PREPARATION FOR THE PLANNING AND FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS

In preparation for the planning and feasibility analysis phase of a capital campaign in the nonprofit setting, it will be helpful for you to undertake the following:

1. Create a business plan for the project so
   that a case statement can be written. The business plan should contain a:
   • statement of the “problem;”
   • proposed solution(s);
   • outcomes to be achieved by the solution(s); and
   • cost of the solution(s).


2. You should ask the board—and hopefully others—to nominate prospective interviewees with capacity of $25,000 or $50,000 or more. When the lists are returned to you, they should be combined and duplicate names eliminated. By this means, you will develop an accurate list of strong community leadership. You should list how many times a name is listed and who identified him or her. Finally you should rank the names in the order they were mentioned most frequently as well as by the capacity assessment.


3. Enlist a small group to help you in the selection of names. Be certain to consider, for this selection committee, people outside your board if there are those who can be especially helpful in the identification process. You want the most knowledgeable people possible on this ad hoc committee.


4. Take the total unduplicated list of names that has been generated and ask your ad hoc committee to determine the 50 to 100 that seem to them the most important. This is the time to add or delete names for the final list. Make confidential evaluations that will estimate the interviewee’s potential for making a gift and/or providing top leadership.


5. Assign the names of potential interviewees to one of three classifications:
   • those who must be interviewed;
   • those who should be interviewed; and
   • those who could be interviewed if there is extra time.


6. This culled list then becomes the basic group that is interviewed. Then names that are eliminated can be used as substitute interviews should some of those within the prime group not be available.


7. Keep all the names that were suggested on file. They will be used later for cultivation. Hopefully, you will end up with as many as 150 names.
   

Anatomy of a Feasibility Study

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