I once chaired a capital campaign that lasted seven years.  

That’s seven years of planning, designing, strategizing, and adapting. We completely rebuilt our facility in two phases, which required many, many conversations with architects, designers, and contractors.

Seven years of fundraising equals a LOT of asks. In fact, some supporters gave a dozen or more gifts over the course of the campaign.

We spent seven years thanking donors. I mailed more than a thousand hand-written note cards – and received lots of appreciation in return. A donor once introduced me as “the thank-you note guy.”

Success changes your psychology

The bottom line: our grassroots nonprofit, with an annual budget of less than $100,000 and zero employees, raised $775,000. Wow!

Several years later, our thoroughly refurbished building is still fabulous. For many members, it feels like a second home.

Even better, our collective mindset continues to shift from scarcity to abundance. This is due, in large part, to our dogged, transformative capital campaign.

Through trial and error, we developed a successful recipe. As you design and implement your own fundraising campaign – annual funding, capital or endowment campaign, special project, whatever – consider the following three ingredients.

Ingredient #1: Optimism 

At the start of the campaign, many members were skeptical. After all, this was WAY more money than we had ever raised. But we had little choice, because our building was literally falling down.

Faced with the need for major capital improvements, we developed a plan to raise the money. It was a solid plan, but our belief in ourselves – and in the possibility of success – was even more important. Once we launched, we were all-in.

Flash forward to the grand opening and campaign celebration many years later. “Every one of your gifts was an expression of optimism,” we told our supporters. “Our belief in each other, and our willingness to invest in each other, created this lovely new space. Thanks to this campaign, we’re developing a culture of optimism throughout our organization.”

For any successful fundraising effort, the first ingredient is positive thinking. Yes, there’s money available – let’s get organized and raise it.

Ingredient #2: Creativity 

With the understanding that we couldn’t raise all the money at once, we developed a creative solution.

The campaign included two phases. We demolished and reconstructed half the building while continuing operations in the other half. After completing Phase 1, we took a breather. Then we launched Phase 2, repeating the entire process with the remainder of the building.

That’s why it took seven years!

To convert the skeptics, we needed to demonstrate proof of concept. We predicted that once people experienced our success with Phase 1 – new construction, beautiful and functional, fully-funded with no debt – they would be inspired to support Phase 2 and complete the building. Which is precisely how it played out.

To reach your fundraising goal, honor the basics – but look for creative opportunities, too.

Ingredient #3: Persistence

The third quality that powered our campaign was stamina. The project management aspects of fundraising – constructing a gift chart, preparing campaign materials, making the calls, meeting with donors, writing all those thank you notes, building the database – feels like running a marathon. It’s exhausting.

Here’s the good part: If you make it to the end of the race, you’ll raise a lot of money.

At our grand opening, I proposed an equation instead of a toast: optimism + stamina = faith. “Optimism,” I said, “is the belief in what’s possible. Stamina is doing the work required. This building – our new, improved home – is evidence of our faith in each other, and our faith in the good work of our organization.”

Proactive planning is essential, but it’s never enough. You must work the plan, even if (especially if) it takes years to complete.

Don’t stop now 

As you implement your very-year-end fundraising plan, keep doing the work. It’s not too late to:

• Schedule a few more donor meetings
• Call a few more lapsed donors
• Share success stories via social media – and include a donation link
• Gather your last-minute donors using year-end e-blasts (yes, I’m talking about December 30-31)

Keep asking and watch what happens. May all your year-end fundraising dreams come true!