Feasibility Studies

Nonprofit Q&A
A service of Jeane Vogel and Fund Raising Innovations
March 7, 2005

Here's this week's question:
We are talking about a capital campaign for a new facility. We need about $2 million. We got bids for a feasibility study that ranged from $15,000 to $23,000. The board just thought that was a stupid waste of money. The board wants me to do it. Can we do it ourselves? Is there a template?

Can you do it yourselves? Sure. Will it be useful? Probably not.

Is there a template? Probably. Somewhere. But like templates for grants or solicitation letters or strategic plans, it's a waste of time and money. Why would you want something that's so generic that anyone could make use of it. To be valuable, it must be tailored to your organization, mission and community.

The feasibility study should be designed to tell you some of very important things:

	who are your likely major donors?
	what do your donors think of your organization? of your plans?
	what does the broader community think of your organization? of your plans?
	will they give you money?
	will they help you reach out to other potential donors?
	can your current donors be motivated to give at higher levels?
	is your goal too high? too low?

So why can't you get this information yourself? Partly because you are way too busy to devote several hundred hours of time to this task. But mostly because you want an independent and honest assessment, which you cannot possibly get without some outside help.

If you hire an experienced consultant to conduct your study, your donors' comments will be anonymous. Donors and prospects will tell your consultant things they are too polite to tell you. You need to hear that information. Even if all you got was an honest appraisal of your organization, you would get your money's worth. The bonus is the rest of the information that will help your camping succeed.

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Send mail to jeanevogel@earthlink.net with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: 09/27/07

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Last modified: 09/27/07