Is Your Case for Support Stalled?
Does this sound familiar? You’ve been working diligently on a case for support in the early stages of a campaign or during campaign planning
You’ve even answered the big questions, like “What problems are we solving?” and “What will the transformation be?”
And yet, something isn’t working.
You rewrite. And rewrite again.
But it doesn’t help.
Why?
There’s a good chance it’s because while the aims of the strategic plan are clear, the tactics for achieving them are not. As a fundraising or communications leader, those decisions are out of your hands.
This is a classic strategic plan implementation problem, and it often doesn’t come to light until case writing is well underway.
When Your Case Isn’t Coming Together
When we encounter this scenario with clients, typically one of two things happens:
Option 1: Pause and Regroup
If you have the flexibility to alter your timeline for case completion at this point, by all means, take advantage of it.
Unfortunately, that could be the easy part. Keeping pressure on decision-makers to get the answers you need may not be. But when the organization’s board and senior leadership understand that major gift fundraising will slow down until the path forward is clear, it should be sufficient motivation to get things moving in the right direction.
Option 2: Press Ahead But Be Transparent
If you don’t have the luxury of letting things play out on the programmatic side, it’s not impossible to forge ahead with the case. It can even work to your advantage.
The key is to be transparent about where things stand. Explain who the decision-makers are, what the timeline is, and what the process will be.
Mark the case as a draft and get it out there. Your donors will appreciate that you trust them enough to bring them into the fold early on. Just make sure to keep them updated as things progress!
Strategic Plans Are Only As Good As Their Implementation
Now, you might ask, “How do we prevent any of this from happening in the first place?”
We’re not strategic planning consultants (but we know some great ones if you need a recommendation). What we do know is this:
Strategic plan implementation needs to be managed. Someone high up in the organization should be overseeing the process, setting deadlines and holding people to them, and troubleshooting as needed along the way.
An often-overlooked role this staff person can and should play is feeding a steady stream of updates to the advancement and communications teams so they can, in turn, share those with individual donors and larger groups.
Strategic Planning Updates Benefit Everyone
When you produce regular, ongoing communications about the strategic plan and progress toward goals, lots of good things happen:
Multiple communications leave multiple impressions and weave a story together that leaves readers looking forward to the next chapter.
You build trust by demonstrating that your organization is actually able to execute on its promises.
It allows you to talk about campaign priorities before you’re ready to actually talk about the next campaign.
When you do start fundraising for programs or buildings down the road, more prospective donors will already be well versed in the needs they can help meet and the anticipated outcomes they can help bring to life.
The Bottom Line
It’s awfully hard to reach a goal if you don’t have a roadmap to get there. No case for support can fix that.