FINANCIAL ASSESSMENTS, FUNDRAISING AND CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS
Our Process
SCP has helped hundreds of nonprofits over the 25 years we have been in business using a proprietary financial process.
Financial Assessments and Analysis
SCP has a team of experts who specialize in financial assessments and analysis for nonprofit organizations. The financial analysis includes conducting a thorough assessment of potential and current income/expense scenarios in order to build potential strategies for future growth. SCP works with the board and leadership teams to provide detailed financial and organizational assessments that result in a plan move the organization forward, ensures its financial stability and improves its market competitiveness.
As part of our process, SCP conducts assessments of current operations, financial status, and effectiveness of current programs, which leads to a detailed report and recommendations on how to improve the current state of the organization. Sometimes our projects require market feasibility studies or innovative strategies to determine ways to cut current costs in order to maintain financial sustainability. The SCP team always tries to explore creative options aligned to the organization’s mission that will generate revenue.
Fundraising Strategy
Developing fundraising strategies requires a great deal of research and community engagement. SCP will engage in joint stakeholder outreach to ensure we are capturing feedback and input from all relevant community stakeholders and potential donors.
SCP team member Chad Barger has spent his entire career as a fundraiser. The campaigns that he has worked on have raised in excess of $26 million for the charities that he has had the honor of serving. Chad is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) and former board chair for the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Fundraising Association. Where feasible, SCP will engage Chad in the strategy development process.
When creating fundraising strategies, SCP provides the following services:
- Review and assessment of current fundraising scope and methods
- Identification of suitable fundraising practices worthy of implementation
- Prioritization of actions to efficiently improve the organization’s fundraising capacity
- Recommendations for tools (e.g. software) necessary to accompany the actions prescribed above
- Formulation of achievable fundraising goals and benchmarks for the coming three to five years
- Provision of ready-to-use examples (e.g. templates) to facilitate execution of fundraising work
Feasibility Studies/Capital Campaigns
Many organizations utilize SCP for feasibility studies to determine strategies for conducting a capital campaign. SCP understands that feasibility studies should achieve much more than simply supporting a go/no-go decision on a capital campaign. Our team will work with the board of directors, key stakeholders, donors, and staff to ensure that your capital campaign is successful.
SCP uses the following steps to identify and quantify the goals of your organization in order to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study:
- Gauge the community’s awareness of the nonprofit, its work and mission
- Understand the community’s perception of the importance of the need for this capital project
- Identify major donors’ perception of the importance of the need for this capital project
- Capture feelings and opinions, both positive and negative, about the organization’s mission and performance
- Quantify the potential donor base and its ability to give
- Identify strong campaign leadership and effective volunteers
- Assess internal resources available for the campaign
- Determine the preparedness of the organization and its leadership team to undertake the campaign
- Identify external factors that could influence the outcome of the campaign
Having a clear picture of these objectives will provide far more than go/no-go clarity. This information will identify a path to preparing the organization, the community, and donors for the capital campaign. This analysis will identify both financial, strategic, and operational issues important for the organization to address in order to achieve financial sustainability and independence.
As strategic and financial planning experts, SCP has a robust toolbox of resources and best practices that can be utilized by our clients to track planning and implementation efforts. SCP will refine and customize existing tools to support implementation. SCP is willing to adjust the scope of this feasibility study to achieve client-specific objectives, and we recommend that a feasibility study be conducted prior to starting any capital campaign. This comprehensive approach will significantly optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of the resulting capital campaign.