From Parallel Process to Collaborative Cross-Over: How Your Architect and Fundraising Consultant Can Boost Campaign Success

Clients often come to us with a chicken-or-the-egg question: Should they start with a fundraising feasibility to figure out what they can raise before talking to an architect? Or do they need an architect to scope out the project so they can test their plans with donors?

The truth is, there’s no prescribed workflow for this step in the process—especially if your architect and your fundraising consultant are true partners in the work.

In a recent webinar, Heller Fundraising Group CEO Kate Jaeger-Thomas spoke with Michael Hauptman, Founding Partner at Brawer Hauptman + Larkin Architects, about how nonprofits can navigate complex capital projects and maximize collaboration. They talked about timelines and processes for planning studies and how effective planning studies can make it easier to navigate uncertainty down the road.

“Some of our clients have spent a year doing a strategic plan or a visioning exercise where they set their goals,” Michael said during the conversation. “Other clients are looking to us to help them through that process and help them understand what their issues are. We start our projects with a planning study, which helps us understand what the entire project is before we dive into a robust process. And we always ask if they’re going to be involving a fundraising consultant, because that really does influence what we're doing.”

Kate added that fundraising feasibility studies—whether they happen before, after, or alongside an architectural planning study—also help identify what’s possible for an organization.

“Once those studies are complete, how the organization chooses to move forward on their construction project in relation to their fundraising can absolutely vary,” she said. “There could be an optional pause [in the architectural process] for campaign fundraising. They could be building and running their campaign at the same time. And we’ve had clients that wanted to raise all of the dollars before they began their renovation project.”

Watch the replay for the full conversation, which also touched on how architectural tools can support donor communications, how architects and fundraising consultants can work together to create tailored naming opportunity proposals, and how to pivot when faced with unexpected changes.

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