Your board wants a campaign. Does your evidence agree?
Before anyone picks a goal, hires a consultant, designs a logo, or announces a campaign, find out whether your donors, relationships, leadership, annual fund and staff capacity actually support the ambition.
GET THE FREE 30-MINUTE REALITY CHECKMy Board Wants a Campaign™
The 30-Minute Campaign Reality Check
12 evidence-based questions to help you move the conversation from “We think we're ready” to “Here's what the evidence says.”
Includes the Campaign Goal Reality Test + 30-Day Million-Dollar Challenge™.
A campaign goal is not validated because your organization needs the money.
A board can approve an ambition. Donor evidence has to support the fundraising pathway.
Where did the number come from—and what gifts would actually have to happen to reach it?
Capacity alone does not create a prospect. You also need affinity, inclination and access.
The annual fund doesn't disappear when campaign work begins. Both fundraising tracks must be protected.
Don't ask, “Do we believe we can raise it?”
Ask: “What evidence would make this a responsible campaign goal?”
What gifts must exist for the campaign math to work?
Who are the multiple credible prospects for those gifts?
Who has the relationship and access required to get the conversation?
Ask your board one question.
“If we had to raise $1 million in the next 30 days, who are the ten people you would personally call?”
Not the ten wealthiest people in town. Not someone a board member met once. People who know your organization, have a reason to care, and can actually be reached.
A real prospect sits at the intersection of four things.
Affinity — Why do they care about your mission?
Inclination — Is there evidence they are philanthropically inclined?
Capacity — Could they make the contemplated gift?
Access — Who can credibly get the conversation?
High capacity + no affinity + no inclination + no access = a name, not a campaign prospect.
Your Development Director may not be resisting the campaign.
You may have a capacity problem disguised as a fundraising problem.
Annual giving
Operating support
Renewals
Current major gifts
This year's budget
Campaign cultivation
Leadership gifts
Multi-year commitments
Capital/endowment priorities
Long-horizon strategy
What work does the campaign require? Who owns it? What annual-fund work must remain protected?
Find out what your organization is actually ready for.
✓ 12 readiness questions
✓ Donor evidence
✓ Relationships + access
✓ Case + leadership
✓ Annual fund + capacity
✓ Proceed / Pause / Stop
✓ Campaign Goal Reality Test
✓ 30-Day Million-Dollar Challenge™
This is not a feasibility study. It's a pre-feasibility reality check designed to help you identify the questions that need answers before ambition becomes campaign strategy.
Get My Board Wants a Campaign™
Set a timer for 30 minutes. Score only what your organization can support with evidence today.
Big ambitions deserve rigorous thinking.
Evidence & Ambition helps nonprofit leaders test fundraising ambitions against donor evidence, relationships, leadership and organizational capacity—so they can make better decisions before they launch.
Ambition tells us where you want to go. Evidence tells us what it will take to get there.