Annual versus Capital Campaign
Understanding the difference and why it matters
Your fraternity matters. And because your organization matters, raising funds to support the mission of your chapter is a vital task. The distinction between an annual fund and a capital campaign is simple but important. While they share a similarities within their process, they both have different goals.
Understanding and effectively executing these two fundraising efforts are the first step in achieving success for your organization.
The 2 Types of Campaigns
The Annual Campaign
At it’s core, the main goal of an annual campaign is to continue to replenish your annual fund year after year. The annual fund is a key component in fulfilling your mission. It is the financial foundation that supports the day-to-day operations of your fraternity, or the general fund you use to meet your operational goals.
More fundamentally, raising support for your annual fund is a means to engage your alumni and build a culture of giving. This process provides the benefits your alumni are seeking, including connections with friends, fun events, and insight into how their support is making a difference.
This meaningful engagement in turn will strengthen the sense of belonging in your community, and ensures that you’ve developed the relationships with your donors that are needed not only to reach all of your fiscal goals, but to maintain a thriving community that can easily take on the added costs of larger projects.
An annual campaign can help you find and connect with donors who can be engaged for greater commitment and increased giving. In addition, you can use your annual fund campaign to test new engagement and friend-raising strategies. A solid annual fund can sustain ongoing maintenance of facilities and stave off the need for frequent, special-need capital campaigns.
The Capital Campaign
The purpose of a capital campaign, in contrast, is to enable your organization to expand its capacity beyond what you annual fund is capable of.
This may include raising an endowment, building a new chapter house, or renovating an existing one. It is a higher intensity campaign with a specific end date and a specific financial goal to accomplish. The deadline for a capital campaign can range from a year out to five or ten years.
Your successful capital campaign is built on the relationships developed during your annual fund campaigns. After you’ve been cultivating your annual fund for several years to help establishing a culture of giving within your alumni group, you’ll notice that you’re much more prepared for a capital campaign.
Capital campaigns take time and significant effort to implement, so many organizations find greater success in appointing a group of committed members to focus on planning and shepherding your capital campaign. You’ll want to build a roadmap to define your destination and how you plan to reach your goal, as well as laying out a budget, to prepare and launch your capital campaign.
Finding Campaign Success
Whether you’re continuing your annual fundraising efforts, or embarking on a capital campaign, both need consistent communication to sustain momentum.
You’re alumni need to know that their gift makes a difference and that they matter. Consistent communication and storytelling make that possible by communicating campaign status and the results that they have helped achieve. Consistently show them the meaning behind their gifts – how their donations are being used and the lives that are impacted.
The takeaway?
Both campaigns are important to achieve your organization’s goals. Even with consistent relationships resulting in a sustainable annual fund, there will likely be a time when you will need to expand your community’s capacity to serve your chapter. Or you may want to take on a special project to meet a specific need that arises.
Either way, build a thriving community sustained by consistent and effective communication to nurture your campaign.
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