If your nonprofit is planning a capital campaign, choosing the chair should be among your top priorities. Capital campaigns are complex to manage and involve lots of strategic decisions along the way. A dynamic and inspirational volunteer chair will set your campaign up for maximum success.
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about identifying the right campaign chair (or co-chairs, as we’ll explain later), including:
Let’s get started by defining the role of a capital campaign chair and how this critical volunteer works with your nonprofit’s board and fundraising staff.
Who Is in Charge of Leading a Capital Campaign?
A capital campaign chair provides internal and external leadership for large-scale fundraising efforts. The chair acts as the campaign’s public spokesperson, helps work through various issues as they arise, and serves as “motivator-in-chief” for campaign sub-committees and other volunteer efforts.
Recruiting your chair as you complete your campaign planning study will ensure they are fully oriented to the campaign’s strategy at the outset and prepared to lead from day one.
Who Else Should Be on a Capital Campaign Team?
Although your chair is critical to your nonprofit’s success, capital campaigns are all-hands-on-deck efforts. You’ll need extensive support from inside and outside your organization, including:
Steering committee members to manage cultivation and solicitation assignments.
Other volunteers to take on aspects of the campaign, including cultivation, kick-off, and celebration events.
Board members to support the effort as generous donors and passionate advocates.
The CEO and selected senior management team members to ensure the chair and steering committee members are up to date on your organization’s strategic direction and developments.
Other employees in various roles, from your development team to program staff to marketing/communication staff to the finance office.
Fundraising consultants with extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, which they’ll use to develop the best possible capital campaign strategy for your organization.
Key Characteristics of a Capital Campaign Leader
As your chair will be the face of your nonprofit’s capital campaign and its internal manager, you need to find someone with qualities that will equip them to do both effectively. Some characteristics to consider in your candidates include their:
Reputation. Are they visible, recognized leaders who have positively impacted your organization’s community and have a stellar reputation within your community?
Passion. Do they care about your nonprofit’s mission, align with your values, and want to put in the time and effort to see your campaign through to success?
Charisma. Are they skilled communicators who can rally your community around your cause?
Creativity. Will they think outside the box when strategizing for your campaign, react constructively to achievements and roadblocks, and develop innovative solutions to any problems that arise?
Organization. Do they prioritize thorough planning, clear internal communication, and effective time management to accomplish ambitious goals by their deadlines?
Role modeling. Will they make one of the first sizable leadership gifts to the campaign, maintain their excitement from start to finish, and encourage others to do the same?
Leadership experience is also essential for someone to successfully chair a capital campaign. Consider all types of leaders—from dedicated board members and philanthropists to executives in the corporate world—and think about what each one would bring to the table from their unique background.
How to Find the Right Capital Campaign Chair
Now that you know what to look for in a capital campaign chair, let’s dive into four steps for identifying and recruiting one.
Research Promising Prospects
Begin your research by identifying as many potential chairs as possible, then narrow down your list a few times until you land on the right person to lead your nonprofit’s capital campaign. Here are a few tips to kickstart your research:
Consider your existing pool of potential leaders. While you should look outside your organization as well, you’ll have a major advantage in choosing a chair if you first identify individuals with strong connections to your nonprofit who might be interested in leading your campaign. If your organization has conducted capital campaigns before, think about whether you’d want to ask your previous leaders to fill the role again. Highly engaged major donors and current and past board members can also be strong candidates.
Expand your search online. Annual reports from other nonprofits and foundations with similar missions to yours are great resources to begin with because you may find potential chairs who care about your cause on their lists of major donors or board members. Remember that the for-profit sector can also yield strong candidates, so research local companies’ executives and board members to find leaders with charitable interests.
Leverage your connections. Even if you contact previous campaign chairs or board members and they don’t want to lead the campaign themselves, they might know someone else who would be a good fit.
After using these resources to create a large, diverse pool of candidates, narrow down and prioritize your shortlist by considering their leadership abilities, giving capacity, and interest in your organization and cause.
Consider Capital Campaign Co-Chairs
Until this point, we’ve referred to a singular campaign chair. However, there is merit in co-chairs leading a campaign. Advantages of this approach include:
Increasing your campaign leadership bandwidth, since co-chairs can divide some responsibilities according to their strengths.
Incorporating multiple perspectives for more thorough decision-making.
Creating a safety net in case unforeseen circumstances arise for the chair.
Reflecting a wider audience of your organization’s constituents and bringing with them different spheres of influence and connections to potential campaign donors.
In larger organizations, you may also recruit vice chairs based on constituent type, generation, and geography (for instance, national associations or universities with alumni in various cities often benefit from vice chairs who can cover multiple locations).
Carefully selecting your shortlist of leadership candidates will help you choose co-chairs (and vice chairs, if applicable) more effectively. If your top choice accepts the chair position, approach the next few individuals on the list about vice or co-chair opportunities.
Create a Capital Campaign Recruiting Team
Once you’ve solidified your top choices for capital campaign leaders, strategically choose individuals to represent your nonprofit when approaching them about the role. This team might include:
Your organization’s executive director and other leadership team members.
Your board chair and other current and past members who are involved in the campaign.
Previous campaign leaders or honorary chairs who can add credibility to your effort.
If a prospective chair has connections with anyone who fits these criteria, make sure to include them on the team. Being asked to fill the role by someone they have a trusted relationship with often makes a leader more likely to respond favorably.
Set Up an In-Person Meeting
Finally, it’s time for your team to approach each chair candidate. Whenever possible, try to plan an in-person meeting with them in a place they’ll feel comfortable. Your headquarters might be suitable for experienced professionals, but you could also visit your prospective chair’s home or take them out for coffee if they’d prefer a more casual meeting.
During this meeting, get them up to speed on your campaign plans (if you already interviewed them during your feasibility study, adjust your pitch accordingly), explain why you want them to lead, and review the roles and responsibilities of a campaign co-chair based on your campaign operating plan.
While no more than three recruiting team members should attend the meeting to avoid overwhelming the candidate, others can follow up with additional information later. Give them time to think about the decision if they need it, but set a deadline for their response to ensure you can get your campaign underway promptly or recruit someone else if they say no.
Depending on your campaign’s reach, your co-chair candidates could live close to your nonprofit or hundreds of miles away. If it’s within your budget to travel and meet with them in person, do so. If not, video conference meetings can work in a pinch.
When your leaders have agreed to work with you, be sure to give them a thorough onboarding that covers the campaign’s strategy. It’s also important to set a time early on to discuss and confirm their campaign commitment (i.e., leadership donation).
Tips for Working with Your Capital Campaign Leader
If you’ve reached this point in the process, you’ve found the right chair for your nonprofit’s capital campaign—congratulations! Here are three tips for making the most of your work with them.
Establish a Primary Staff Liaison
Choose your nonprofit’s vice president, development chair, or a specially-appointed campaign director to work most directly with your campaign chair(s). This individual needs to understand the campaign plan inside and out and have the authority to manage the campaign’s budget and assign other development staff to support campaign activity. Your primary staff liaison will:
Regularly meet with the chair(s) to discuss updates and upcoming decisions.
Manage top campaign assignments for the chairs and steering committee members.
Share relevant information and resources.
Oversee scheduling and meeting agendas.
Keep the various stages and events within the campaign on pace.
Handle or delegate logistical tasks so the chair(s) can stay focused on strategic leadership.
Express Appreciation for Your Capital Campaign Chair
Throughout and after your capital campaign, your co-chairs and other campaign volunteers deserve significant recognition for their hard work and dedication to your nonprofit. Publicly recognize their service in your organization’s publications, website, and social media. Also, separate from your final campaign celebration, host a campaign volunteer appreciation event.
Engage a Fundraising Consultant for Expertise and Guidance
Your capital campaign volunteers and staff may benefit from the outside perspective an experienced fundraising consultant or firm can bring to the table. This type of engagement can often enhance your campaign potential in a very cost-effective way and inspire confidence among campaign volunteers and staff.
Since The Sheridan Group’s founding in 1983, we’ve supported more than 250 mission-driven organizations in nearly every segment of the nonprofit sector—from associations to education to healthcare to arts and culture—in their most critical fundraising efforts. We tailor our capital campaign assessment process and development services based on each nonprofit’s unique challenges and opportunities to give your organization the necessary tools for success.
Wrapping Up: Successfully Leading a Capital Campaign
No matter your capital campaign’s purpose or scope, effective leadership is critical to its success. Use the tips above to find the right chair(s) for your nonprofit’s needs, and don’t hesitate to seek expert support from fundraising consultants (like The Sheridan Group) at any stage of the process.
For more information on capital campaigns, check out these resources:
The Capital Campaign Feasibility Study: All You Need to Know. Before you choose your leader, you need to know if a capital campaign is feasible for your organization—learn more in this guide.
TSG Education Series: Managing Your Capital Campaign Through a Recession. Discover how to keep your capital campaigns on track even through turbulent economic times.
TSG Education Series: Leveraging Campaign Success. Learn tips to maintain and grow your organization’s momentum after a successful capital campaign.
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