Nonprofit Expert Episode 46 – How Mission-Driven Nonprofits Use Data to Support Growth and Stewardship

DonorPerfect

Welcome to Nonprofit Expert, presented by DonorPerfect.

Julia Gackenbach

Hello, and welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. My name is Julia Gackenbach, and I’m so excited. We have Amy Eisenstein with us today. Amy, thank you so much for Read More

DonorPerfect

Welcome to Nonprofit Expert, presented by DonorPerfect.

Julia Gackenbach

Hello, and welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. My name is Julia Gackenbach, and I’m so excited. We have Amy Eisenstein with us today. Amy, thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Amy Eisenstein is the CEO and cofounder of Capital Campaign Pro. Capital Campaign Pro provides a modern approach to campaign consulting and empowers nonprofit staff and volunteers to lead successful campaigns. Amy’s published books, including major gift fundraising for small shops and fifty asks in fifty weeks. She became a certified fundraising executive in two thousand and four and received the ACFRE in twenty thirteen. Amy currently serves on the board of her local community foundation and the ACFRE board. Check out Amy’s weekly podcast all about capital campaigns on your favorite podcasting app. And for more information and resources, you can check out capital campaign pro dot com. Amy, it’s so great to have you here. I can’t wait to dig into these capital campaigns. I actually have never run a capital campaign, so I’m gonna

Julia Gackenbach

learn a lot from you today, and I’m really looking

Julia Gackenbach

forward to that. But before we get into all of that, I wanna hear a little bit about your path to nonprofits. How have you found yourself in the fundraising world? How are we chatting today? What got you here?

Amy Eisenstein

Well, thank you so much for having me, Julia. I think like so many people, I sort of fell into fundraising, but kind of not. I always knew that I wanted to help people. I knew I wanted to be in the nonprofit sector. In college, I did a lot of volunteering, and I actually went to graduate school for a master’s in nonprofit administration. So I knew that I wanted to be in fundraising, and I took my first or nonprofits, I should say. I took my first fundraising job at a domestic violence shelter, and I sort of thought about it like graduate school, sort of something I had to do in order to be effective in in nonprofits. And what I found was that fundraising, in my opinion, is what makes the nonprofit world go round. And so I just fell in love with fundraising and this idea that you could find donors who are really passionate about important causes and match them up and and really be effective. So I was development director for more than a decade at three organizations really on the grounds, fun on the ground fundraising. And then I’ve now been consulting for more than fifteen years, and I’m excited to be here.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s great. Well, we can’t wait to learn from all of your experience and knowledge. And as you mentioned, you were in fundraising, but now you’re really focused on capital campaigns. And so I’d love to dig into what that looks like and, you know, what it even means. So why don’t we start with the basics? For those who are unfamiliar with a capital campaign, can you explain what it is and why it’s so important for nonprofit growth? And I think for me, sometimes I think of capital campaigns and major giving as the same thing. Is that is it different? How does this all fall into overall fundraising?

Amy Eisenstein

Yes. Such good questions. Well, the first ten years of my consulting, I really focused on helping organizations raise major gifts because those are the biggest gifts, right, that an organization gets usually from an individual or a couple. And often for a specific project or for a specific effort. And I just think that they are so impactful for organizations. Often, organizations raise major gifts as part of their annual fund. It’s part of their recurring revenue, and it’s part of what makes the organization go round. A capital campaign sort of is different because it is a once in a while major fundraising effort for a very specific project or to build the capacity of the organization that catapults the organization to the next level of service. So multiyear, bigger than more fundraising than the organization has ever done for a very specific project or program or series of project and pro or programs, often around a building project, but not always. And but it’s for long term needs. So it really gets the organization to the next level of operations, of programs, of services. It really gives them a huge boost. The community, the organization should look different after a campaign than when they started. It’s not just day to day business as usual, but it’s like, okay. What’s next? What’s the leap in growth? That’s what a capital campaign or a capacity campaign or even a comprehensive campaign. That’s what they’re all about, and it’s multi year.

Julia Gackenbach

Interesting. That I feel like I already understand it so much better. Thank you for explaining that to me because it is so easy to think, oh, capital campaign is, full of large gifts a lot of the time. But do you see successes for capital campaigns from all types of givers, or is it mostly major givers?

Amy Eisenstein

So campaigns begin with the biggest gifts at the top of your gift range chart or your gift pyramid. So capital campaigns should start with lead and major gifts, the biggest gifts to the campaign. In fact, the lead gift is often twenty five percent of the campaign goal. So if someone’s doing a campaign for ten million dollars, the lead gift might very well be two and a half million dollars. And and then, you go down from there. The so you start in a quiet phase of a capital campaign where you’re talking to major donors, the lead givers, and the major gift donors. And then when you get to seventy five, eighty five, or even ninety percent of your goal, you will go public with your campaign and invite the rest of the community to give, and that’s when you see things like, crowdsourcing or direct mail and email solicitation, social media, those types of things, and everybody’s invited to participate. But the first eighty five percent of your campaign is major gift and individual solicitations.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s so cool. I hadn’t even realized that breakdown of percentages. So it’s it’s definitely, everyone can play, but it comes in phases, which is cool. What are some key indicators that maybe a nonprofit is ready to launch a campaign? How do they prepare for something like that? You know, you don’t just wake up one morning and say, okay. Maybe we’ll launch a capital campaign today.

Amy Eisenstein

That’s so true. And there are lots of reasons that an organization might start talking about a campaign. But what is really critical is that an organization have very specific objectives and a big vision. Now often, a campaign an idea for a campaign starts with a strategic planning process, which hopefully organizations go through every couple of years. And so a campaign may be born out of a strategic planning process. The organization’s ready for something big. Also, campaigns come because organizations run out of space or have a waiting list, so they may need a bigger building, or they may need to be able to serve more people, or they come up with an innovative program or process where they can serve the community more effectively. So a big idea, a big vision, and so that is often what ignites the idea for a capital campaign. I actually think that organizations should seriously consider a big campaign every decade or so. You know, every ten years, what’s the next move to be more effective, to get closer to your mission? What can you do that would propel you to the next level of service? So whether it comes up organically through a strategic planning process or the need for a bigger building or to help your waiting list, you should be purse purposeful and and do some blue sky visioning and planning for your next campaign.

Julia Gackenbach

And and what I mentioned, I’ve never done a capital campaign before. So what would that even look like? How do you start it? Like, what what would a typical campaign look like?

Amy Eisenstein

Right. Well, let’s say that your organization has been talking about this, has a big idea, has a big vision. You know what you want to do. Then I guess, is that what you’re asking? What are the next steps? What would come

Julia Gackenbach

Yes.

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. So once you’ve done a little bit of project planning, like, you have a some sense of what you want to do, if it surrounds a building. Right? What are your space needs? Look at facilities. Will you be buying property? Will you will you be renovating your existing facility? There are all sorts of facilities and project questions to ask, and start thinking about what that might cost, what it would look like to implement, whether you have a building or not. You know, what is the expansion scope of your projects or services, and what does that entail? And once you have some handle on that, it’s probably a good time to start talking to some campaign experts or campaign consultants to find out from people who do this day in and day out what’s the next step for you? What should you be thinking about? What kind of support would your organization need? What kind of expertise and and staffing do you have in house, and what kind of expertise will you need externally? But the truth is that most most organizations should be doing a feasibility study, which is an opportunity to talk to your lead potential donors about your vision and your case and your plans and your working goal and get some early feedback before officially launching a campaign so that you get off on the right foot.

Julia Gackenbach

Yeah. That’s helpful. We definitely wanna get off on the right foot for sure. What are some maybe challenges that someone might, come up against when they first start a capital campaign or even throughout the series of a capital campaign? Do you have any strategies for how to effectively overcome these common challenges?

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. I think one of the challenges that I often see organizations have or maybe a mistake that they make is not taking the time to plan. A capital campaign usually is a fundraising effort that is five times, ten times, twenty times your normal annual fund fundraising. So it is significantly more than you are used to raising as an organization. And so the mistake that I see is, one, thinking that you can do it in house with existing staff and resources, no additional expertise or input, and and it’s it’s a big mistake. How how would you expect your current existing development team to go from raising a million dollars a year to ten million dollars, without any additional expertise, planning, resources? So to me, it’s about, not taking the time to plan, not taking the time to tap into expertise that exists, and looking at effective campaign strategy. So organizations that are sort of scrappy or, wanna do it themselves, say, we’re just gonna proceed. And then what happens is that they get stuck. And they you know, honestly, the first few million are pretty easy. It’s the last few million that are hard or harder. And if you haven’t planned well, or and you may not actually know ultimately what you can raise without proper planning or doing a feasibility study. So you may get to fifty percent of your goal and either get stuck because you didn’t execute well, or you’ve gotten to the top of your fundraising, but you don’t know it. So I would say slow down, take the time to plan, Reach out to resources that are available. You can interview three or four campaign consultants and learn a lot without committing anything. Just see what they have to offer. See what you can learn. And I hope people will reach out to Capital Campaign Pro. We have a ton of both free and paid resources on our website, and we’d love to talk to any of the of your listeners about a campaign and see how we might help or we can teach them.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s a great idea. I think as fundraisers, we whether we’re at a small shop or a big shop, we are pretty scrappy. I I think there are many things that come across our desk that make us a little bit of MacGyver’s, I guess you could say. Yes. And so I I could see a lot of us saying, okay. We’re doing a capital campaign. Here we go. And not thinking to pause and consider some unique, resources. So that’s a great point. You mentioned I think this is something that I would fear is you mentioned getting fifty percent through your capital campaign. What if you got fifty percent through and just got stuck? What would be a next step? Or how what happens if you don’t hit your goal? What how would someone work through that?

Amy Eisenstein

Well, I would say take preventative measures to ensure that that doesn’t happen in the first place, and that would be working with expertise, You know, capital campaign consultants, good experienced ones, have done this dozens or hundreds of times. And so they can help you plan to make sure that that doesn’t happen and to strategize perhaps when it does. And so starting out correctly is always easier than than helping an organization that comes to us halfway through and they’re stuck. Then, you know, we can point to lots and lots of things that went wrong potentially along the way. You know, often I’ll give you an example. A board member’s super excited to start the fundraising, and they say, well, forget the plan. Let’s just go out and start asking. We need to do this anyways. So it doesn’t matter. We don’t need to do a feasibility study. I hear this all the time. Forget the feasibility study. We need a new building. Our building’s falling you know, the roof’s falling in. We just need to do this, so I’m gonna go start asking. And the board member who’s really well intentioned and very eager, and I I love this, they go ask their friend for ten thousand dollars. But if they had taken the time to look at campaign strategy, think through their donor base, do some research, they would have realized that that potential donor was a hundred thousand dollar donor, not a ten thousand dollar donor. And so if you under ask many of your lead donors, you will never get to your goal. And so board members who don’t have experience or expertise will will do that. Even development directors who, you know, maybe they haven’t had lots of campaign or maybe any campaign experience either. So it always seems easier to ask someone for a gift that they’re gonna say yes to, than thinking about a stretch gift, but then then you will come up short. So we do have strategies to help people go back to donors and to sort of then you take ten steps back. But sometimes you can’t get to your goals. Some and then it’s better to know that in advance and and plan for alternative funding sources. There’s sometimes government allocations. There’s sometimes government grants. There is sometimes organizations need to think about financing for a project, and that’s not always a bad idea. That can be part of the funding mix. Sometimes philanthropy doesn’t pay for the whole project. For example, if a hospital’s building a new wing, the project may be a hundred million dollars, and the hospital has some reserves, they have fee for service, they take out financing. There’s government money, and philanthropy maybe covers twenty million dollars out of the hundred million. So just because your project costs something, you have to know what role philanthropy is going to play in that project. Now for some organizations, philanthropy has to cover the whole thing. But moving ahead before you know that, doesn’t help you plan. Right? Sometimes you have to scale the project back. You can’t build your dream project. You build the next best project, and and you’re still doing amazing. You still have an amazing project even if it’s not sort of your your top top dream project. So planning, preparation, research, strategy, execution will get you an amazing project and help you raise more money than you ever dreamed possible. That’s the goal.

Julia Gackenbach

Mhmm. That is so cool. And I I love what you said about the different ways to raise money. It’s not always philanthropy. It could be grants. It could be other ways. So that’s a unique approach and something that I would not have known unless talking to someone who knows a lot about capital campaigns. So I appreciate that advice. What, something else that you mentioned just now about board members. So I wanna dig a little bit into board members because I know for me, my board was always interested in getting these big gifts. And so a capital campaign, I think, would have really excited them. What role does the board play in something like this? And do you require funding from the board for a capital campaign? What what role do they have in asking, in giving, in promoting all of those, ways that they can help further your campaign?

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. Board members and the board as a whole have really important roles and responsibilities as you can imagine. The board as a whole is responsible for voting to approve, to move forward with the campaign, some voting, probably initial funding to hire a consultant and do a feasibility study. And then at the end of the feasibility study, they would vote to approve the recommendations and the campaign plan and move into a campaign. So the board as a whole has some responsibilities, and then, of course, individual board members have roles and responsibilities as well. And we do want every board member making a gift to the campaign that’s over and above their regular annual fund gift. Now at what levels they decide to give, of course, is up to each individual board member, but we do hope it’ll be a stretch gift, a significant gift for their own personal budget. And what we’ve seen recently is that, well, not just recently, we’ve actually seen recently because we did a research report and asked, hundreds of nonprofits that had recently were in campaigns or finished campaigns, the how much their board contributed. And what we find is that the average organization, their board gives about fifteen percent of the campaign goal, which to me signals that you don’t need to wait until you have a wealthy or well connected board necessarily to start a campaign. I see a lot of organizations thinking, I can’t do a campaign until I have wealthier or more well connected board members, and that’s not the case. We need a board that cares, where everybody’s excited about the project and willing to commit, and to contribute to the campaign in the ways that they can. And we will help recruit a campaign committee, made up of some non board members that will help with some of those larger gifts and some of that, lead gift fundraising to supplement some of those connections on the board.

Julia Gackenbach

Yes. I love that. I love fearing the ways that the board is part of it at the beginning and in the middle. Like, they are part of the approval. They are part of the, actual fundraising. And then I would assume they’re part of the end too. They get to be part of the, you know, joy that comes once the capital campaign is finished. Absolutely. The board seems really integrated just like the development team or the the executive director maybe.

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. And there’s lots of committees along the way throughout the campaign that we want board members to help participate in as well. So lots of roles for board members. Yes.

Julia Gackenbach

Great point. Another thing that you’ve mentioned briefly is the idea of this giving is beyond annual giving. And I think that a lot of development directors maybe fear launching a capital campaign because they’re not sure how it will affect affect their annual giving. Like you said, this is above and beyond. These are stretch gifts. What advice would you have for a development director that maybe feels a little nervous about asking people for more without risking their annual budget?

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. That is such an important question. One of the top questions we get is what’s gonna happen to our annual fund if we do a capital campaign? And there are specific campaign strategies where we talk to every single donor we’re asking for a campaign gift from, and we’re talking about both the annual fund and what it does and the capital campaign, how they’re different, how the capital campaign supports the organization in growth, but also the organization needs to maintain their their ongoing annual operating services and programs and how they’re different paths and equally important. And so we’re asking every single donor for gifts to both, and that’s how the annual fund is preserved. And I think I started to allude to a research project we just did. So if your listeners are interested in the results of that research, they can find the report at capital campaign pro dot com slash research. And what it shows is that of the organizations we surveyed, nearly eighty percent of organizations that were in a campaign or completed a campaign were able to preserve or increase their annual fund during and after a campaign. And you have to pay attention to it. It doesn’t happen by accident or magically. But if you’re strategic and thoughtful and planful about how and when and who you ask, you can preserve and even the goal is to increase your annual fund after a campaign as well.

Julia Gackenbach

That sounds daunting but unique. I don’t know. That’s really cool to think of, kind of calling out the importance of this. I think when we first started discussing capital campaigns, I thought of it as, okay. Let’s talk about this capital campaign thing over here and then we’ll talk about this annual fund thing over here. We hope that nobody notices that we’re talking about them both. But you’re saying, you know, let’s call them out. Let’s say, hey, yeah, we’re expecting you to still participate in annual giving, but look, there’s this other opportunity that we would love for you to participate in as well. So I think keeping them connected and not exclusive is important, to break down some barriers for the giver too. I think that’s great.

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. I mean, I think the vast majority of people who are going to give to your campaigns already give to your annual fund, already support you in some ways. And one way to think about it is annual fund gifts often come from what we think about as checkbook giving or cash flow. It comes, you know, on your credit card. And capital campaign gifts, especially those initial gifts, large gifts, major gifts, they come from a different pool of money. They come from assets. So they’re coming from stock, from retirement funds, from real estate, from other assets. And so donors think about those gifts differently, and you should talk to them about them differently as well.

Julia Gackenbach

That’s really interesting. And then how we’re, you know, we’re talking about these donors kind of pulling from different buckets, giving to different buckets. How do you maybe maintain relationships with these people as they’re doing all of these things? It seems like a lot of spinning plates. So not only for you, but for your donor, for your accounting team, all of the things are, happening at once. So how do you stay focused on donor engagement and donor retention and caring for these donors and stewardship plan, things like that?

Amy Eisenstein

Well, I think that’s such an important point and such a good question. It it comes down to communication. You

Speaker 0

know,

Amy Eisenstein

I think sometimes development directors think, oh, with my biggest donors, if I just leave them alone or pretend they’re not there, they’ll just keep giving maybe you know, they’ll they’ll I don’t know I don’t know what. But to me, it’s about communicating. It’s about communicating impact. It’s about communicating challenges. It’s about making people partners. It’s about letting people know what’s going on. And so I think the better and more you can communicate, the more effective your fundraising overall is going to be. And campaigns are an opportunity for organizations to build capacity, not only for their programs and services, but also for their development. And so your development systems and infrastructure and staffing should be bigger and better and stronger at the end of a campaign and after a campaign than when you started. A big fundraising effort like this is an opportunity to staff up to integrate or implement some new systems and infrastructure for your fundraising. So, you may add a administrative support, a database person, a communications person, depending on the size and scope of your campaign and your organization. But you should be better at it at the end than when you started.

Julia Gackenbach

Yeah. And that so the growth of the team, the growth of the funds, the growth of the property, it all just seems like capital campaign equals growth. Yes. It seems, again, kind of daunting, but so exciting to think on the other side of what this could produce.

Amy Eisenstein

That’s exactly right.

Julia Gackenbach

I I have a question about the communication piece. So when you’re say you’re looking to build a new building. When you’re communicating about that, how do you get people excited about something they can’t see? How do you get them excited about a literal non existent building or a, you know, wing of a hospital that currently the hospital doesn’t have it and things seem fine? How do you get them excited about something to come like that?

Amy Eisenstein

Well, I think often things aren’t fine. Right? There’s a lack of services in the community. There’s a lack of a cardiac wing or a cancer wing or an after school program or enough animal shelters or, you know, whatever you’re going to build to grow. And so you talk about what the possibilities are, what what isn’t happening, what needs to happen, what your vision is. And often when there is a building early on, there will be initial blueprints and some early renderings and things like that. And it’s not just about the building, though, when there is a building, it’s what’s gonna happen in the building. So telling stories, communicating who it’s gonna help and what the impact’s going to be, what difference, whether it’s expanded programs and services or actually a filled, a building will make. I mean, most people don’t care, hopefully, exactly what the building looks like, but what the building will enable.

Julia Gackenbach

Great point. And, you know, as a former fundraiser, I loved telling impact stories, and it’s so exciting to share about when something we were doing was working or helping. And this sounds like an opportunity to really dream about future impact stories. Like, right now, we can’t do this, but after this campaign, we will be able to. And what a powerful way to get people excited. There’s such opportunities. So that’s that’s really cool. I love that. Sounds like a fun exercise for a development team to dream up some things that can happen, after this campaign. And maybe that’s something they can do at the beginning planning stages. You’ve talked a lot about the importance of planning during a campaign. And maybe a fun exercise during that planning stages, what what are some stories that we want to come out of this campaign? That would be so fun. I wanna do that. Very cool. Yes. Well, and I wanna talk a little bit about the large gift aspect of this. So capital campaigns, like you said, are a lot of large gifts. And asking for large gifts can be quite daunting, and, you never know if they’re gonna say yes or no or laugh at you or walk away or be offended. What are some things that development directors or executive directors or board members can do to feel confident when they’re going to ask and, to present and ask in a way that’s, I don’t know, urgent, expectant, things like that.

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. So I think that all of capital campaign strategy is designed around engaging donors. Right from the earliest planning stages, there are strategies to engage some of these key potential lead donors in pre campaign planning, in feasibility study interviews, in engaging them all along the way. At Capital Campaign Pro, we really focus on who are the biggest potential donors and how can we get their early buy in into the project and the process so that they are more likely to give when it’s time to solicit them. And I think one of the beautiful things to come out of campaigns for development directors who don’t have experience asking for six and seven and even eight figure gifts is that good capital campaign consultants provide a ton of planning, a ton of preparation, a ton of training, role plays, so and and help you craft the ask and think through strategies and how it will go and prepare you for those. So you’re not just making it up as you go, not hoping, but there’s real strategy behind it. And you’ve taken the time to really engage those donors all along the way so that when the ask finally comes, it’s, like, almost a no brainer. They know all along. They’ve seen the gift range chart. They know their role. They’re excited about the project. They wanna be there. You know, does every ask go as perfectly smoothly as all of that? No. But, but by the time you get to the ask, the donor should not be surprised. They should not fall out of their chair. They should not be offended. And you should have a relationship with with them so that you are having a conversation just like we are now.

Julia Gackenbach

Well and that’s, I think, the most important part of all of fundraising is it can’t be transactional. It has to be relational. And I’m sure that that’s even more important when you’re thinking of capital campaigns because they are such large gifts. And, it is going to result in something physical or, you know, large. So being able to build a relationship with people while you’re asking is really important. That’s a great point. What are, some trends that maybe you’re seeing when it comes to giving right now? Whether specifically toward, capital campaigns or major gifts or just in general, what are some trends that you’re seeing when it comes to givers?

Amy Eisenstein

Well, I would say that what I hear most frequently from nonprofits that they’re worried about starting a capital campaign, whether they’re worried about the economy or a pandemic or natural disasters or a presidential campaign or a new administration. And what we’ve seen time and time and time again over the decades is that donors rise to the occasion. If you have a compelling case for support, and that’s key. Right? So I’m not talking about, you just wanna raise more money, or you have an anniversary a milestone anniversary coming up or you just you wanna pay off debt. I mean, those aren’t compelling. Those aren’t exciting. That’s not visionary. But if you have a strong case for support for your campaign and a big vision and you match up with the right donors. They’re gonna get behind you. They’re going to fund it. So to me, I don’t know if this is a trend, but campaigns are successful in good and bad economies. When there’s a pandemic, when you know, right, donors rise to the occasion. And I guess one of the trends and the big changes in the field that I’ve seen recently is we’re doing something we call a guided feasibility study. So in a typical traditional sort of old fashioned feasibility study, a consultant gets hired to interview your donors and often confidentially and anonymously aggregate the data and make recommendations to the board. But in the new model, the way we do it at Capital Campaign Pro, we’re training the leaders of the nonprofits to have those strategic conversations with donors prior to their campaign as part of the feasibility study process. So we walk them step by step and coach them every step of the way, and they’re in the rooms building the relationships with donors. And this is a huge change in our sector and the field, and for so many reasons, is more effective in preparing both staff members, board members, and donors for the ask and for the campaign. And we’ve just seen the most incredible results, doing the feasibility study in a different way where where we’re still with donor with the organization every step of the way, helping them design their case and helping them prepare for the interviews, helping them identify who should be interviewed, role playing with them prior to the interviews and figuring out what data they need to collect and analyzing that data. So there’s still a really important role that we play, and the big difference is that the donors and the development directors or the executive directors or even board members are in the room getting to know one another and building relationships prior to that campaign. And it’s it’s been totally magical.

Julia Gackenbach

Yeah. That’s really valuable insight and, really hopeful. I think that’s all good news, and we should, feel good about where this is heading, which is really nice. Well, one more question for you. You’ve had an incredible career and, have raised tons of money and helped organizations really make a difference. What are some big lessons that you maybe learned through the way that we could glean from?

Amy Eisenstein

Yeah. So I think there’s so many interesting things happening in fundraising right now. One, of course, is the use of technology and AI. You know, we could do a whole separate podcast and have a whole separate conversation about that. But in terms of donor analytics and research and helping with the writing process, you know, there are AI tools in abundance, I’ll just say. And picking and choosing the right ones, I would is probably the biggest challenge and opportunity for development directors and organizations, but campaigns are implementing aspects of AI. Now that doesn’t take the place of relationships. The human relationship is key here. But in terms of some of the behind the scenes work, I would say that AI is totally invaluable. You know, the other thing that I think has been a real sea change for organizations, sort of through the pandemic and even recently in terms of technology is being able to work with consultants and donors and vendors over Zoom. Look at what we’re doing right now. Right? You don’t have to be in the same room necessarily with your consultant or your committee or your donors to communicate and work together effectively and efficiently, and I think that’s been really also sort of a game changer for fundraisers.

Julia Gackenbach

Yeah. Very cool. Well, this is so helpful, Amy. I really appreciate you spending time with us and letting us see a little bit behind the curtain when it comes to capital campaigns. And, hopefully, some of our listeners have been inspired into taking that big step toward, future that isn’t built yet, literally. So I appreciate you being here today, and this has been great. So thank you so much.

Amy Eisenstein

Thanks for having me.

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