Partnership in Action
Recruitment By The "Right" People Leads To
Success In Building Your Campaign Organization;
Lays Strong Foundation For Your Campaign

By Jennifer Furla, Executive Vice President
Kansas City

The other day, as new Steering Committee members were introducing themselves at the first meeting of a new campaign organization, one volunteer explained: “I was asked to serve by my pastor, and I can never say ‘no’ to him.”

In every Community Readiness Assessment ^SM, we recommend a structure for a campaign organization and offer strategies for who those individuals should be and how they should be recruited. Recruiting the “right” people for your Campaign Steering Committee is a key element to the success of your campaign.

Audrain Medical Center, a full-service regional hospital in mid-Missouri, is in the beginning stages of a capital campaign to create Comprehensive Cancer Care services for its region. Through its Cancer Control Project, Audrain Medical Center has been nationally-recognized for its leadership in providing cancer screening services to its region since 1985. AMC added chemotherapy services to its mix in 1991, however patients must make a minimum of a 90-mile roundtrip to another provider to receive radiation therapy when that treatment is indicated. Last year, AMC made a strategic decision to add radiation therapy to its mix and to bring all cancer screening and treatment services under one roof. Earlier this year, AMC began the planning for a $1.3 million campaign to create its new Comprehensive Cancer Center.

AMC has a 90-year history of excellent service to the community of Mexico, Missouri, and the region. It had not, however, undergone a major fundraising effort in a number of years. The campaign plan called for a large steering committee to help carry out the campaign plan more quickly and to show strong community and regional support.

While AMC already had relationships with a number of community and regional leaders on its hospital and foundation boards, there were concerns in the Community Readiness Assessment ^SM about “volunteer burnout,” coming immediately off a sizeable community-wide campaign to expand and renovate the local YMCA. Plus, without a major fundraising effort in many years, AMC had not had the opportunity to cultivate and bring along top volunteers for a capital campaign.

AMC began by recruiting a Campaign Planning Committee that worked to identify and select those individuals in the region who would help lead the campaign to success. The list was ambitious and included individuals with long-standing connections to the hospital and who had the ability to make significant gifts to the campaign. It also included key medical staff, a group that was identified in the Community Readiness Assessment ^SM as an important signal of internal support for the project.

In all, 51 leadership prospects were identified. The Planning Committee each readily agreed to contact three to four individuals as a starting point. Armed with a strong campaign “case,” job descriptions and a thorough understanding of the campaign plan and the need for the project, they went about their work. In less than eight weeks, they had recruited a committee of 35, including their top choice for Campaign Chair, honorary chairs, and a special category of honorary advisors for well-respected senior members of the community who’d had a long and rich history with the hospital.

The ingredients to success?

The Planning Committee. The Planning Committee itself was made up of leaders in the region. They were well-respected among their peers and understood the importance of building a strong foundation for the campaign from the outset. In addition, they agreed to continue their responsibilities with the campaign by remaining on the Steering Committee

Involvement by Top Hospital Staff. The CEO of the hospital, who had already made his gift commitment to the campaign, helped make personal calls and attended all meetings of the Planning Committee. The project leaders, a vice president in charge of the project and the hospital’s well-regarded oncologist, also provided support by helping to translate the vision for the group and by providing active participation in the Planning Committee.

Following the ‘Right’ Recruitment Methods. Volunteers were trained on how to recruit and understood a key concept that how the recruitment process goes, in large part, is a preview of how the campaign will proceed. They took care to show the process the respect it is due and made appointments for personal calls on their recruitment prospects. Then, they followed up promptly, prepared to answer questions, and to connect the prospect with the appropriate hospital and foundation staff to help ensure their questions were fully answered.

Excellent Volunteer Support. Once the final prospect list was compiled, the project and foundation directors personally delivered recruitment packets to the Planning Committee volunteers within two days of that final organizing meeting. This created a culture of service and excellent volunteer support. It also signaled the project’s importance and urgency and set the pace for the recruitment process.

Thorough Preparation. Volunteers were armed with a packet of materials that demonstrated the hospital’s importance to the region, the importance of the project and the need for it, and a clear outline of the responsibilities of the campaign steering committee. They were able to communicate the campaign plan and timeline and, from their experience on the Planning Committee, were able to state with conviction that the prospects would be well-supported as volunteers on the campaign.

Communication. While interim meetings were set for the volunteers to report their progress in recruiting, volunteers were contacted on almost a daily basis to learn how the recruitment was coming along and to see if they needed help with their calls.

Today, as they launch the “quiet phase” of their campaign, Audrain Medical Center is well-positioned to complete their campaign plan and reach their goal on time and with the right resources to create critically-needed comprehensive cancer services for their community. This partnership among the volunteers, staff and fundraising counsel is a key ingredient to building success for their campaign.