two scholarly sources and reference at least one successful nonprofit organization.

Essay two readings for Chapter 11:

Campaign Defining Characteristics

Although dated, Dove’s 2000 book on campaigns clarified much of the standard vocabulary and remains widely cited. In that book, he offers a succinct definition of the campaign that is still quoted or paraphrased in many works: “an organized, intensive fundraising effort … to secure extraordinary gifts and pledges … for a specific purpose or programs … during a specified period of time” (p. 5). That captures the essence of what distinguishes a campaign from ongoing fundraising. But let’s look further at some principles that differentiate a campaign from other types of fundraising strategies.

Announced Goal and Deadline

Donors respond to needs that are urgent, and it is human nature to defer action until a deadline approaches. Campaigns are designed with an understanding of those realities. A fundraising effort that has no goal, for example, that is intended to “raise as much as we can” or that continues until a certain total has been achieved, is therefore not a campaign. A goal and deadline known only to those within the organization may bring discipline to their efforts, but it does not influence the thinking of prospective donors, so that approach is not a campaign either. A campaign has a specific dollar goal and a deadline for achieving it that are announced to the public, in order to capture attention and motivate timely action by all who need to be involved. That includes individuals within the organization’s leadership. By committing the organization and themselves to a goal and deadline that is publicly known, the board and CEO raise the stakes for everyone (Dove, 2000; Kihlstedt, 2010).

Specific Purposes

The annual-giving program may include general appeals that are based on the overall case for the organization. But a campaign is undertaken for a specific purpose or purposes, not just to raise more money. It is centered on specific objectives that relate to strategic priorities of the organization. Those may include a new building project, a renovation, needed equipment, endowment, program support, increased annual giving, or some combination (Kihlstedt, 2010). The purposes are justified with a case that relates them to the organization’s broader strategic goals.

Rated Prospect Lists and Specific Asks

Campaign fundraising is based on the principle of proportionate giving, discussed earlier in this text. In other words, prospects are asked to give in proportion to their capacity to do so, based on ratings the organization and its prospect researchers have developed. They are not asked simply to give what they can. The latter type of initiative might be called a collection, but it would not meet the definition of a campaign. In a campaign, the top prospects are asked for specific amounts for specific purposes, based on an assessment of their financial capabilities and interests.

Sequential Fundraising

The principle of sequential fundraising (Brakeley, 1980) is central to the success of a campaign. A fundraising effort that begins with a solicitation of the organization’s entire constituency is not a campaign. It is an appeal. It is unlikely to maximize giving because it does not engage the power of standards and visible role models in order to guide donors as to what their own response should be. In other words, it does not activate the social influences on giving that are important to raising donor sights.

Campaign gifts are solicited “from top down and the inside out” (McGoldrick & Robell, 2002, p. 141). As inside out implies, the first groups to be solicited include members of the governing board, top prospects, past donors, and often the organization’s staff. The campaign then gradually rolls out to prospects in more distant circles of the organization’s constituency, as defined and discussed in Chapter 5. The top-down/inside-out process unfolds over the course of the campaign, and discipline in following it is important to maximize support, although sometimes difficult to sustain. Rolling out the campaign prematurely runs the risk of preemptive gifts that lower sights throughout the pyramid (Dove, 2000; Kihlstedt, 2010). Consistent with the principle of sequential fundraising, campaigns are conducted in phases, discussed soon.

Organized Volunteer Leadership

Organized volunteer leadership is characteristic of a campaign. As discussed earlier in this text, people tend to follow the example of others whom they admire or with whom they wish to be associated. This principle has been fundamental in the practitioner literature (e.g., Seymour, 1966) and is supported by theory discussed in Chapter 3 (e.g., Harbaugh, 1998). The visible engagement of prestigious volunteer leaders is thus a critical ingredient of a campaign strategy and authenticates the case for support. Such leaders are enlisted to serve in visible roles as campaign chairs or cochairs or as members of the campaign leadership committee. And, of course, the example of their own leadership gifts and active engagement in cultivation and solicitation also are helpful (Fredericks, 2010; Kihlstedt, 2010).

Emphasis on Major Gifts

Although comprehensive campaigns usually encompass all gifts to the organization during the campaign period, including annual gifts, all campaigns emphasize the solicitation ofmajor gifts. Thinking back on the discussion in Chapter 4, this emphasis is essential in light of the Pareto principle, which suggests that 80 to 90 percent of the dollar total comes from just 10 to 20 percent of gifts to the campaign (Weinstein, 2009).

Another traditional campaign axiom is the rule of thirds, attributable to Harold J. Seymour (1966). It holds that about one-third of the campaign total comes from the top ten gifts, a second third comes from about the next one hundred gifts, and the final third of the total comes from all other gifts, in smaller amounts. The importance of major and principal gifts in today’s campaigns may render Seymour’s (1966) exact proportions obsolete, but the general point is still correct: a successful campaign relies disproportionately on major gifts.

Phases of the Campaign

Consistent with the principles already described, a campaign is conducted in phases. Various authors define the phases somewhat differently and offer varied inventories of what tasks are to be completed in each phase (e.g., Dove, 2000; Kihlstedt, 2010; McGoldrick & Robell, 2002; Pierpont, 2003; Worth, 2010). But most descriptions include many commonalities. Figure 11.1 depicts phases of the campaign in a diagram I have devised but is generally consistent with what other authors describe.

There are two broad phases, a quiet phase and a public phase. The quiet phase encompasses a time when planning and preparation for the campaign are well-known among insiders, but the campaign has not yet been announced to the general public.

Some people refer to this as the silent phase of the campaign, but I prefer the term quiet, since some people—often many—are aware of what is happening. As the term suggests, the public phase occurs after the goal and deadline for completion of the campaign have been announced. Within each of these phases are several distinct stages and milestones, although, as depicted in Figure 11.1, they often overlap. Let’s look at each in turn.