Soapbox Engage Blog

Let’s say your nonprofit is gearing up for (or maybe just considering) a capital campaign. Chances are high that no one on your team has been part of one before.

After all, they’re big campaigns that only come around once a decade or so. They raise enough funds to jolt an organization with the extra support it needs to fund important investments—such as new buildings, new programs, and increased staff—that will take it to the next level of growth.

Understanding what to expect from your campaign will be essential. Although it’s important to make any big project your own and stay on top of fundraising trends, basing your campaign on the tried-and-true best practices will make your success more likely.

During some parts of the campaign timeline, the approach you take and the strategies you employ will have decisive impacts on everything that follows.

Let’s look specifically at the quiet phase of a capital campaign, arguably the most important part of the whole process once you’ve hammered out a campaign plan and goal.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding the Capital Campaign Model
2. The Purpose of the Quiet Phase
3. What You’ll Do During the Quiet Phase
4. What Comes After the Capital Campaign Quiet Phase?

Understanding the Capital Campaign Model

First, some context—when does the quiet phase occur in relation to the other phases of a capital campaign?

A well-designed capital campaign falls into these seven phases:

1. Pre-planning. Determine your objectives and working goal, develop a case for support, and compile initial fundraising resources like a gift range chart.


2. Feasibility study. Test your initial plans with key stakeholders and prospects by laying out your case and gathering their thoughts. Campaign planning. Adjust your initial plans based on your feasibility study’s findings, finalize your case for support, and lay out a more detailed roadmap.


3. Quiet phase. This is when you’ll secure the majority of your funding through close one-on-one conversations with your campaign’s top prospective donors.


4. Kick-off. Once you’ve secured 75%+ of your total goal, begin promoting the campaign to the entire community, starting with a public event and/or press releases.


5. Public phase. Gather the rest of your fundraising goal through smaller gifts from broader segments of your supporters. Ongoing stewardship. Celebrate your success, thank your donors, begin collecting pledges, and break ground on your newly funded project.

Within this framework, remember the core characteristics that differentiate capital campaigns from more typical annual fundraising campaigns you might conduct:

First, capital campaigns have big goals, larger than anything your organization has previously raised. And to make sure you can pursue this big goal efficiently, most of it will be made up of major gifts gathered through a strategic, top-down order of solicitation.

Starting with the single largest gift (or lead gift, usually 20% of the total goal or greater) and working your way down to smaller gifts allows you to focus your efforts on making the biggest possible impact on your campaign early. This approach safeguards your progress and gives well-planned capital campaigns a powerful feeling of forward momentum.

The Purpose of the Quiet Phase

The purpose of the quiet phase is to secure the bulk of your campaign’s total fundraising goal (at least 75%) through major gifts.

It’s “quiet” because, until the campaign is announced publicly, you’ll only discuss the campaign with a relatively small group of major donors and prospects. And the total fundraising goal won’t yet be announced to the broader public.

Keeping the campaign quiet until you’ve already made significant progress and have a clear path to success is helpful for:

• Allowing your team to stay laser-focused on major gift fundraising
• Enables you to change the goal (up or down) based on the success of the top solicitations.

The quiet phase makes capital campaigns a highly efficient way to fundraise. Securing the largest gifts requires a lot of targeted one-on-one work. It’s focused and intensive but has the biggest impact on your campaign’s overall progress.

What You’ll Do During the Quiet Phase

Once you’ve laid out the objectives, goal, and plan for your campaign. You’ve tested it and gathered insights from essential stakeholders and donors with a feasibility study—how do you get started with the official fundraising portion of your campaign?

A campaign’s quiet phase should consist of these general steps:

1. Finalize your fundraising resources. These include your core case for support and gift range chart. These two resources will give you the roadmap your team needs to stay on track and have productive conversations with donors.


2. Research your top prospects. Review what you already know about prospects from stewardship conversations Supplement this information with prospect research data to get a more thorough picture of their current giving capacity, particular interests in your mission, and history with your organization.


3. Tailor your case for support. Put your insights into action by creating more personalized campaign discussion guides that anticipate individual donors’ questions, motivations, and interests. These can be as simple as one-page documents or basic slide decks—nothing too fancy is required, although you should aim to make a clear and professional impression.


4. Reach out to your top prospects, starting with those for your largest lead gift. They should all have already been involved with your campaign in some capacity. Perhaps they helped with project planning or participated in your feasibility study.


5. Secure your lead gifts. Devote special time and attention to meeting with and soliciting the two to three prospective lead donors for your campaign. These gifts will have the single biggest impact on the campaign, so don’t let yourself be distracted.


6. Take your time and work your way down your gift range chart. Major gift fundraising requires plenty of one-on-one communication. One-on-one meetings are the most effective way to help prospects feel more invested in the campaign. Solicit your gifts by asking for specific amounts, but be open to adjustments if a prospect wants to give a different amount.


7. Keep quiet phase donors involved. Once you secure a quiet phase gift, take steps to keep that donor engaged with the campaign—update them regularly, ask them to join a committee, introduce you to other donors, host small campaign events, or provide feedback on your campaign materials.


8. Keep close track of your progress. Fundraisers should keep track of their touchpoints with individual prospects. Members of your fundraising team may be having conversations with different prospects simultaneously, so staying organized is important. Develop a tracking system for secured gifts, and actively update your plan as gifts are committed.

What Comes Next?

The quiet phase technically ends once you’ve secured roughly 75% or more of your campaign’s total fundraising goal.

But more broadly speaking, the quiet phase can only end once you can see a clear path to success—meaning the rest of the goal can be feasibly raised through many small gifts and there are no logistical challenges that will seriously delay your ability to get started on your campaign’s objectives.

Once you can see that your campaign will be successful, you’re ready to plan a public kickoff. Organize a public event to announce the campaign’s objectives and goals, recognize your donors so far, and celebrate all your progress. Get the local press involved, and start the public-facing fundraising portion of your campaign by asking for donations from the broad base of donors who may wish to help your nonprofit grow.

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A well-planned quiet phase will set up a capital campaign for success. By following best practices and staying organized, you’ll be able to make huge strides toward your goal, all while deepening your relationships with your most impactful supporters.