Campaign Communications Phase 4: Public

PHASE 4: PUBLIC

You did it! You pulled off the public launch of your campaign to great fanfare and interest. But how do you keep that interest high over the course of several years? Hopefully have a public phase communications plan in place by now. This plan will be a valuable roadmap at the start of the public phase and one that can be adjusted as the public phase progresses over what might end up being one, two, three, or more years.

At a minimum your plan should call for:

• Communications that make the case for your campaign broadly and, for a comprehensive campaign, in detail about specific priorities. Such communications typically include:

• A designed and printed case for support (ideally digitally printed in small batches to allow for easy and inexpensive updates)

• Pitch deck version of the case

• One-sheets on priority areas

• Highlight videos

• Updated and refreshed materials from the leadership phase, such as proposals and other customized communications for 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-figure individual prospects

• Strategies for weaving campaign messaging into annual giving and planned giving communications 

• Revised gift acknowledgement letter templates that reference the campaign

• Impact reports, including for unrestricted gifts 

• Recognition strategies, swag, and gratitude gestures. A stewardship matrix makes it easy to know who gets what and when.

Perhaps the most important element of your plan is a reminder that things will change. Whether it’s a pandemic, an economic recession, a leadership change, or something else, it’s likely that somewhere along the way in your public phase, something will happen that threatens to derail your plans. While you can’t prepare for every eventuality, you can remind yourself and your colleagues that the plan is just a roadmap and detours are inevitable. The most important thing is to work together to find a new path forward.