How Begins with Why
Your campaign’s pivotal question is not “how” or “how much.” It’s “why.”
“Why” comes first. If a campaign is to resonate, it must be grounded in an authentic
yet audacious vision for how your institution plans to serve a changing world.
Too often, campaigns focus first on the dollar goal and the list of priorities, skipping
past the crucial “why.”
What separates a campaign from business-as-usual fundraising is its focus on something greater – on a future that is only possible by blending ambition and investment. A future that crystallizes the campaign’s why.
Foster Avenue is dedicated to the proposition that
starting with the “why” will make your “how” clearer
and your “how much” bigger.
The Payoff
It’s harder than ever to command donor attention. Treat your message as an afterthought and your donors may treat you the same way.
We help you articulate a rock-solid campaign rationale as step one, then use the message as the connecting through-line of all planning, in order to:
Merge Audacity & Authenticity
The campaign must not be about the campaign. It must be in service of something bigger: a compelling institutional strategy and ambition. Your campaign should be a call to action, the invitation to be a part of something momentous and meaningful.
Articulate Donor Appeal
The campaign must directly connect funding priorities and the campaign’s overall rationale, motivating bigger gifts by providing donors a more satisfying line-of-sight to their potential impact.
Build Organizational Fluency
Leadership, staff, and volunteers must achieve campaign fluency — the ability to transcend elevator pitches and, instead, adapt campaign messages in ways that engage the interests of individual donors.
Expand the Campaign’s Footprint
Early, clear, flexible campaign messaging enables collaboration among communicators across the organization — so it becomes the institution’s campaign, not just the fundraising team’s.