The Capital Campaign Comeback - An Episode About Stalled Capital Campaigns

Every capital campaign hits rough patches — but what separates the ones that succeed from the ones that stall out for good? In this episode, Andrew and Rhen dig into that very question. Andrew draws on his experience to identify the telltale signs that a campaign is in trouble, explore why momentum fades, and offer a practical roadmap for leaders ready to course-correct. It's an honest, encouraging conversation that reminds us: bold leadership and candid dialogue can breathe new life into even the most stuck campaign.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

03:09.62
Host
Well, howdy, everybody. Welcome back to the Petrus Development Show. I am Rhen Hoehn from Petrus. Joining me again today, Andrew Robison. How's it going, Andrew?

03:18.34
AROB
It's going great, Rhen. I'm enjoying the nice little bit of spring weather here. How about you?

03:24.72
Host
Yeah, I think you've already mowed your lawn. It's like that snow.

03:27.66
AROB
I've treated for weeds. I've laid mulch — well, I haven't laid the mulch. I should lay the mulch. I'm about to have to trim my crepe myrtles. Spring is here, man.

03:38.22
AROB
Texas did not wait for anything.

03:40.91
Host
No, it's warming up here. It's been sunnier. I've just been getting out and enjoying it. I was out for a little spring drive recently and saw something that catches my eye every time I pass it.

03:53.19
Host
It's going to lead to what we're going to talk about today. There's a fire station in a town a little ways away from me that has had their big capital campaign thermometer out in front of the building for years.

04:06.16
Host
And it never goes up, never changes.

04:09.18
AROB
Yeah.

04:09.66
Host
And it's not super close to me, so I don't really know the details. There's an insurance company just down the street from my house that's had a sign above their door that says "Celebrating 10 Years" for the entire ten years I've lived in this house.

04:24.18
Host
So they've got to be going on 20 years. Maybe it's that situation where they just forget to update their sign, or maybe the campaign really has stalled out, right?

04:29.44
AROB
I know.

04:32.38
Host
And that's something that happens.

04:32.95
AROB
It happens.

04:34.62
Host
We've worked with a few different organizations recently that started a campaign, something happened, and they lost all momentum — or something fell apart or just didn't work out — and then they came to us and said, "Hey, how can we get this going again? How can we kickstart it, get momentum back, and finish off this campaign?" So I think that's maybe something we could talk about today.

04:44.32
AROB
Yeah.

04:56.36
AROB
I think that sounds great. It's very applicable to people who are in that situation, for sure.

05:01.81
Host
Excellent. So, to start — what are some of the common causes of a stalled or slowing capital campaign?

05:12.22
AROB
Yeah, good question. So sometimes it's that you don't have a clear plan for how to get from A to Z — meaning you're starting with no fundraising and need to reach your finished goal. But you have energy, enthusiasm, and a handful of people who have said, "Once you start, let me know and we'll contribute." And so an organization says, "Great, let's do this campaign," starts with some momentum, starts asking those people, and assumes that will build momentum and then everybody will jump on board. That doesn't happen. So you start off with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but without a clear roadmap for how to get all the way to the finish line. That could be a reason why it stalls out. You've got early success because people are excited.

05:58.39
AROB
You don't really have to have a good plan — you just have to go and ask the right people who are already committed or already interested. But then you don't really have a plan for how to do the additional work of discovery, cultivation, and asking people for gifts.

06:12.63
AROB
So that could be one.

06:14.16
Host
Gotcha.

06:15.16
AROB
Sorry.

06:15.36
Host
Where does the feasibility study play into that? Do they not do a feasibility study? Do they ignore the results of the feasibility study?

06:22.71
AROB
Yeah.

06:26.24
Host
Do they get a little more optimistic than the feasibility study suggests? What have you seen?

06:29.69
AROB
Yes, all of them. But generally speaking, they either didn't do one, or they did a very truncated study. When Petrus does a study, it's very thorough — we spend three, sometimes four months. We interview 60, 80, a hundred people, and come back with a list of 10 to 12 recommendations for how to proceed. So it's very thorough.

06:53.22
AROB
That's not always the case. There are individuals out there with a little bit of fundraising experience who say, "Yeah, I'll do a feasibility study." There are some firms that take a different approach — they use a smaller sample pool or a shorter timeline. So it could be that they didn't do a study and said, "Hey, this has to happen."

07:13.59
AROB
"Our organization is going to be in major trouble if we don't. We don't have the facilities, don't have the money, don't have the reserves — we absolutely have to do this." And they jump in out of a kind of desperation, or maybe not desperation, but unreasonable hopefulness. So they don't do a study, or they do a very short one — maybe internally done — and go ask a couple of board members. They say, "Yeah, let's do it."

07:39.32
AROB
That's typically scenario A. It could also be that they did a study, and it didn't tell them what they wanted. Meaning it said, "You should hold off," or "You should do these things before you do a campaign."

07:54.97
AROB
And they said, "Can't do that. We've got to move forward." So that could be another reason. Or it could be that they got the results but didn't have a thorough understanding of how to get from A to Z, so they just sort of start out.

08:22.00
Host
Got it. Are there other causes of stalled campaigns beyond that?

08:29.02
AROB
Yeah. So scenario A is you start out with a lot of enthusiasm without a clear plan. Scenario B would be you start out with enthusiasm, you have a clear plan, and then something disrupts the plan. Sometimes that's a leadership change. Sometimes it's an institutional crisis or an institutional scandal. Sometimes it's things outside your ability to manage, like a pandemic or an economic recession. In that case, it's oftentimes not necessarily the fault of the organization — they had a plan and were working it, but they get disrupted. They lose momentum and clear direction; they can't follow the next steps in the plan for these reasons, and so things kind of fall apart. Sometimes that's staffing. We had one where the organization had a great director, a great development director. They came up with a good plan, did a feasibility study, had a clear roadmap — and then a couple of months in, the development director got recruited and took another job and left. So then the director is like, "Hey, we built this whole plan around this personnel executing it. Now they're not here. We don't know what to do." Usually, that would be scenario B: we have a plan, and then something disrupts the plan.

09:56.22
Host
Gotcha. Are there any warning signs early on that a capital campaign is not going to go well, or that it doesn't have good momentum?

10:08.57
AROB
Yeah. Obviously, a good indicator — not a perfect indicator, but a good one — would be that the people we thought would be our leadership-level, tier-one donors, the ones we were going to ask as part of the silent phase, say no, or they come in with gifts much smaller, much lower than we anticipated. That's not necessarily a sign that the campaign is doomed, but it certainly is one of those disruptors. "Hey, we hoped to be at 50% from these 20 gifts." All 20 donors have responded and we're at 20%. Now we need to dramatically re-scope and reframe our approach. That could be a reframe, or it could mean there's not a clear roadmap to get there. Either way, that's a warning sign — your lead donors are just not responding at the level you anticipated.

11:10.90
AROB
Another warning sign would be that your case for support is not as motivating or inspiring as you hoped. Maybe you do a study, maybe you don't, but you think, "Here's what we're raising money for — people will love it." And then as you start talking to donors, they say, "Actually, I don't really love that."

11:32.29
AROB
I'll give you a good example of this. St. Mary's at Texas A&M — I've talked about them many times, I've worked with them. They recently completed a new student center addition and built a beautiful church. In total, over the last 12 to 13 years, they've raised about $45 million. So nobody would say they have been unsuccessful in any way, shape, or form.

11:57.94
AROB
Incredible results.

11:58.12
Host
Right.

11:59.83
AROB
The first campaign they started, back around 2012 or 2013, the idea was: "Let's address this other need — not a new church — and secure gifts to build this other building that will give us more ministry space." It was a collection of things this building would accomplish. "And then we'll go out and raise money for the church." They just were not getting the response, because so many people were saying, "Hey, that sounds great, but what I really want to do is support the church. Call me. Come back when you're ready to ask me for that."

12:34.81
AROB
And so that campaign, which they hoped would be six to nine months — get it done and then shift right into the church — just dragged on and on because they weren't able to close the gifts they needed.

12:48.02
AROB
Eventually, they had a leadership change — not for that reason — and the new chaplain, the new pastor, came in and said, "We need to make a decision. This has been going on far too long. Let's readjust our plans, use the money we've raised to do this addition instead of a new building, and then shift into campaign fundraising for the church." That's what they did. And now they're in a phenomenal spot. Both needs have been addressed — not the way they initially thought, but both needs have been addressed, and people have been really excited to support that project.

13:21.09
Host
Are there any indicators, if a campaign isn't doing well or is slowing down, of whether it's the case for support specifically that's the issue, or the prospect pool, or the execution? If you are leadership, where should you be looking? What are the indicators of what the problem is?

13:40.35
Host
Any ideas there?

13:40.50
AROB
Yeah. In most cases, those are going to be the three: the case for support — the mission, what are we raising money for, and whether people are excited about it; the prospect pool — the people we thought would give are not giving, and now our pool is empty and we don't have anybody left; or the execution — the activities that need to be done are not being done, or are being done poorly or not quickly enough.

14:04.22
AROB
To answer the question across the board would be difficult, because every situation needs to be evaluated. But when you're in a position where your campaign is struggling, it's sometimes easy to blame one thing without really doing a thorough assessment of what the actual need is. Are your donors not supporting because they don't like the project and they're holding back — just like that example I just told you about?

14:32.60
AROB
It seemed like a great cause for the church to get this amazing facility built. And people were like, "I'm just not feeling it."

14:39.13
Host
Hmm.

14:41.14
AROB
"I'd love to support the new church." So that would be a clear case of: it was the case for support. But maybe that's not it. Maybe it's easy to blame the donors for just not supporting. When they shifted — using that same example — into fundraising for the church, those same donors were like, "Boom, I'm on board. I'll make a major gift." So if it's the case for support, that's something to really assess. It's a more difficult decision to make if you have to pivot.

15:27.83
AROB
As for the donors — if they're not giving, if you're not successful, and it's the prospect pool — oftentimes it's because the people you're asking haven't been cultivated enough.

15:28.13
Host
Right.

15:28.83
AROB
They're not ready to make that commitment. Maybe they're annual donors and they've been happy in that spot. Maybe they've made a major gift before, but they haven't really thought of your organization as the place they want to put their big dollars.

15:40.25
AROB
We've got a project we're working on right now — big goal, making a lot of progress, but going a little slower than they wanted. And it's just the reality of their lead donors. They need more time to build those relationships.

15:50.87
AROB
And then the execution, of course — from the staff standpoint, that's the one they're always going to say, "Oh, no, it's not the execution — it's these other two things." But that may be where it actually is. "Hey, we're not doing the events we need to do to cultivate more people. We're missing our deadlines on the case for support, the video, these kinds of things that need to be done." So all of those are difficult to assess — or rather, they're hard to pinpoint with certainty. But you can identify them with a little research. And sometimes, if you're not working with an outside consultant, one can come in and look at it with clear eyes and say, "Here's where your big problem is."

16:44.20
Host
Got it. Is it ever appropriate to adjust the campaign goal, the timeline, the deadlines — and how should you approach deciding to do that?

16:55.26
AROB
So yes, it is appropriate to adjust all of those things. Sometimes the goal can go up or go down depending on that silent phase. I tell people when we start working with them on a campaign: the silent phase is still a period of discernment. We don't love that — we want to be able to set a goal, start asking people for money, and know that's what it's going to be until we hit it. But sometimes that's not the case.

17:09.06
AROB
We don't like that. We want to be able to set our goal, start asking people for money, and know that's what it's going to be until we hit it. But sometimes that's not the case.

17:17.55
Host
Right.

17:17.97
AROB
Your lead donors are coming in differently and we have to adjust. Sometimes it goes the other way — like, hey, the person we thought was going to do $200,000 ended up doing a million five.

17:29.18
AROB
And so now we can dream bigger. Adjusting the goal is totally appropriate. Once you go public, it's more difficult from an optics standpoint. But in that silent phase, yes, you can adjust the goal.

17:41.78
AROB
The timeline oftentimes gets extended if you're not reaching those benchmarks along the way. To go public during your silent phase, ideally you want to be at 50, 60, 70 percent of your goal. Maybe you're just going slower than that, so you hold off on going public and adjust the timeline. It also depends on what you're raising money for and whether that's adjustable.

18:06.39
AROB
But if you can extend it, that oftentimes gives you time to cultivate those donors who haven't given yet. And then —

18:16.95
AROB
Adjust the goal, adjust the timeline, adjust —

18:19.51
Host
Any deadlines, yeah.

18:20.12
AROB
Deadlines are going to be really tricky.

18:22.01
Host
Right. Right.

18:23.86
AROB
You've kind of put it out there as, "This is what we're doing." But the timeline and the goal — yes, all the time. Oftentimes what I see is, if you can't extend it, and maybe it's not prudent to extend it — like, we wanted to get this done by our 100-year anniversary —

18:39.80
AROB
— well, maybe you're not extending the timeline for the campaign, but you can carve off a piece of it and put that into phase two. I see that all the time. We wanted to do all of this. These three elements — we're lagging behind, we're not seeing the gifts coming in during our silent phase.

18:57.88
AROB
What if we carved off element number three and said, "That's phase two"? We really need to address phases one and two because those are urgent. Let's adjust our goal, hit that goal, fundraise for that, break ground, start action — and then we'll come back and do phase two, either as a smaller major gift initiative or as a separate campaign down the road. That's a totally appropriate strategy to employ.

19:26.33
Host
Great. So let's say a campaign has stalled out. We've worked with several organizations recently that came to us and said, "Hey, we started this campaign. It's stalled out for whatever reason — change of leadership, no momentum, whatever it was."

19:41.27
Host
What does the recovery from that stall look like, and how long does it take to get momentum going again? How does that all work?

19:49.94
AROB
Good question. It's all dependent on why it stalled out. If it's the case for support, sometimes you're going to have a hard time overcoming that without making serious adjustments to the plan. But again, that's when you can extricate something from the case, make that a different phase, or determine that this campaign is not going to address that particular need. So this is what we're trying to do now — and adjust accordingly.

20:19.13
AROB
If you're adjusting because of the prospect pool, then usually that means looking at splitting into phases or extending the timeline and spending more time on cultivation and discovery of your donors versus solicitation. That's going to require a board and staff agreement: "All right, we wanted to get it done by June. It's just not going to happen in June, but we're okay continuing to work on this because we believe we're going to be successful if we can develop the prospects and get them to that point."

20:54.49
AROB
And if it's execution, sometimes that means bringing in new staff. Whether that's an additional prospect researcher, an additional gift officer, a change at the director level or the development director level — or it could be bringing in a different firm. The consultants we were working with just aren't delivering, or we don't feel they're the right fit anymore, and we want to bring in a new firm to help us.

21:25.78
AROB
All of those are going to require a clear-eyed assessment of where you're at and what the potential is moving forward. We've done this at times — we talked about feasibility studies. We've had campaigns that stalled out where an organization brings us in and says, "What should we do? It's been a while. We haven't even really been talking about the campaign for about a year because it stalled. It's kind of embarrassing that we didn't hit that goal, but now we realize we need to get there. What do we do?"

21:56.22
AROB
What we've done in a situation like that is almost like a mini feasibility study — more of a touch point, really.

22:02.49
Host
Mm-hmm.

22:04.96
AROB
We go back to some of the original donors or some of the prospects and don't do the full feasibility study questionnaire. It's really more like, "Hey, just want to touch base about this campaign. It's still important to the organization. I know we've stalled out, but we want to get this back on track. What would your assessment be of these elements, and how do you think we should proceed?"

22:18.82
AROB
Sometimes a mini study like that in the middle can give a little bit of momentum. It can get the people on board who are going to move the needle, or it can help you adjust your goals. We've done that on occasion.

22:40.16
AROB
And that on occasion.

22:46.64
Host
Right.

22:47.57
AROB
And that's usually a very positive step to take, because you don't want to be in a situation where everyone is thinking, "Oh gosh, we've still got to keep raising money for this campaign. Nobody wants to support it anymore. Let's just wrap the whole thing up and be done." If that's not the right move for the organization, you've got to figure out a way forward. And so being willing to say, "All right, this isn't a pleasant conversation, but we need to have it. We need to be realistic and chart a path to success — whatever that looks like. Maybe it's not what it looked like in the beginning, but let's chart a path to success."

23:27.21
AROB
That's a bold leadership step, and it's not an easy one. Being willing to step up and make those decisions — whether that's bringing in a new person, reevaluating, or going back to your donors — your donors will ultimately appreciate that bold leadership far more than they'll accept a situation where nothing ever really happened and everyone just moved on.

23:31.69
Host
Right.

23:46.90
AROB
You want to build trust and loyalty with your donors. Taking those steps, even when they're tough, is what builds that for you.

24:01.88
Host
Yeah, there probably has to be some level of communication with those donors — anybody who gave early on or at any stage in the campaign. If it stalled out, you don't want the campaign to just disappear and leave them wondering what happened to their money.

24:13.44
AROB
Yeah. We're working with a group right now that started a really big campaign initiative, and it got totally derailed by COVID. But they had raised some money.

24:27.77
AROB
At that point, it became completely unrealistic for them to continue. It was COVID, and there were some other issues as well. But what they did was make the decision to end the campaign. They went to all their donors and said, "Here's what we'd like to use your money for. You can —"

24:44.95
AROB
"— leave it here and we'll use it toward this, you can bank it for when we do what we originally intended, or we'll return your money." So they were upfront about it. It hadn't necessarily gone very public, so not everybody knew, but they had raised a couple of million dollars.

24:55.96
Host
Mm-hmm.

25:05.50
AROB
Anyway, everybody went through the process and made their decisions. Most people said, "Use it for this other goal," or, "Bank it." I don't think they had to issue any refunds on gifts. But now, a couple of years later, they're at a point where they're going to go back and do the project they initially wanted — different approach, different strategy — but they're ultimately building what they wanted to build.

25:30.33
AROB
And what we found during the feasibility study was that a lot of people said, "I remember you did this. I remember it didn't work well, but I don't remember the reasons, and I don't remember what happened with that. So before I contribute to this — or before we think other people will contribute — you need to clarify that." That was really valuable feedback during the study: we need to do more communication, more messaging around what was accomplished the first time around. It wasn't a failure — it was an adjustment of the goals, and it has actually served the organization really well. So right now, we're communicating that story: it wasn't a huge success in the way they originally envisioned, but it was a success in its own right. Communicating that to donors in preparation for the next campaign has been really helpful in the messaging.

26:26.68
AROB
We're talking about how to save a campaign or how to adjust your goals, but campaigns don't operate in a vacuum. They are part of a long history of fundraising for your institution. Being prudent and making the right decisions now will either hurt you or help you down the road, and it's important to think of it in that way as well.

26:32.72
Host
Right.

26:52.38
Host
Excellent. All good points. Any last things you want to say about recovering from a stalled campaign?

27:01.30
AROB
Sure.

27:04.02
AROB
Just to reiterate — this is not a situation anybody wants to find themselves in. And yet, if you end up here,

27:16.37
AROB
it's not helpful to simply assume all the blame or conclude that you didn't do what needed to be done to be successful. There are a lot of reasons why campaigns stall, and sometimes it is poor execution.

27:29.45
AROB
Sometimes it's just really unfortunate timing or circumstances outside your control. But the best thing you can do for your organization now and in the future is —

27:35.03
Host
Right.

27:41.62
AROB
— be realistic, and be clear and direct in making a decision about how to move forward. Don't pretend the campaign never happened. Don't try to whitewash your history into something it wasn't.

28:03.93
AROB
Be honest. Your donors will respect your honesty: "Look, we shot really high and it wasn't the right time."

28:15.03
AROB
"Now we know why, and we've made these adjustments. That's why we're continuing to move forward — because this project matters and we need your help to get there." At the end of the day, your donors appreciate honesty and humanity more than they expect perfection.

28:35.32
Host
Excellent. Love it. Well, hopefully you're not in this position — but if you are, go to PetrusDevelopment.com/campaign, shoot us a message from the form there, and we'll hopefully help you figure out how to move forward.

28:48.28
AROB
Yeah, absolutely.

28:49.86
Host
Great. Well, I think that was very informative and enlightening. Thank you, Andrew.

28:53.72
AROB
That's great. You came up with this topic and said, "Hey, how about this?" We get a lot of questions about this at our forums and events. I thought, actually, that's a really good topic. I appreciate you bringing it up and putting it out there. It's not something you put on your bucket list — "I want to have a campaign that stalls out and potentially fails and then we have to come in and save it." Nobody wants that. And yet you find yourself in that situation, and it doesn't mean you can't play the role of problem solver and turn things around into something really good.

29:35.55
Host
Definitely. Great. Well, we'll see you back in a couple of weeks. Until next time, have a good one.

29:41.88
AROB
All right, thanks, Rhen.