Campaign Strategy Study

If you want real results from your pre-campaign study, then Alexander Haas is for you. Our Campaign Strategy Study is a four-phased process that evaluates an organization’s readiness — externally and internally — to successfully conduct a campaign. Alexander Haas developed the Campaign Strategy Study to expand on the traditional “feasibility study” in order to provide more useful fund-raising information and a more comprehensive approach to ensure that an organization is prepared to successfully execute a campaign at the highest possible level of achievement. The Alexander Haas Study goes beyond simply determining if a campaign is “feasible” by providing strategies and specific actions that should be implemented in order for the campaign to not only succeed, but to be a great experience for your volunteers, staff, and donors.

The main characteristics that differentiate a Campaign Strategy Study from a traditional feasibility study are:

  1. The report’s emphasis on providing concrete and specific recommendations for action, so that the campaign can get underway with positive early momentum;
  2. Alexander Haas does not position the study interviews as confidential. All too often we have found that counsel conducts these type of interviews under the promise of confidentiality, only to violate that promise by either overtly or covertly sharing the content of the conversation. We don’t feel that your donors should be treated in this way. Therefore, we are clear with interviewees from the onset that we are collecting information, which we may share as appropriate, so that sound decisions can be made. We believe our credibility and yours are at stake in how information is gathered and used.

A FOUR-PHASED PROCESS
There are four phases of the Campaign Strategy Study, all of which are equally important in determining how prepared your institution is to launch a campaign.

Phase I
Determining Internal Campaign Readiness
Phase II
Engaging Your Volunteers in the Campaign Strategy Study
Phase III
Discussions with Your Prospects:The Study Interviews and Web-based Survey
Phase IV
Results:Recommendations for Action to Undertake the Campaign

WHAT WILL BE THE FOCUS OF THE STUDY?
The Campaign Strategy Study will focus on the following three major areas, which are basic to the success of any campaign:

Case for Support

  • What will be the most compelling components of the campaign?
  • What are the needs? Are the financial objectives commensurate with those needs?
  • How will the campaign enable your institution to better serve your constituency?
  • What will be the most persuasive presentation?

Leadership

  • Are volunteer leaders sufficiently committed to lead the way in attracting funds — both by example and by enlisting the help of volunteers?
  • Which individuals are best qualified to undertake specific campaign leadership responsibilities?
  • Is top leadership available?
  • How are they to be recruited?

Financial Support

  • What are the major sources of philanthropic funds — individuals, foundations, corporations — for the campaign?
  • Are there sources for a challenge gift?
  • What is the approximate amount of funds that can be raised from the top ten prospects?
  • What is the highest achievable goal?
  • Most importantly, what are your immediate, specific next steps?

HOW LONG WILL THE STUDY TAKE?
The Campaign Strategy Study process generally requires 10 to 16 weeks, depending upon the following factors:

  • How much completed information the organization has already gathered about the objectives of the campaign and the associated costs
  • How many interviews are to be conducted
  • How available the interviewees are

WHAT RESULTS CAN YOU EXPECT?
The Alexander Haas Campaign Strategy Study is an outside, objective analysis that reveals facts, attitudes, and perceptions that may not be readily available to those within the institution. The Study will provide you with an overview of the feedback we receive from interviewees and will focus on providing recommendations and critical information to help you make important decisions and strategize effectively for a campaign — to determine the goals, schedule, organization, leadership and, most important, outline a specific plan of action.

WHY AN ALEXANDER HAAS STUDY?
All of our Studies are conducted by a team and are subjected to the rigors of peer review by fellow Alexander Haas Partners. This ensures each Study meets our high standards. In addition, you receive a financial analysis of the goal that is recommended, based on real potential gifts — not our “gut feeling”. This includes specific identification of the top ten gift possibilities and constitutes the basis for the recommended goal. These Studies are called “Campaign Strategy Studies” for a reason — they provide you with a strategy to initiate the campaign, not just an opinion on the “feasibility” of undertaking a campaign.