Capital Campaign Planning
Our comprehensive assessments help clients to determine their fundraising readiness, leadership capabilities and potential gift support necessary to successfully launch and conclude major capital, endowment and comprehensive campaigns. Our personalized counsel leads you through the vital preliminary campaign planning work to include creating a compelling vision and supporting strategic fundraising plan, conducting a campaign planning study and implementing a successful capital and/or endowment campaign based on the results of your planning study. Throughout this process, we help you fully engage, empower and support your Board and other key volunteers.
Campaign Management
We work with you to ensure the key elements for campaign success are in place. These include creating a detailed campaign fundraising and marketing plan, recruiting, organizing and leading campaign staff and volunteers, providing major gifts solicitation training, developing unique strategies for securing major gifts support, developing campaign proposals, negotiating and closing major gifts as needed and successfully implementing the leadership gifts and solicitation phases of your organization’s campaign. We do this by providing professional Campaign Counsel and/or On-Site Campaign Management, as requested, tailored to fit your needs.
Comprehensive Fundraising Counsel
We work hand in hand with you, your Board and other key volunteers to organize and lead comprehensive capital and endowment campaigns, while nurturing and expanding your organization’s base of annual donors, major gifts supporters and planned giving donors. We provide personalized, client-tailored consulting and program assessments to meet fundraising requirements for each element of a comprehensive development program, including annual fund, major/planned gifts, grants management, and special events.
Conflict Management
We create client-specific communication programs designed to optimize constructive dissent and provide hands-on mediation to ensure mutually successful outcomes.
Donor Prospect Identification
Prospect research is the collection and analysis of information to identify new major gift potential or to further qualify known major gift donors with the goal to advance a major gift fund-raising program. We contract services with a licensed, professional prospect researcher to assist organizations in determining the best approach and strategy to secure major gifts from identified potential donors.
Executive Advisory Services
We provide clients with personalized, confidential executive counsel in strategy, operations, and effective interpersonal management.
Feasibility Study
A feasibility study is an objective survey of the community that assesses the likelihood of success for a fundraising project, and identifies strategies and specific individual givers for the campaign. A feasibility study will determine the campaign’s primary leadership giving potential; identify and engage potential campaign volunteer leaders, and test the strength of your organization’s case for support.
Leadership Development
We provide client-tailored training designed to enhance the organization's fundraising capabilities and effectiveness. Training programs will help your Board, key volunteers and staff better understand and embrace their fundraising roles. We empower your volunteers and staff in identifying, engaging and effectively asking for increased levels of annual and major gifts support, as well as providing tools for your staff and volunteers to more effectively manage donor relationships.
Major Gift Program Development
We are uniquely talented in the art and science of major gifts fundraising and are well equipped to guide you through the process of securing increased leadership gifts support for your organization.
Meeting and Retreat Facilitation
We provide services for your meeting and/or retreat planning, facilitation and follow-up needs that are tailor-made to ensure maximum, meaningful participation of an organization's stakeholders.
Planned Giving and Endowment Program Consulting
We will work with you to create a successful planned giving program and to increase results from an existing planned giving program. We provide client-specific services that can include the development of a compelling case for your organization’s endowment needs; creating and implementing a planned giving marketing program and collateral materials; creating a donor acknowledgement and stewardship program, and providing training in soliciting planned gifts for staff and volunteers.
Readiness Assessment Study
We will evaluate your organization’s current fundraising and organizational structure to assess strengths and weaknesses, and suggest practical solutions for addressing these challenges. We will help you implement a plan for strengthening your organization’s advancement staff, volunteer leadership and administrative infrastructure to help you achieve maximum fundraising success and effectiveness.
Organizational Development
Brand and culture – these two abstract elements often make or break organizations. We provide internal and market analyses to evaluate how the “people side” of your organization influences your strategy, operations and bottom line. Vision, mission and values are strengthened through training, incentive and succession plans.
Strategic Planning
We use a multi-faceted approach to lead you and members of your organization’s key staff and stakeholders through the process of developing a compelling strategic plan to focus on vision and mission, goals, objectives and action plans. Action plans are designed specifically to meet near-term as well as long-term fundraising and organization-wide goals.
Team Building
Winning creates great chemistry. Our practical approach to success enables clients to determine when a team is needed and how to optimize it quickly.
|
The Preston Group can provide the impetus and guidance that lead to successful change and fundraising goal achievement. To do this, we rely on a set of core values. A key component to cooperative success is a shared belief in the underlying philosophy of an organization or change initiative; to facilitate this, we present our core values here.
- Change is a process. Successful change takes time and effort. Usually the need for change is created by organizational structures and individual behaviors that have developed over the years, so it is important to realize that real change does not occur instantly.
- Building a team requires commitment. Executive advisory, strategic planning, fundraising and organizational restructuring require a team approach and involve predictable "ups and downs." We commit to providing and receiving honest feedback, being clear about working processes and styles, and working through differences and conflicts. We work best with clients who make the same commitment.
- Communicate with integrity. It is important for us to be direct, honest and clear in our communication. We also pride ourselves on being available and responsive. We return voicemail and email as quickly as possible, and we do not arrive late to, postpone, or cancel meetings unless absolutely necessary. We encourage our clients to do likewise, both with us and with internal colleagues and external stakeholders.
- Independence is the ultimate goal. We discourage dependence on consultants. It is important for our clients to internalize best practices and become independent as soon as possible. This is reflected in our role; as consultants, we are neither the client’s supervisors nor direct reports. Therefore, rather than telling our clients what to do or doing it for them, we help our clients develop their skills and create systems and practices to accomplish strategic goals. We encourage our clients to involve stakeholders in the process, so that they too can access information that will enable them to fulfill their roles and achieve fundraising objectives.
|
|