New Beginnings After Campaign Close

There’s so much emphasis on closing a campaign that it’s easy to forget everything that comes after, like:

• Transitioning campaign progress updates to post-campaign impact updates.

• Ensuring that donor engagement remains steady without timeline-driven pressure. 

• Maintaining momentum with the principal pipeline donors who will make your next campaign successful.

This all becomes trickier when you know that major staff transitions are likely or guaranteed, in the case of term-limited, campaign-funded positions. 

But the common wisdom that you are always “in campaign” whether or not you’re “in a campaign” remains true.

We recommend the following communication and engagement strategies to make sure you don’t lose your momentum when the campaign with a capital ‘C’ is over:

• Rebrand periodic campaign updates as gratitude touchpoints. 

Don’t get rid of a campaign e-newsletter once the campaign is over; doing so will only create a void in your donor engagement. Instead, transition it into an ongoing gratitude communication for leadership to reflect on major campaign accomplishments and lift up stories that demonstrate all that donors helped–and continue to help–achieve.

• Proactively calendar milestone post-campaign updates.

Send a periodic communication that looks back on how past campaign accomplishments are doing good in the present. For capital projects funded through the campaign, calendar coverage at regular intervals to demonstrate the long-term value of brick and mortar giving (and prime donors to give to these projects in the future).

• Bring your principal pipeline donors closer.

Through structures like confidential updates from leadership or regular virtual or on-site meetings, do more to make your most consequential donors feel like true insiders. In time, give them early insight into the next strategic planning process and prepare them to support the next campaign.

• Hold on to your volunteers.

If you relied on a network of volunteers in your last campaign, do not abandon them after closing the campaign. Instead, consider providing them with a new communications toolkit with guidelines for engaging with other supporters in a post-campaign environment.