Feasibility Studies: A New Approach
By Jeffrey Byrne, President & CEO
Kansas City
Heard of those tired – but all-too-familiar – stories about the consultant who talks with 35 of your organization’s closest friends, and then comes back and tells your organization you can’t raise what you want to raise, and doesn’t even give you guidance on how to prepare for a capital campaign? Well, that’s an outdated approach to feasibility studies, and here’s an option for you to consider.
First, at Jeffrey Byrne & Associates, Inc., we don’t use the term “feasibility study.” We call them Community Readiness Assessments SM. Why? Because we believe that we are engaged by your organization to test the community’s readiness for your proposed fundraising campaign. We don’t believe it’s our job to just give you a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on whether you can do a campaign. If we conclude that you aren’t ready for a campaign, we give you a plan for what you need to do, how to do it, and how long it will take to get ready for a campaign.
Second, we don’t believe in the “all-powerful fundraising consultant” being the gate-keeper to those whom you want to invest in your organization. What does this mean? We invite you to partner with our organization in the process by joining us on the interviews, hearing and seeing what we hear and see all along the way. We believe the Community Readiness Assessment SM is really your first step in your campaign: It’s your chance to tell your story to potential donors, volunteers and stakeholders and to interest them in investing in your project. We also know that you are much better equipped than we are, as consultants, to answer questions about your project and your organization that may arise during the study. Finally, this process holds us accountable to you as the client, because you are involved in the process with us, and understand the key findings that are being developed.
Recently, a hospital client in Pennsylvania went along with me while we were testing a $10 million capital campaign for an established hospital with a fairly new foundation. The director of the foundation and I interviewed 36 individuals one-on-one, and in every case I was the leader in our discussions. However, the foundation director presented what the hospital’s plans were, and was able to hear the potential donors’ reactions. Many of the individuals we interviewed were unaware of the hospital’s plans and were impressed by how far this community hospital had come in the last five years.
Third, can you keep information confidential? Well, I assume by the nature of our jobs as development professionals, that we keep confidential information from donors, staff and board members on a daily basis. This goes for clients who participate in an interview. Keeping information confidential is a necessity, and during the past seven years of using this partnering approach, I have never felt that a client misused any information obtained by participating in the interview process.
Fourth, will the prospective donor be honest? In my entire work career, I have been fortunate to be surrounded by successful, wealthy, and often powerful individuals. My experience has been that prospective donors, through the interview process during Community Readiness Assessments SM, have been forthright and sometimes brutal about organizations that I represented, even when a staff member was present. Many times, there has been erroneous information or unclear understanding on the part of the prospective donor and, by attending the interview, the client has been able to provide information that cleared up the mis-impression and made our meeting more valuable to the prospective donor.
Our success rate as a fundraising consulting firm is 98% when organizations adopt fundraising goals that are developed through our Community Readiness Assessments SM process. This validates, in my opinion, a new way of thinking about the “old” feasibility study and we encourage you to examine how this fresh approach can serve your organization as you are considering this important “first step” in planning for your campaign.
