A: You should always be planning your next campaign. The finest institutions never have much of a gap between the time when the last pledges were paid off and the new campaign begins. The time in between is used for education and preparations. Think about it, there is always something that needs desperately to be done. Who will do it if you do not? Great leaders motivate their constituents to accomplish extraordinary tasks. Are you a great leader?

A: Because it is simply more effective - it works better! With daily consulting, you get an advisor that stops by once or twice a month to offer advice and review a "to do" list. You cannot get the advice from the library, but you can certainly read some good books that tell you what to do. If you are paying for the list, I suggest you can get one from the library much cheaper. If it is the advice you are after, I suggest that a day or two a month is insufficient to achieve the best results. After all, when your daily consultant is not with you, is it reasonable to believe he is thinking about your campaign, or the campaigns of the other 10 clients with whom he is working?

It is terribly difficult to plan and direct a successful capital campaign. There is so much to accomplish that it cannot all be done, even with a capable institutional director of development and a professional resident campaign director. Both will leave the office late on Friday nights, work extra on the weekends, and return early on Monday mornings - all because there is so much work that neither of them believes it possible to get it all done. Tough jobs are like that, there are not enough hours in the day to complete them.

Finally, there are several reasons you need a full-time resident director to help you reach your fundraising potential through your capital campaign. First, time does not stand still and regular activities and events do not cease during the capital campaign. Second, the campaign takes an enormous commitment of time and sustained energy - energy that an overworked development officer may not be able to sustain over a 12-18 month campaign timetable.

Third, it is much better to have a seasoned veteran onsite and involved to help you avoid problems and to develop solutions for any challenges you meet. We cannot help you, inspire you, encourage you or challenge you unless we are there. The difference might mean the success of your campaign!

A: It is important to develop a comprehensive fundraising plan (whether or not you engage fundraising counsel). Such a plan involves folding the required fundraising activities and special events into a detailed timetable that includes all the other important events of the organization. This is the first step in the fundraising process - a step that provides a detailed plan and specific results that can be measured. It is much easier to design a successful campaign plan with the help of someone with much experience. That person may be a board member, your chief executive officer, your development executive, a leading volunteer or your outside fundraising counsel.

A: To help you develop a successful fundraising strategy. As a coach is to an athletic program, fundraising counsel is to an annual campaign or a capital campaign. By working closely with fundraising counsel, you benefit from specific technical expertise. And, when planning a capital campaign, even the most sophisticated institutions use professional fundraising counsel. It is simply too important to consider anything other than success.

A: The choice is yours and will probably be based upon some comparative qualifications and references but, ultimately the selection of counsel is a very personal decision and comes down to this: into whose hands are you more comfortable placing your program and your future? The answer to the above question comes from a thorough inspection of each firm and a careful discussion with their representatives and is at once thoughtful and intuitive. The only thing certain about retaining the older and most established firms is that the price will be higher. The important thing is the capability and credentials of your campaign director. Your best bet may be working for a new industry leader like Custom Development Solutions (CDS).

A: While this will not hurt, it is not essential. Fundamental fundraising principles are the tools that need to be employed. They work equally well in hospitals, schools, cultural organizations, social service agencies, etc. Successful fundraising executives from a specific type of organization can easily move into another type of organization and design a successful fundraising plan. The best techniques are universal and the best professionals come from a variety of backgrounds. If you limit yourself to people who come from (or those who are especially knowledgeable of) a particular type of organization or institution, you are limiting your opportunities dramatically.

A: You will work as a team. Your CDS resident campaign director will develop a comprehensive fundraising plan in consultation with you. He will review the plans with you and the campaign committee, ensuring that each person knows their role and that they are comfortable executing that role. When needed and appropriate, your CDS director will take care of all the details for you (Please see "Benefits of a CDS Directed Campaign"). He will consult with you and review each element of the campaign strategy before it is employed and afterward to determine where modifications may be helpful.

The director of development is usually the person to whom we owe our allegiance. You are the one who has chosen to bring us into the picture and we consider it our responsibility to justify the faith you have placed in us by doing a superior job and making you shine in the process. We should be working so closely that you will be an expert on capital fundraising when we finish the campaign. Afterwards, you should be in a position to do a campaign yourself, if you so choose. We also build a file with all campaign materials, plans and timetables that we give you upon completion of the project. It chronicles the entire fundraising process.

A: No! By carefully selecting a reputable fundraising consultant, you expose yourselves access to the best fundraising strategy and methodology. It is your responsibility to follow the designed fundraising plan and implement the strategy. The only way to guarantee your effectiveness is to pair your good cause with a solid fundraising plan and to execute the plan to perfection. The closer you come to proper execution, the more successful you will be.

A: No. Commissioned or percentage-based compensation is considered unethical within the professional fundraising community. There are many reasons for this, primary among them are that it might provide an unscrupulous fundraiser to "do whatever it takes legal, moral, ethical or otherwise" to increase the amount raised and to increase their percentage share. Furthermore, it is not reasonable to think that the fundraiser should take a proportionate share (however small) of any overage in a very successful campaign. People gave the money for the good of the client, not to reward the fundraising firm for a job well done.

If your organization does not have the money to retain quality fund counsel, that situation presents you with your first fundraising challenge. "Can we visit with a few of our most generous and trusted friends to see if we can raise enough seed money to retain a highly respected professional fundraising firm to carry out our feasibility study?" If the agency/organization does not have the funding and it cannot get it from one or two top supporters, that is a good indication that their proposed campaign is headed down a rough and rocky road.

A: The campaign should be an institutional priority during the period in which you are seeking pledges. This means that it is given the highest priority at all board meetings, staff meetings and in all publications, etc. To ensure the success of the campaign everyone should give whatever attention and energy it takes. It varies from one institution to another, but it ranges from a minimum of 25% of the chief executive’s time in smaller non-profits to 70% of the president’s time in major institutions. (Major institutions have larger staffs to carry operations, while the smaller organization’s executive director is apt to be more heavily involved in daily operations.) The development officer should give the campaign as much time as is humanly possible, but the requirement may run from 35% in a small shop to 90% in a large operation.

Both the top executive and the director of development should be thinking about making a sacrificial gift to the campaign - a gift more generous than that which they will so often be requesting of others. Charity begins at home! The board, management, the administration and staff are all looked upon to offer their own support by investing in their organization and themselves.

A: Yes and No. Most reputable fundraising consulting firms promote their services by the day (daily or intermittent consultants) or by the month (resident campaign direction). Daily consultants bill you for several days per month, plus travel and campaign related expenses—the best firms will cost between $1,000 and $2,500 per day, plus expenses. They tend to visit the client several days per month. Firms specializing in onsite capital campaign direction charge you one flat monthly fee that is all-inclusive. The best firms will cost between $15,000 and $20,000 per month.

The characteristics of each type of firm are summarized in the table below:

A: You should discuss it with others who have experience with outside fundraising counsel before soliciting and reviewing the proposals of several well-respected firms. Depending upon your needs and the type of counsel (intermittent/daily or onsite residential direction) you choose to work with, you can expect to pay between $750 and $2,500 per day, not including travel and campaign expenses.

A: While CDS offers the entire range of services, including daily campaign consulting, we specialize in the planning and resident direction of capital campaigns. We have found that on-site resident direction simply works better for our clients (which in turn makes them successful - the only quality measurement of our success)! If we are there with them each day, we are much better able to understand their organization, develop relationships with many of their leaders and volunteers, and influence them to be better and more effective campaigners. In many respects it is analogous to a military campaign, the troops have more respect for, communicate better with, and are more apt to follow the advice of commanders that are present and leading the activities than someone who is trying to direct things from a remote location.

At CDS performance is fundamental to our growth. Ninety percent (90%) of our business comes from repeat clients and referrals. It is critical to our mission to ensure the success of every client’s campaign. We are much better able to accomplish that when we are with you every day. To further strengthen the service we provide our clients, a member of the CDS executive staff is assigned to advise, supervise and collaborate with your on-site campaign director. We will do everything which is within our power and which is ethical to ensure the success of our clients.