Breaking ground on a chapter house campaign.

Fundraising & Feasibility

Fraternity and sorority capital campaigns that actually start

Your chapter may know what it wants to build, renovate or preserve. The harder question is whether alumni will support it. That's where a successful campaign begins. A Pennington feasibility study replaces assumptions with answers. We help you identify and rank prospective donors, test the case for support and establish a campaign goal your alumni can believe in, before you make a public commitment.

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A capital campaign is a time-limited fundraising effort for a specific capital need. For a chapter that usually means renovating, but it's really about protecting a place that matters to generations of members. The goal is validated before launch, gifts are solicited from your largest prospects down, and most are pledged over several years rather than given at once.

How it works

Start with Confidence

Before you announce a campaign, know what's possible. A feasibility study helps answer those questions before your campaign begins. Pennington works with your chapter to evaluate the opportunity, identify and rank prospective donors, validate an achievable goal and build the foundation for a campaign alumni can confidently support.

Talk through your chapter's situation

Step 1

The feasibility study

We personally interview your alumni and test the case for support with those who have the ability to make the commitments needed for a campaign. Upon the completion of the study, you'll know what your alumni think about the plan, their interest in supporting the effort, and clarity on a campaign goal.

Step 2

Prospect research and data mining

Roughly 20% of donors provide about 80% of the dollars, and the top ten gifts alone tend to equal about half the total. Finding those people early is what decides the campaign, so the research happens before the broad ask, not after it.

Step 3

Leadership, the case, and the ask

We are not a "behind the desk" consulting firm. We are working closely with your volunteer leadership from the first day to the last. We partner with you to recruit and train the campaign leadership, as well as developing the campaign promotion materials. As for the solicitations? Pennington will be right alongside you. Your lead consultant will join campaign volunteers for solicitations to provide support, structure to the meeting, and when needed, make the ask itself.

Step 4

Gift management and stewardship

It's one thing to secure a campaign pledge, but it's another thing to secure the gift itself. With Pennington, we will collect pledge forms and gifts, thank donors for their support, and provide recurring campaign reporting to volunteer leadership.

A feasibility study interview in progress.

Pre-campaign feasibility studies

A successful campaign starts well before anyone breaks ground. It begins by listening to alumni, testing support for the vision, and understanding what it will take to turn that vision into a fundable project. From there, Pennington helps build the case for support, assemble and prepare the right volunteer leaders, and guide the campaign through major gifts and ultimately its public phase.

A chapter house funded by a capital campaign.

Capital campaigns

A capital campaign is a major undertaking, and the ones that stall tend to stall in the same few places. We help build the plan and the structure, then work in the trenches: promotional material, volunteer leadership recruited and trained, top prospects identified, and the lead solicitations made in person. Pennington helps chapters connect the capital need with the people, memories and future possibilities behind it, creating a campaign alumni can see themselves helping make possible.

Data mining and prospect research

Around eighty percent of what a campaign raises comes from twenty percent of the donors, and the top ten gifts alone often equal half the total. On a thousand-alumni base at a quarter participation, that is fifty people. Identifying them early is what separates a goal from a guess, so we bring data mining and prospect research to find them before anyone sets a number.

Delta Gamma at SMU breaking ground on the new chapter house.

Annual campaigns

The annual campaign is the backbone of a development effort, and it does more than keep money coming in. It brings in new donors, turns occasional givers into regular ones, and moves your steadiest supporters toward the larger conversation. We plan and run it with you, from theme and messaging to schedules and stewardship, so it works alongside a capital campaign rather than competing with it.

AEPi at Georgia Tech, members outside the chapter house.

Gift management

A campaign of any size means gifts of every size have to be collected, processed and acknowledged, and it is the part most often overlooked. Donors tell us that poor acknowledgment of a past gift is a leading reason they give less the next time. We deposit contributions securely and auditably, craft and send the letters, and remind donors when a pledge payment falls due.

Peer-to-peer fundraising

Online crowdfunding your board can set up in minutes, with pricing that does not need decoding. Raise for capital, annual and memorial campaigns, challenge gifts, housing or scholarship endowments; take one-time gifts, pledges, or pledge-now-pay-later; and run registrations for everything from a golf tournament to a ribbon cutting. Your donor and fundraising data stays yours.

What is a capital campaign?

A time-limited effort to fund a specific capital need. For a chapter that's usually a renovation, a rebuild or a property purchase. It differs from annual giving in three ways: the goal is fixed and validated before launch, gifts are solicited largest first, and most are pledged over several years.

What is a feasibility study, and can we skip it?

It's a pre-campaign test of whether your goal is real. We interview your best prospects directly and come back with ranked capacity, a SWOT read, named major-donor potential and a recommended minimum goal. You can skip it. What you can't skip is the information: chapters that announce a number without it tend to discover the ceiling in public.

How long does a capital campaign take?

It depends on three things: how many major prospects need a personal touch, how quickly volunteer leadership comes together, and whether pledges run three or five years. We'll give you a realistic timeline after the study, when we know the size of the prospect pool instead of guessing at it.

Why use counsel instead of running it ourselves?

Volunteers can run the mechanics. What's hard from inside is asking a peer for a six-figure gift, holding a schedule through a leadership change, and hearing an honest answer about the chapter's standing. Alumni tell an outside interviewer things they won't tell a friend. We've written the fuller comparison on the what we do page.

Campaign spotlight:
a $6+ million chapter house renovation

“We could not have succeeded in the $6+ million renovation without the expertise of Pennington.”

Steve Nieslawski, Campaign Board Member
Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, University of Illinois
Phi Kappa Psi partnered with Pennington on a capital campaign to fund a major renovation of its chapter house. The result was more than a fundraising milestone. The campaign helped make a significant investment in the chapter's physical home possible, creating a foundation for the chapter experience that follows.

Find out what your chapter can actually raise

A conversation first, then a study if it makes sense. Neither commits you to a campaign.

Reach Out

We start with your chapter's situation, not a pitch
The study tells you the goal your alumni will fund
A 'not-yet' is a legitimate answer, and a useful one