Prepare to Be Unprepared.
Doug Close, the Capital Campaign Chair at Food Shed Co-op (FSC) recently said to me “Prepare to be unprepared” when asked what he wish he’d known or did before launching the FSC capital campaign. He went on to describe that no matter how much you prepare, situations will pop up that you weren’t expecting. And I couldn’t agree more.
In every capital campaign I’ve worked on things happen that just simply can’t be prepared for. Wonderful and fantastic things like $100,000 contributions or unexpected things like snow storms and power outages! But we can prepare for much of what will take place in a campaign.
Our unique and autonomous structures means that each of our campaigns will be as different as our co-ops. But having a partner along the way helps minimize what you end up being “unprepared for” and gives you a resource when unusual things pop up.
