Staff giving makes a huge difference to outside funders. Consider this comment from a local banker we solicited for a capital campaign gift to Hospice of Southwest Oklahoma: “One of the most important things you said during the presentation was that 100 percent of the employees of the organization have contributed to the campaign. That speaks well of the organization and the campaign.”
You’ve probably heard about the necessity and value of 100 percent financial participation of the board of directors. Foundations look for this statistic in proposals. Corporations often respond more favorably to gift requests when board members demonstrate their unanimous endorsement of the campaign.
Equally important, however, is the participation rate among those who have an internal view of the organization. In fact, staff participation can sometimes make an even stronger impression on foundations, corporations, and individual donor prospects.
Hospice of Southwest Oklahoma has launched a capital campaign to fund construction of an inpatient facility for terminally ill patients and their families. The building will also house clinical and administrative offices for the organization. When campaign organizers asked employees to participate, the 55 nurses, home health aides, social workers, chaplains and support personnel answered in two remarkable ways: everyone contributed and they pledged over $105,000.
Although the effort was not without its challenges, we discovered strategies that worked best for us. The following six tips will help you make the employee giving division of your campaign successful, too.
1. Recruit the right leader. Although support and involvement of the executive director or CEO is crucial, select someone else to chair the employee campaign. One way to identify good candidates is to consult the person who conducted the campaign’s Feasibility and Planning Study prior to the campaign (if it included staff members). Look for an individual who is widely respected among his or her fellow employees, someone with energy, a positive spirit, creativity, and passion for the organization and the project. Select a peer, not a member of senior management, so that you can avoid the conflict of supervisors “soliciting” their subordinates.
