How to Hire a Capital Campaign Consultant: What to Know

It’s no secret that capital campaigns are some of the largest undertakings for a nonprofit. To set yourself up for success, start by ensuring you have the right team members to support you—that might mean a capital campaign consultant.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the details you need to know to make an informed decision about your next capital campaign consultant:

• What Does a Capital Campaign Consultant Do?
• What Shouldn’t Your Capital Campaign Consultant Do?
• Why Should You Hire a Capital Campaign Consultant?
• What are the Steps to Hiring a Capital Campaign Consultant?
• Capital Campaigns with Convergent

Now, let’s start by outlining what exactly a capital campaign does for nonprofits.

What Does a Capital Campaign Consultant Do?

Before determining whether hiring a capital campaign consultant is the right choice for your nonprofit, you should understand what exactly these experts do.

The one core task your campaign capital campaign consultant delivers is providing clear focus. While every other person has a litany of other responsibilities—a “day job” if you will—your capital campaign consultant focuses on nothing but your success. From start to finish, the capital campaign consultant should direct all aspects of the work so that each team member only does what only they can do.

Usually, a capital campaign consultant’s responsibilities fall into one of the following categories:

Conduct Feasibility Studies

A feasibility study is standard due diligence that should always precede a capital or comprehensive campaign. This study validates financial and philosophical support. It will verify the right potential lead funders, affirm appropriate leadership for the campaign, and provide a clear, achievable fundraising goal.

An experienced capital campaign consultant will have a proven framework for assessing your nonprofit’s readiness for the proposed campaign, as well as the likelihood of funding the work you plan to accomplish.

Direct Nonprofit Leaders

One of the simplest and yet most valuable roles a campaign capital campaign consultant fills is that of an expert guide. For most nonprofits and most nonprofit leaders, capital campaigns occur once every several years or even only once in the organization's life. Given this, many nonprofit leaders and most boards of directors have not ever experienced a capital campaign.

In a capital campaign, the most strategic and impactful decisions and solicitations are at the campaign's outset, so the margin for error is razor-thin. The days of a campaign are a brutal learning curve, and missteps can derail the entire effort. An experienced capital campaign consultant helps a nonprofit to plan its campaign and navigate complexities, ensuring success at every step.

Facilitate Evaluation of Prospects

A thorough and focused evaluation of all prospective funders is critical to achieving your capital campaign’s goals. Given that the majority of funding for capital campaigns comes from a small handful of donors (the old 80/20 rule typically applies very well), making the right ask without leaving money on the table is critical.

Asking everyone to “chip in” however they are able is not the answer. Every prospect should be reviewed to validate their capacity to give, their concern for the project, and to determine who has the strongest connection to the prospect.

An experienced capital campaign consultant will help ensure how much to ask for, why it matters to the funder, and who has the best relationship with the prospect before you make the ask. Resources like WealthEngine and DonorSearch are great, but only provide potential prospect capacity data. Your capital campaign consultant should do far more than just hand you a report; they should guide you through applying data points to your specific prospect list.

Train Your Fundraising Team

Capital campaigns are a team sport. Everyone has a valuable role to play—and like team sports, everyone can (and probably will) get tired at some point. With staff, board, and other volunteers engaged in your campaign, you can minimize fatigue and maximize focus of efforts.

Your campaign capital campaign consultant should be able to clearly articulate each team member's roles and duties, clarify when they need to act, and ensure that they are equipped to do so. Whether they are making an introduction or soliciting a major gift for the campaign, every team member should be fully trained and equipped for success.

Guide Strategic Messaging

A capital campaign has very distinct phases, where the vision for the campaign should be shared in very distinct ways. From developing a case for support, to soliciting in the quiet phase, to a highly visible public announcement (usually when the campaign is past 60% of the goal), every step of the campaign has very specific messaging and audiences.

Your capital campaign consultant will guide your marketing and communications team (or draft messaging if you don’t have a team) to ensure the right message gets to the right people at the right time.

Keep Your Campaign on Track

There’s an old sales adage you may have heard: “Time kills all deals.” Similarly, fatigue kills campaigns.

The two most valuable characteristics of a capital campaign are momentum and urgency. Variables like construction timelines, funder decisions, annual and community events, and even summer or holiday vacations can all significantly impact your campaign timeline.

A good campaign capital campaign consultant maps variables starting before feasibility interviews begin to develop the most functional timeline. From that point, your capital campaign consultant will focus on building momentum and leveraging urgency so everyone perceives your campaign as constantly moving forward.

Surprises will come up, hurdles will appear, and a strong capital campaign consultant will ensure that perception of stalling is minimized.

Make the Asks

Making the ask is where the rubber meets the road—all the right strategy, messaging, and relationships are for naught if you can’t make a professional ask. Presenting a request for a specific dollar amount, clarifying its impact, and knowing how to best follow up to close the gift is the bread and butter of campaign success. It doesn’t come easy, and for many volunteers, making an ask is the last thing they want to do.

Most capital campaign consultants provide training, mock solicitations, and other avenues of support, but few join you in the solicitation meeting, and even fewer make the ask on your behalf.

This is one of Convergent’s primary differentiators—while we provide traditional campaign counsel, many of our clients retain us under a shared solicitation approach, where one of our experienced fundraisers acts as an extension of the client nonprofit, making asks and closing pledges on their behalf.

What Shouldn’t Your Capital Campaign Consultant Do?

Though their responsibilities encompass a large variety of tasks, there are some misconceptions about their role. Your capital campaign consultant shouldn’t:

Carry Equity with Funders

At Convergent, we are often asked, “What funders can you introduce us to?”

For one thing, it’s not typical for a campaign to have brand new major funding sources. More often, the campaign is an avenue to maximize funding from sources that know and love your nonprofit. Beyond that, consider the implications of a capital campaign consultant who offers to broker relationships with funders. While there are some limited exceptions, this should generally be considered a hazard.

If the capital campaign consultant holds relational equity with any of your funders, what will happen when you’re no longer employing the capital campaign consultant? Will you lose the funder connection? Will you feel obligated to continue paying the capital campaign consultant to retain the funding? If the capital campaign consultant moves on to work with another client (which they eventually do if they are competent), will that funder follow them and leave your nonprofit?

A capital campaign consultant’s knowledge of funders is certainly a value—no debate. Be wary of a consultant who says they can introduce you to new funders via your campaign. While they may be well-intentioned, it is worth knowing exactly what their intentions are, and who will hold the relationship long-term.

Be Paid on a Commission or Percentage Basis

Another question we often get is, what is our “cut” of the funds raised?

The Association of Fundraising Professionals' Code of Ethical Standards strictly forbids commission-based fundraising, particularly in a campaign context where funds may be garnered using multi-year pledges. If you encounter a capital campaign consultant who proposes to work for a commission or finder's fee incentive structure, run—don’t walk—away from the conversation.

While campaign management fees may vary, they should vary considering the size and complexity of the nonprofit and the campaign. Even then, fees should be flat-rate retainers.

Be a Community Expert

Another common misperception is that your campaign capital campaign consultant must know your community personally. Once again, this could be beneficial, but it’s not a necessary factor for success.

You want a consultant who knows campaigns; who knows them in large communities and small communities, with large goals and small goals, for large nonprofits and small nonprofits. If you have concerns in this area, ask for references from past clients when the consultant had no prior experience with a community.

If a nonprofit is concerned about a consultant’s local community knowledge, you’re likely better served to pursue a strategic cultivation and engagement phase before entering your feasibility study and campaign.

Pressure You to Accept or Decline Gifts

We’ve seen cases when nonprofits were pressured to accept uncomfortable pledge terms, like an in-kind contribution that wasn’t a net benefit to their specific campaign. The executive leaders and board of a nonprofit should be the sole decision makers for accepting or declining gifts. While your capital campaign consultant should provide clear guidance and counsel, they should not in any way have final say on receipt and recognition of funds.

Why Should You Hire a Capital Campaign Consultant?

It’s tempting to have staff members or the board handle capital campaign planning and execution, eliminating the overhead costs associated with a consultant. However, a campaign capital campaign consultant can be very valuable if:

• Your team is busy with other important projects: Even if you have a highly qualified and experienced development team, adding a capital campaign to their normal tasks adds a layer of complexity and strategy that will impact their productivity. It could become the priority and lead to reduced bandwidth for “normal” duties, or the “normal” duties retain focus and the campaign gets the leftovers. A consultant is the natural way to address this—providing strategy and guidance for as long as you need them.
• Your team isn’t familiar with making major asks: The first handful of solicitations in a capital campaign will dictate the campaign’s trajectory; it’s not the time to get practice reps. Even if you’ve been fundraising for years, the stakes in a capital campaign are much higher. You might not get another shot if the solicitation goes wrong.
• Your team hasn’t conducted a capital campaign before: Even the most experienced and effective nonprofit executives and fundraisers might struggle to conduct a capital campaign. Much of campaign management is intuition and assessment of variables during the campaign. Even if you’re highly comfortable in making asks and have great prospect relationships, campaign counsel is still highly valuable to guide your timeline and strategy and help navigate any surprises.
• You want an objective, expert viewpoint: During a campaign, you need someone who will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. A campaign creates a big stage for great success or great failure. An objective guide willing to point out the good, bad, and ugly ensures you have a story to celebrate after the campaign ends.
• You want a dedicated campaign manager: Fundraising is a team sport, but strategy by committee is a recipe for stalemate. A dedicated campaign capital consultant provides consistent, experienced direction to keep your campaign moving forward.

Ultimately, choosing a consultant is a circumstantial decision for the nonprofit. Some organizations may not find it worthwhile to do so. However, at Convergent, when we are retained to manage a campaign from start to finish, we’ve secured an average of 110% of our clients’ goals for their campaigns, making an investment in our consulting services extremely valuable.

What are the Capital Campaign Consultant Hiring Steps?

Now that you know whether you should hire a capital campaign consultant, let’s explore the steps to find the right fit for your nonprofit.

1. Get Your Team On Board

Embarking on a capital campaign will impact almost every aspect of your organization’s staff and volunteer teams, and in many cases, program implementation if there’s a move or new facility. Deciding to engage a consultant shouldn’t be made in a vacuum because of how it impacts every team member.

We hear numerous questions: “We have a development director, why do we need a consultant?” We’ve had nonprofit CEOs ask, “Will my board think I can’t do my job if I hire a consultant?” We’ve sat in board meetings where the board couldn’t get past paying for consulting despite a completely stalled campaign in its third year when the cost of fundraising would have been less than one percent of the campaign goal!

The right capital campaign consultant will make the campaign more successful in a shorter time frame and should reduce the workload on every team member. Clarifying these dynamics with your leadership early creates great buy-in and will set your consultant up to be most effective with your staff and volunteers.

2. Research Capital Campaign Consultants

Research consultants and narrow your options to a few top picks. As you conduct research, here are a few essential characteristics:

• Experience: How many campaigns does the capital campaign consultant or team have under their belt? A rookie consultant by themselves likely brings marginal value over your team taking a first shot.
• Specialties: For a capital campaign, you don’t want to hire a development marketing professional or an annual fund specialist. While almost every firm will offer varied services, you want someone who knows capital campaigns. Many firms conduct campaigns as an add-on to a wide array of other services. You’ll be best served by a consultant whose primary business is campaign management.
• Fundraising methodology: There are myriad fundraising methodologies. Peer-to-peer or digital fundraising pages can be great for annual campaigns and acquisition but offer little value in laying the foundation for a successful capital campaign. For a capital campaign, the most important methodology is direct, strategic solicitation, asking prospects in person for a specific amount, for a specific purpose.
• Track record: Always verify the capital campaign consultant’s track record. Look at the types of campaigns they’ve completed, the types of organizations they’ve worked with, and the size of the communities they’ve been successful in. While campaign specialization is critical, specialization in a sector or geography can be a limiting factor. The more proven success in an array of contexts, the more likely they’ll be prepared to navigate variables—big and small.
• Familiarity with your nonprofit: Many nonprofits balk at bringing in a capital campaign consultant who doesn’t know their organization or community. Objective expertise is the most valuable service a campaign consultant brings. A feasibility study is scoped to give the consultant the necessary knowledge in specific targeted areas to know how to advise your organization.
• Location: While there’s always value in on-site presence with a regular rhythm, remote engagement can provide great efficiency and save travel expenses. Convergent provides flexibility for this reason—some clients need a focused professional solicitor and will have us on-site two or more times a month during peak solicitation phases; others prefer to do more of the work on their own and see us in person once every four to six weeks.
• Fee structure and costs: You should expect to pay your capital campaign consultant a flat retainer, often varying based on the breadth of service you desire. Beyond the management fee, you’ll also need to be prepared to cover travel and peripheral campaign expenses like graphic design, print, events, etc.
• Availability: An individual consultant or a small team can mean bandwidth limitations. What happens if your single consultant becomes ill or goes on vacation? Are they managing multiple campaigns? Which one gets top priority? Don’t put your campaign on hold because of the limited availability of a prospective capital campaign consultant. Convergent uses a team approach to eliminate this barrier. Our clients have a dedicated lead consultant and additional senior team members who remain engaged. If one team member is out, someone is available who knows your situation.

3. Request Proposals from Candidates

A capital campaign consultant proposal should include:

• Capital Campaign consultant’s background: Someone with a depth of campaign experience. A team approach offers greater access to first-hand experience and troubleshooting. Your conversations with the consultant and their proposal should resonate with your needs, and share relevant references or client examples.
• Campaign strategy and approach: The proposal should always outline the implementation plan and recognize that flexibility is assumed by you. While there are mandatory aspects to a campaign, a consultant who insists on a rigid approach is a warning flag.
• Campaign timeline: Get a general timeline for campaign services with similar client and community types descriptors. A vague response merits clarification and specificity. The major timeline factors are the number of prospects, the geographic market size, organizational characteristics, and campaign goals of $10,000,000 or more, requiring the longest timeline.
• Estimated fees and project scope: Feasibility studies are best structured as a flat fee. A study must be efficient. A drawn-out process is a disadvantage. Be sure to ask clarifying questions to understand exactly what is involved in their project scope. Campaign consulting fees are computed monthly along with agreed-upon travel expenses

4. Review Proposals and Make Your Choice

When your team is aligned to retain a consultant, you’ve collected all the desired information about prospective firms, checked references, and have all the data points, it’s decision time; focus on the potential dollars raised, not spent on fees and expenses.

Capital Campaigns with Convergent

At Convergent, our team represents a breadth of direct fundraising and campaign experience and a depth of knowledge of various nonprofit sectors. We work with three to four dozen clients a year, nearly all of whom are feasibility study and campaign management related. Clients include a sampling of nonprofits, from chambers of commerce to economic development organizations, research and education institutions, to human services and youth outreach.

Our Investment Driven Model™ is proven to leverage the value nonprofits deliver to their community to maximize funding for high-value projects. For this reason, we often refer to donors as “investors” because they seek to fund a realizable impact or ROI with their dollars.

When Convergent conducts a feasibility study, we always recommend a feasible goal range from low to high that our research and modeling affirms. Since developing a new modeling framework in 2020, the campaigns we’ve managed averaged 110% of the low-end recommendation and 97% of the top-end.

While feasibility studies are very formal in structure, our campaigns are tailored to each client’s needs, with service offerings ranging from high-level counsel to a “fully deployed” outsourced executive approach. This enables us to be flexible to various organizations' needs and financial capacities.

If you have a campaign on the horizon or underway and questions about how Convergent may be able to assist, schedule a free consultation.

Additional Resources

When it comes to large-scale projects like a capital campaign, ensuring you have the right support is crucial. Reflect on your needs and capacity to determine if a capital campaign consultant is the right choice.

If you’re interested in learning more about nonprofit fundraising, check out these resources:

• A Smarter Approach to Nonprofit Fundraising: Introducing Convergent’s Comprehensive Campaign — Explore Convergent’s Comprehensive Campaign and how it can benefit you by consolidating multiple funding efforts, from major gifts to planned giving to capital investments.
• A Guide to Nonprofit Fundraising During Economic Uncertainty — During times of economic turbulence, nonprofits may find their existing strategies no longer work. Explore this white paper to prepare yourself for times of economic uncertainty.
• From Prospects to Investors: How to Grow Your Supporter Base — Explore how you can boost visibility and secure long-term help foyourts mission by growing your supporter base.