This document provides guidance on external campaign planning. It discusses recruiting a campaign chair and volunteers, defining prospects, building gift pyramids, campaign phases and momentum. The key steps are to recruit a chair who gives an anchor gift, define top prospects and expected gifts, set fundraising goals by gift level to reach the total, and maintain momentum through the silent and public phases with regular events and a final push to meet the goal.

1. External Campaign Planning
Tim Weidmann
Since 1986 when I was raising corporate gifts for Yale’s medical
campaign, I have worked on eight campaigns and have directed
four campaigns for a total of $2.8 billion.

2. Recruiting the campaign chair
• A campaign chair, preferably, gives the anchor
gift for the campaign
– It is sometimes best to have co-chairs
• Members of the campaign committee need to
be recruited within a similar timeframe
– These should be volunteers who are willing to
work and understand the campaign

3. Recruiting Volunteers
• The campaign committee will usually have
several sub-committees
1. A corporate and foundation gift sub-committee
2. A major gift sub-committee
3. A principal gift sub-committee
4. An endowment sub-committee
5. Etc.
• You recruit for what the volunteer is good at

4. Public phase of campaign
• The silent phase of the campaign is conducted
“under the radar”
• Best to raise about ½ of what’s needed for
campaign during silent phase
• Public phase of campaign should be
announced with fanfare and a sense of
accomplishment (“we’re half way there”)
• This creates campaign momentum

5. Campaign Receptions and Events
• Raising money amounts to social interaction,
so expect to conduct social events during the
campaign
• Events inform prospects of
– the goals of the campaign
– the reasons why the goals are important
– put a human face on the campaign:
• institution president, campaign chair, etc.

6. Defining Prospects
• Campaign counsel should conduct a feasibility
study using top prospects
• The fundraising office with counsel will define
what prospects are most likely to give and
how much they are likely to give
– This is very important
– Identification of prospects should continue
throughout the campaign

7. Building gift pyramids
• A gift pyramid tells you how many prospects you
need to get the number of gifts the campaign
needs at various gift levels
• Below is an example of a $10M gift pyramid:
Prospects Gifts Amount Total Amount
6 2 $1 million $2 million
15 5 $500,000 $2.5 million
24 8 $250,000 $2 million
30 10 $100,000 $1 million
45 15 $ 50,000 $750,000
90 30 $ 25,000 $750,000
150 50 $ 10,000 $500,000
225 75 $ 5,000 $375,000
numerous numerous $ 1,000 $125,000
TOTAL 585+ 195+ $10 million

8. Campaign phases
• Campaigns tend to have phases
– In the silent phase, the campaign will need to build
momentum
– A large anchor gift helps momentum to build, with others
stepping up to the “challenge” of the anchor gift
• Momentum often lasts beyond the mid-point of the
campaign to the 3/4s mark
– At which time, you must work against the doldrums
• At the end of the campaign, it usually helps to proceed
with an “endgame” strategy that brings the campaign
to its goal with a bang

9. Conclusion
• Some of your best campaign prospects are
cultivated by making them volunteers
• Meet and report to your campaign volunteers
regularly
– Don’t expect that all volunteers will work
• Campaigns are complex entities. A good
endgame is important for all involved to feel
valued.