Letter: Time to reengage in capital campaigns

May 20, 2010

To the editor:

While I generally agree with most of Dr. Seiler's comments, I think that the statement, which unfortunately is front and center in your article, "So we're still not quite at the right point for organizations to be actively engaged in capital campaigns at this time," is incorrect in many cases and does not serve the nonprofit sector well at a time when these organizations need to be actively reengaging or run the risk of losing opportunity to other organizations.

Our clients (we work with approximately 300 or so each year across the nonprofit sector in fundraising and have been in business since 1926) are largely moving back into active campaign mode beginning this past fall, and our demand for new campaign feasibility studies is nearly back to pre-recession levels. 

These nonprofits are finding that many donors are in fact ready to move into a campaign and that now is the time to press forward. 

While this is not the right answer for some, it clearly is for many. 

Such broad statements as Dr. Seiler's do not serve the sector well as campaign readiness is highly dependent on the readiness and capacities of each individual organization. 

While I would have agreed wholeheartedly with Dr. Seiler's comment one year ago, we are clearly in a very different place in May 2010.

Don Fellows, President and CEO, Marts & Lundy

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