Hiring a Professional Fundraiser: Why it worked for us Article by Kim Kaiser, Executive Director
RiverStone Health Foundation
When deciding to conduct a capital campaign there was the obvious question of whether to hire professional fundraising counsel to lead
the process. Like most organizations we had questions. Will it be worth the expense to hire counsel? Are we giving up control? Can we
justify the expense to our donors? Ultimately, RiverStone Health decided we would benefit from contracting a professional fundraising firm
to provide leadership and strategic management for our campaign. After interviewing several national firms we chose Capital Quest, and we
couldn't be happier!
One of my favorite examples of why I know hiring Capital Quest was the right decision comes from one of our earliest campaign experiences.
In the second month of our campaign Capital Quest helped us acquire our first six-figure gift ever in the history of our Foundation. The gift
was from a local business that had never given a community gift larger than $2,500. Our Consultant guided us through the process which
ultimately secured a $250,000 gift!
This was the first major ask for me, our CEO and the volunteer campaign leader. Capital Quest took extra time to help all three of us through
the process starting with identifying the business as a major gift opportunity and then developing the strategy to approach them. Our Consultant
created talking points and conducted coaching sessions with each of us. The morning of the solicitation she even called in at 6:00am to calm our
nerves and make sure we had all practiced our presentation. I can't imagine going through this process without the leadership and expertise of
Capital Quest.
I’d tell other organizations to do their homework and take the time to select a firm that suits your organization's needs. If you find a
firm, like we did, that is passionate about their work and equally invested in your success you will find that hiring professional counsel
will lead you to success you didn’t know was possible.
It's been two years since we hired Capital Quest and I learn something new each time our Consultant visits whether it is something directly
related to the campaign or about fundraising in general. Capital Quest has provided us with the vision, organization, and follow-through to
reach success today, tomorrow and in years to come.
