How a Face to Face Fundraising Campaign Is Built

Most nonprofits evaluating a fundraising firm see a proposal, and then, some weeks later, the first results. What happens in between decides whether the campaign works, and it is rarely explained to the people paying for it. This is that middle section, written for whoever has to sign the agreement and answer for it later.

What happens before a fundraising campaign reaches the public?

Scoping, contracting, state registration, message approval and training all happen first. The public part is the last step in the sequence rather than the first. A firm that can put people in the field days after a handshake has skipped something, and what it skipped is usually the paperwork that protects your organization.

Scoping: the goal, the markets, and what you can absorb

The first working conversation is about capacity as much as ambition. A recurring donor is a commitment your organization has to service, with gifts to process, receipts to send, questions to answer and cancellations to handle. A campaign that produces more supporters than a small team can care for creates a problem that looks like success at first. Scoping is where the goal gets matched to what the organization can carry, and where markets get chosen for reasons other than population size.

Who is responsible for what, the charity or the firm?

The nonprofit owns the mission, the facts, and approval of how both are described. The firm owns the people, the logistics, the registrations and the reporting. The line that blurs most often is language, so settle approval of what gets said in writing at the start instead of working it out after a complaint.

Registration, and the contract nobody reads

Most states require professional fundraisers and the nonprofits they represent to register before soliciting there, and many require the contract between them to be filed. It is slow and unglamorous, and it is the clearest early evidence of whether a firm operates properly. Ask which states you will be soliciting in, ask to see the registration for each one, and confirm who files what and by when. When a new market opens later, ask the same questions again before anyone works there.

Training a team on a mission that is not theirs

Before anyone speaks to the public, the field team learns the cause: what the organization does, what a gift pays for, what the campaign is permitted to say, and how to answer skeptical questions honestly. This is where a nonprofit's own involvement pays for itself. Send the person who knows the programs best rather than the person with the most availability, and let the team ask uncomfortable questions in the room instead of improvising answers at a site.

Sites, permission, and being a guest

Campaign locations are arranged in advance with the retailers, venues and event organizers who host them, and that permission comes with conditions about placement, conduct and hours. It is worth knowing where your name will be seen, because the site is context. The same conversation reads differently at a family event than at a store entrance late in the evening, and you are entitled to a say in that.

What the nonprofit is asked to provide

• One point of contact who can answer questions quickly and make decisions.
• Accurate program facts, including the ones that are less flattering.
• Written approval of the language the field team will use.
• Logos and materials, with the rules for using them.
• A path for escalating anything that goes wrong, and a named person on it.
• Timely answers, because a stalled approval halts a campaign that is already staffed.

How soon should a nonprofit expect results from a new campaign?

Expect the opening stretch to produce more learning than revenue. New teams calibrate, sites get tested and dropped, and the language settles into something that works. Judge that period on the trend and on donor quality rather than on any single day, and agree in advance on what gets reported and how often.

This is also the stretch where a firm shows you how it handles bad news. A partner that reports a weak week plainly, with what it is changing, is easier to trust with a good one. A partner that goes quiet when results dip will go quiet about other things too.

The reporting, where trust is won or lost

Reporting should tell you what was raised, what it cost, what your organization received, and what was filed with regulators. It should arrive on a schedule you agreed to rather than when you chase it. Ask for donor-level records in a form your database can accept, because a campaign that hands you a total and no data has given you money once instead of a base you can go back to.

Universal Events Inc. is a nonprofit consulting firm providing fundraising counsel, community outreach, marketing and event support to nonprofits and mission-driven organizations nationwide. If you are weighing a face to face campaign and want this sequence walked through for your own situation, reach us at Corporate@theuniversalteam.com.