Put Your Best Foot Forward

Launching a Capital Campaign

Trever Randall 'tops off' candles by hand. Making candles is just one of many jobs available at Sunshine House, Inc. in Sturgeon Bay. Along with a paycheck, clients gain self-esteem, independence, and opportunities to socialize. Employment is just one of many services provided by the facility. Sunshine House also offers transportation, personal care, and a wide variety of enrichment programs.

Currently, the facility is overtaxed by changing program needs, new opportunities for work that require additional space, escalating demand, and a waiting list approaching 100 people needing services, according to Door County Community Programs. In response to this demand, Sunshine House recently embarked on its 'Taking the Next Step' capital campaign. A planned renovation and expansion will involve adding 17,000 square feet to the existing 12,600 square foot building, providing much needed space for dedicated activity, production, lunchroom and personal care areas.

Sunshine House receives funding from production contracts, Door County Community Programs, United Way, and private contributions. While 78% of the estimated $1,800,000 needed for the expansion and renovation project has already been raised, Sunshine House still needs community support.

In fact, the general population of Door County may not be aware of all that Sunshine House does for the community. Development Specialist, Nancy Vaughn says, “It's difficult for people to understand exactly what Sunshine House is all about because we are ‘about' so many things – for anyone who wants to learn more, the best thing to do is visit us for a tour or presentation, visit www.sunshinehouseinc.org or call for a Compact Disk (CD).” Educating the general population on who Sunshine House is and why they are important in the community goes hand-in-hand with gaining support.

Nancy Vaughn, Development Specialist, reveals some strategies for launching a successful Capital Campaign:

First, consider the amount of time the staff will take away from their regular duties because of the hours a campaign requires. Do you need more volunteers or to hire a part time campaign person? This change will not only be felt by the staff involved, but also by the rest of the organization and by those you serve.

Secondly, the more organized and published you are now, before the campaign begins, the easier your task will be.

If you don’t already have enough volunteers, recruit more volunteers in graphics, marketing and administration. Is your audience already educated on the services you provide and the future needs you may be facing? Before you start a campaign, you should have presentations, articles, printed materials, DVD’s, updated web site, updated mail list, and informative newsletter, all in circulation. Do you have a donor database program already in place? If not, will you need to learn another program along with starting a campaign? A great resource for obtaining software, at free or discounted prices, is TechSoup.org at www.techsoup.org --- Sunshine House uses a program called GiftWorks to track campaign details.

Campaign Chaiperson and Cabinet. Besides all this prep work, finding the right chairperson or co-chairs is one of the most critical parts of any campaign. Getting people to commit to a campaign cabinet is much easier to do if good leadership is already in place. When your leader is well recognized in the community, sincere, motivational, and creative, the followers will be much more inspired and likely to attend meetings. Sunshine House was very fortunate to find two co-chairs, from their board of directors, who felt much less pressure in agreeing to co-chair rather than taking the campaign chair alone.

There may be other factors your agency will be faced with, but these are just a few of the things that Nancy wished someone had pointed out to them, before they started their campaign a year ago. For more information, contact Nancy at (920) 743-7943 (extension #175), she would be happy to share campaign stories they have experienced at Sunshine House Inc. – including the many good experiences!

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