Joanne Oppelt Says, “Please, No More Feasibility Studies!” is one veteran fundraiser’s take on the nonprofit feasibility study scam. Here’s what she has to share:
You don’t need a feasibility study to launch a fundraising campaign—and you certainly don’t need to pay a consultant to run one in order to raise millions. How do I know? I used to lead feasibility studies myself, and I achieve better results today without them.
When I entered the field of major gifts fundraising, feasibility studies were all I knew. It was, and still is much to my chagrin, standard practice to hire a consultant to perform a feasibility study before any major gifts campaign. The theory is that the professionals know the right questions to ask to elicit willing and truthful responses from a sample of your donors. If you have no donors, the consultant says they will find people in the community who are likely to support your cause and elicit responses from them. Consultants emphasize that someone objective, an outsider, will help the donor feel safe to reveal their true opinions, especially negative ones.
“I am a third party,” they say. “Donors won’t be afraid to hurt my feelings the way they would yours. They’ll be more forthcoming with me than they will with you.” I’ve said it myself.
I fully believed my words because I knew the clients I was talking to had shallow, at best, relationships with their donors. I also knew that five, six, and seven-figure gifts are given within the context of strong, trusting relationships. There was no way most of my clients were going to raise the money they needed because those relationships did not exist.
To justify my involvement, I told my clients and myself that I would be the entrée to and guide to building the relationships they needed to meet their goals. Plus, business as a major gifts consultant was good. Conducting a feasibility study guaranteed six months of retainer upfront to any campaign whether a client went through with the campaign or not.
Joanne Oppelt Says, “Please, No More Feasibility Studies!”
Enter Major Gifts Ramp-Up. The model changed the way I approached fundraising forever. So much so that I co-authored the book Major Gifts Ramp-Up: Money Is Oxygen—Without It Charity Can’t Breathe with Jimmy LaRose, the architect of the model.
The book describes a process for raising major gifts where a feasibility study is not needed. By eliminating the study and following the Major Gifts Ramp-Up model, a client saves six months of time and expense. That’s a lot, considering that 80 percent of nonprofits have budgets of $500,000 or less. Plus, because implementing the model with counsel is cost neutral by the six-month mark, it makes major gifts fundraising accessible to any size nonprofit, even a startup.
The shift was cataclysmic for me. Soon, I joined Jimmy’s firm and became a Major Gifts Ramp-Up counselor. I haven’t conducted a feasibility study since.
I now raise five, six, and seven-figure gifts for small shops in addition to large ones. I feel good about the fees we charge. I know from experience that if a client follows my advice, their initial investment is returned within six months.
Major Gifts Ramp-Up tells you what you must do to successfully raise the money you need to scale your mission. It assumes you want to grow your mission and make a significant impact in your community. The primary purpose of the book is to show you the fastest, least expensive way to raise the most amount of money possible. The underlying goal, though, is to change the world. Jimmy and I want to help you raise the funds you need to solve the issue your nonprofit addresses and sustain your efforts. For us, it is all about mission fulfillment through meeting the philanthropic goals of people with the means to fund your efforts.
Chapter Eleven of Major Gifts Ramp-Up compares the efficacy of the feasibility study to the Major Gifts Ramp-Up model. Here is the table from that chapter:
| FEASIBILITY STUDY | MAJOR GIFTS RAMP-UP | |
| Average length added to campaign | Six months | N/A |
| Study cost | $30,000 – $70,000 | N/A |
| Campaign goal formation | Yes | Yes |
| Achieves missional success | No | Yes |
| Produces concrete actionable suggestions | Not often | Yes |
| Establishes campaign relationships with donors | Outside third party | You |
Rather than conduct a feasibility study, Major Gifts Ramp-Up proposes you facilitate a campaign interview. A Major Gifts Ramp-Up campaign interview is a one-on-one personal interaction where you and the donor meet to solve a community problem. It occurs anytime a staff or volunteer meets face-to-face with a donor prospect before asking for a gift. Through a series of personal, private conversations, you gather information about the donor— their passions, preferences, situations, and wealth.
During the process, you learn about their ability to give. However, determining the gift amount is not the purpose of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to meaningfully involve the donor in solving a community issue they care about.
You facilitate campaign interviews to move donors up to the next rung of involvement, ultimately encouraging them to solve a community issue via a financial gift. You follow the Major Gifts Ramp-Up model to build trust and provide joyful and meaningful donor experiences. You inspire people to give their best gift as you complete steps one through eleven.
Campaign interviews can occur at any point in the model. Campaign interviews are first introduced in Chapter Four. Interviews continue in Chapters Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, and Eleven, up to the point of the three-part ask, which we cover in Chapter Twelve. We explain campaign interviews in Chapter Eleven because you can recruit donors to your campaign even after implementing what we cover in Chapter Ten: Campaign Cabinet.
Donors can enter the model at any point. They may come on board as you seek input on developing your case for support. They may be a referral whom you ask to serve on your host committee. You may meet them at your non-fundraising awareness event. They may enter your world as signature ask event guests. They may be referred to by another donor during a campaign interview. They may come on board through a campaign cabinet member relationship. Major Gifts Ramp-Up describes it all.
Save time and money. Read Majors Gifts Ramp-Up: Money Is Oxygen—Without It Charity Can’t Breathe. Then go to a Major Gifts conference and meet the people who can help you raise the millions you need to reach your goals.
Please, no more feasibility studies.
Joanne Oppelt Says, “Please, No More Feasibility Studies!” was first posted at MajorGiftsRampUp.com
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About the Author: Joanne Oppelt has spent more than thirty years in the nonprofit sector helping large and small nonprofits alike. She has worked across multiple areas including the arts, child welfare, disabilities, early childhood education, maternal and child health, mental health, public health at-risk youth, and more. She has trained thousands of fundraisers and authored or co-authored more than twenty books on fundraising and nonprofit development. Joanne’s extensive background with such a side variety of 501(c)(3) organizations has enabled her to have a specialized insight into understanding the challenges nonprofits face both internally and externally. Her years of working in the nonprofit sector have given her the gift of knowing exactly what it takes to run successful fundraising campaigns that are not only completed on time, but also come in under budget and over goal. Joanne holds a B.A. in education from Bethany University and a masters in health administration from Wilkes University. She is privileged to help charitable organizations significantly impact the world.
