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Successful Campaign Interventions

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Tim Weidmann

The document summarizes how the author rescued two failing campaigns as campaign director through key interventions. For the medical campaign, he identified that focusing on wealthy grateful patients, rather than an uninterested prospect list, was needed to succeed. For the engineering campaign, he discovered the "Mr. Murphy myth" was preventing large gifts and addressed it by publishing a newsletter debunking the myth. Both campaigns then exceeded their goals through new large gifts after the issues were addressed.

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Successful Campaign Interventions Tim Weidmann Two war stories. As campaign director, I produced necessary repo- sitioning for Northwestern Universitys Medical and Engineering campaigns, in order for those campaigns to become successful.
Introduction Usually we hear how a campaign failed rather than how a campaign was rescued This presentation tells of rescuing two campaigns There should be more stories like these My personal and professional skills, acuity, experience and honesty made the following rescues possible Those qualities are available to you
Two big problems Became director of $65 million medical campaign, when it was at $33 million and about to launch the public phase Campaign counting had been done too liberally, which led to subtracting $6 million from total Took control of campaign at $27 million not $33 million Given prospect list for campaign Met with 12 top prospects; discovered no interest in giving to medicine
What was done? $6 million less than expected was just the facts Way to deal with that was suck it up, and get on with it Reviewed campaign staff and made changes But uninterested prospects was deal-breaker Not to fix that would sink the campaign Contacted peer institutions, which had conducted successful medical campaigns
Paradigm shift Peer institutions feedback: Only way to conduct successful medical campaign was to get gifts from wealthy grateful patients Nobody had formula for finding grateful patients Original prospect list had NO grateful patients Discovered that wealthy grateful patients self- identified when they said, Gee, doc, you saved my life. What can I do for you? What can I do for you was the key phrase
Action Asked Dean to appear regularly in front of his monthly meeting of department chairs to talk about need to identify grateful patients After second meeting, Director of Cancer Center called Development Office to say that golden moment had happened with a family called Lurie Met with Luries and they decided to give $12.5 million to name Cancer Center After this, physicians regularly called about golden moments
Medical Campaign The $65 million medical campaign came in at $128 million Wealthy grateful patients were the primary donors While we were building grateful patient fundraising at the Med School, we also built mega-gift fundraising for the university
Discouragement: Why? Became director of Northwesterns engineering campaign when it had achieved $40 million toward its goal of $67 million $40 million, however, amounted to NO large gifts from wealthy alumni or friends $30 million gift was to name the School, given by a large metropolitan foundation, and $10 million was being counted from various state and federal grants No large gifts from constituency was the cause of frustration
Important Discovery Visited top 12 prospects for the campaign All were willing to give to the campaign BUT all of them said they were NOT willing to give a large gift Why not? Because Mr. Murphy did it all. Either because no one had asked why not? before OR because prior fundraisers were afraid to report the answer, this was NEW information
Campaign Deal-Breaker Mr. Murphy did it all was deal-breaker It meant that wealthy alumni and friends of the School believed that the School really did NOT need the campaign The myth said that Mr. Murphys gifts had provided enough money for engineering forever If the campaign was to be successful, that Murphy MYTH needed to be de-fused
De-Mythologizing Created campaign newsletter Headline of first edition, Mr. Murphy did NOT do it all Article told truth about Mr. Murphys gifts in the late 1930s and early 1940s and their status today In that edition also, covered two $3 million gifts to the campaign, one from a wealthy alum who was disabused of the Murphy myth
Engineering Campaign After fitful start, campaign came in at $114.5 million toward its original goal of $67 million With many large gifts from wealthy alumni and friends of the School of Engineering That was made possible ONLY by facing up to and de-fusing the mythological factor that undercut entire campaign
Conclusion Campaigning = complex process that warrants close attention Presentation relates how two campaigns would have failed without decisive interventions The interventions changed the ways the campaigns were conducted Chairs and steering committees of both campaigns had to be briefed and approve those interventions As well as the VP Development and President of the University Each intervention was a breakthrough that worked stunningly well

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Successful Campaign Interventions

  • 1. Successful Campaign Interventions Tim Weidmann Two war stories. As campaign director, I produced necessary repo- sitioning for Northwestern Universitys Medical and Engineering campaigns, in order for those campaigns to become successful.
  • 2. Introduction Usually we hear how a campaign failed rather than how a campaign was rescued This presentation tells of rescuing two campaigns There should be more stories like these My personal and professional skills, acuity, experience and honesty made the following rescues possible Those qualities are available to you
  • 3. Two big problems Became director of $65 million medical campaign, when it was at $33 million and about to launch the public phase Campaign counting had been done too liberally, which led to subtracting $6 million from total Took control of campaign at $27 million not $33 million Given prospect list for campaign Met with 12 top prospects; discovered no interest in giving to medicine
  • 4. What was done? $6 million less than expected was just the facts Way to deal with that was suck it up, and get on with it Reviewed campaign staff and made changes But uninterested prospects was deal-breaker Not to fix that would sink the campaign Contacted peer institutions, which had conducted successful medical campaigns
  • 5. Paradigm shift Peer institutions feedback: Only way to conduct successful medical campaign was to get gifts from wealthy grateful patients Nobody had formula for finding grateful patients Original prospect list had NO grateful patients Discovered that wealthy grateful patients self- identified when they said, Gee, doc, you saved my life. What can I do for you? What can I do for you was the key phrase
  • 6. Action Asked Dean to appear regularly in front of his monthly meeting of department chairs to talk about need to identify grateful patients After second meeting, Director of Cancer Center called Development Office to say that golden moment had happened with a family called Lurie Met with Luries and they decided to give $12.5 million to name Cancer Center After this, physicians regularly called about golden moments
  • 7. Medical Campaign The $65 million medical campaign came in at $128 million Wealthy grateful patients were the primary donors While we were building grateful patient fundraising at the Med School, we also built mega-gift fundraising for the university
  • 8. Discouragement: Why? Became director of Northwesterns engineering campaign when it had achieved $40 million toward its goal of $67 million $40 million, however, amounted to NO large gifts from wealthy alumni or friends $30 million gift was to name the School, given by a large metropolitan foundation, and $10 million was being counted from various state and federal grants No large gifts from constituency was the cause of frustration
  • 9. Important Discovery Visited top 12 prospects for the campaign All were willing to give to the campaign BUT all of them said they were NOT willing to give a large gift Why not? Because Mr. Murphy did it all. Either because no one had asked why not? before OR because prior fundraisers were afraid to report the answer, this was NEW information
  • 10. Campaign Deal-Breaker Mr. Murphy did it all was deal-breaker It meant that wealthy alumni and friends of the School believed that the School really did NOT need the campaign The myth said that Mr. Murphys gifts had provided enough money for engineering forever If the campaign was to be successful, that Murphy MYTH needed to be de-fused
  • 11. De-Mythologizing Created campaign newsletter Headline of first edition, Mr. Murphy did NOT do it all Article told truth about Mr. Murphys gifts in the late 1930s and early 1940s and their status today In that edition also, covered two $3 million gifts to the campaign, one from a wealthy alum who was disabused of the Murphy myth
  • 12. Engineering Campaign After fitful start, campaign came in at $114.5 million toward its original goal of $67 million With many large gifts from wealthy alumni and friends of the School of Engineering That was made possible ONLY by facing up to and de-fusing the mythological factor that undercut entire campaign
  • 13. Conclusion Campaigning = complex process that warrants close attention Presentation relates how two campaigns would have failed without decisive interventions The interventions changed the ways the campaigns were conducted Chairs and steering committees of both campaigns had to be briefed and approve those interventions As well as the VP Development and President of the University Each intervention was a breakthrough that worked stunningly well