Once your board has determined to take action and plan for a new animal shelter, it’s time to give serious consideration to having a fundraising feasibility study conducted.
A fundraising feasibility study is a formal process to determine whether it is feasible for your organization to proceed with its proposed capital campaign.
It is absolutely critical for you to assess the likelihood of success for a campaign before entering into it. A feasibility study provides so much significant information that without the study, your organization could jeopardize the campaign itself.
The study will help determine:
- How much money it is even feasible to raise.
- How long it will take to raise that amount of capital.
- The number of gifts needed to achieve the campaign goal.
- Who has potential to make a leadership gift.
- Who is capable of chairing the campaign and serving on campaign committees.
- How the organization is perceived by the community.
- The readiness of the organization and its leadership to begin the campaign
- What the community thinks of the need for a new, or renovated, animal shelter.
And those are the primary benefits of a fundraising feasibility study.
There are also some great secondary benefits of a study such as:
- identifying your organization’s weaknesses and threats
- flattering donors and stakeholders who take part in the study
- highlighting the organization’s strengths
- building momentum for the campaign itself
A feasibility study can mean the difference between a successful capital campaign and one that falls flat.
Receive a special discount on Tim Crum’s book An Animal Shelter’s Guide to Capital Campaigns here.
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