Note: This guest post from Glenn Marangelo of the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium. Thanks, Glenn!

How long can you nurture a dream before it comes true? 

In our case, the answer is 14 years. After slowly building momentum and support, our dream was finally realized. In December 2023, we opened the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium in Missoula, Montana.

Like many nonprofit visions, ours started from scratch. We began as an all-volunteer effort, led by my spouse Jen, with way more passion than money in the bank. Over the years, we gradually built our capacity, relationships, and community support. 

In 2015, we opened the Missoula Insectarium, a live insect museum (minus the tropical butterfly house) in a rented downtown space. This was an important interim step and proof-of-concept that our vision could work.

Time to go big

When we were presented with an opportunity to build a collaborative education center as part of a unique public / private partnership with the county, we needed to quickly lift our $300,000 per year organization to an entirely new level. In addition to maintaining our ongoing education programs, we set a goal of $4.6 million – a BIG number – to build our private portion of this new facility.

Like many development staff and board members, I’d taken plenty of fundraising classes and workshops, and had about twenty years of fundraising experience. However, I had never led a campaign of this magnitude. 

Capital campaign 101

Understanding that we didn’t have the capacity to do it all by ourselves, we followed the capital campaign script by:

• Hiring a campaign consultant to conduct a feasibility analysis and organize our campaign. 
• Working with marketing professionals to craft a compelling message and put together a beautiful campaign packet to showcase our amazing opportunity while demonstrating the community interest and need for our project. 
• Developing lists of donor prospects who could potentially help us reach our goal.

Aside from conducting our campaign during the COVID pandemic (!) our biggest challenge was cultivating new donor relationships. On the plus side, two board members served on our campaign committee and were a tremendous help with some key donors.

On the other hand, most board members were incredibly passionate about our mission, which is terrific, but couldn’t expand our prospect list. (If this sounds like your board, raise your hand.)

We needed to think outside our organizational box. In short, we needed more “door openers.”

Bring in the fundraisers

Thanks to several long-term relationships, we successfully recruited two campaign committee members who had their fingers on the pulse of our local philanthropic community. Through their outreach, we were able to fill our anticipated donation gap. Our success was based, in significant ways, on the work (and networks) of these two volunteers.

Two and a half years after receiving our first gift, we wrapped up our campaign having raised a total of $4.66 million. Wow!

Next priority: Hang on to those donors

Aside from all the excitement surrounding our Grand Opening and new mode of operations, the end of the capital campaign marked a new beginning for our donor stewardship efforts. Having recruited many first-time donors during the campaign, we’ve placed a strong focus on building and strengthening those relationships. 

In addition to holding pre-Grand Opening tours and celebrations, our efforts have included: 

• Sending semi-annual updates to all major donors.
• Conducting private tours for donors, their families, and friends.
• Launching our Kaleidoscope Circle major donor society. (In the same way a group of whales is called a pod, a group of butterflies is called a Kaleidoscope.)
• Lunch and dinner meetings to share updates and learn more about donors’ interests.

Building our buggy family

In these and many other ways, we’re providing opportunities for donors to be part of our “buggy family.”

We’ve recognized and engaged a core group of individuals who turned our personal dream into a dream we shared with them and our community.

The key ingredient to our success: When preparing for the capital campaign, we were realistic about our strengths and weaknesses. Starting with a development team of one person (me) serving a small organization with fewer than 500 donors, we needed to significantly expand our reach … and we did.

It’s all about relationships

You can do everything else right: your pitch, materials, calendar, etc.

However, if you don’t have enough connections and relationships to check all the boxes within your fundraising plan, you’ll have a long, frustrating, and potentially unsuccessful road ahead.

My advice: Prioritize relationship building now, even if you’re not in the middle of a big campaign. When you really need them, those relationships could make all the difference.