Navigate Your Capital Campaign With Us

Blog
Oct 26, 2021

Haven House Services is a non-profit organization that provides services and programs that don’t exist anywhere else in our community. After nearly 50 years of renting, they moved into their first-ever permanent home. Their capital campaign’s goal to raise $2.8MM covers the cost of the building, renovations and operating expenses for the next three years.

We discovered that Haven House had many firsts: their first permanent building, their first time raising this amount of money, their first time having to promote the good work they provide, their first professional photo and video shoots, their first time working with an agency like us, and much more.

Special Forces

There are a lot of agencies out there who are like an army — they’re great at taking orders and deploying. They do a great job, too! If you need a brochure, they’ll make a brochure. If you need an ad, they’ll make an ad. Website? No problem, they’ll make a website.

But sometimes you need Special Forces, and this is where Able fits in. You might ask for a brochure, but we’re going to look at your particular situation and see if that’s really going to get you to your objective.

With Haven House, they did need capital campaign materials. But they also needed a strategic partner who could develop and execute a plan to help them succinctly explain what they did, why the need for their services is growing, and what the funds would do. They also needed guidance on how to find the right large donors and how to use the capital campaign tools effectively to close the ask.

The Why of the Campaign

The Haven House brand, vision, mission and values explain their purpose to support and protect youth in need. Most of their funding comes from government grants and requires data-driven results. 

That’s perfect for an Annual Report, but a capital campaign needs something more.

Able’s experience is that people give to a capital campaign because they feel an emotional connection to what the non-profit does. With apologies to Simon Sinek: People don’t give to what you do, they give to why you do it. 

A Haven For Good Ideas 

Finding the right campaign theme was as important for the internal stakeholders as it was for donors and volunteers. Our theme — A Haven For Good — resonated on several levels for our client, including the play on “good” to communicate that funds raised through the capital campaign allowed Haven House to be here “for good” so they could continue to “do good”. The theme became a solid foundation upon which the creative strategy and messaging was built, and provided flexibility to develop related “Haven” phrases, such as:

A Haven For Those In Need

A Haven For Hope

A Haven That Makes A Difference

A Haven For Today And Tomorrow

A Haven Like No Other

We created several pieces that could be customized for each prospective donor during the Quiet Phase. Many could also be used during the Public Phase. A library of bespoke images allowed Haven House to truly own their story through all of their materials, for the capital campaign and beyond. [See Portfolio]

Who You Gonna Call?

If you need your own Special Forces to help you evaluate or develop a plan to achieve your objectives, contact Able! Because, well, we’re Able!