Rethinking Your Strategy: How To Execute A Successful Campaign In Today’s Environment

**This workshop is part of our 2020 Tactical Approach to Fundraising Series. 

Is your organization considering the launch of a campaign that goes beyond your annual giving efforts to support a capital project, program expansion, or perhaps, an endowment? In today’s COVID-19 world, nonprofits need to be nimble as they evaluate the external factors impacting their ability to execute a campaign. This workshop will discuss best practices in campaign fundraising, examine your organization’s internal and external readiness, and review the key elements that drive campaign success. In addition, it will help you determine the best timing for your campaign and the organizational priorities that will resonate most with donors.

Learning Objectives:

• Ensure alignment between your organization’s leadership, strategic direction and campaign.
• Determine readiness by constructing your campaign checklist.
• Identify the most important elements of a successful campaign.
• Establish your campaign goal.
• Develop a compelling campaign strategy and plan that your team can put it into action.
• Engage your board members in fundraising and leverage their relationships.
• Build a donor prospect list of new and existing donors that enable you to exceed your goal,
• Utilize creative virtual strategies to cultivate and solicit donors for the campaign.

Join John Erstling, Principal, Inspire Philanthropy, who will lead this engaging workshop!

About John: With more than twenty years of professional experience, John Erstling has worked in the philanthropic sector with a number of progressive institutions. Equipped with a B.A. in Economics and M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration, John has utilized his financial acumen, organizational management skills, and educational approach to impact each of the organizations he has served.

Over the course of his career, he has raised over $60 million in revenue and charitable support. He has built, led and managed successful teams, introduced innovative fundraising programs, launched and completed successful capital campaigns, developed fundraising bench strength by establishing the trust of organizational leadership and deepened long-lasting relationships with board members, donors, corporate partners and volunteers.

Most recently John served as Senior Vice President for Community Engagement and Philanthropy at Community Hospice & Palliative Care, a post-acute provider serving more than 2,000 patients and families in sixteen counties throughout north and central Florida. He provided executive leadership for the organization’s community benefit initiatives and was responsible for the Foundation, community health, and community education.

Prior to that, he served in various leadership roles at Baptist Health, a comprehensive regional health system serving the North Florida and South Georgia region. While at Baptist, he successfully launched a $100 million comprehensive campaign focused on significant capital expansion and endowment growth, the largest in the organization’s history.

John has a passion for education and spent his early career working in both higher education and independent schools. At The Bolles School, one of the largest day and boarding schools in the United States, he served as Director of Alumni Programs and Giving where he led regional and national efforts to engage alumni in progressive levels of involvement and major giving. Gifts from alumni grew by 175% under his leadership, and he was instrumental in the execution of the school’s $28 million capital campaign.