By Timothy R. Burcham, CFRE, President & CEO, Burcham Solutions Group
Campaigns are fundamentally about change.
Organizations most often mount major gift or capital campaigns to reach strategic objectives that expand their mission, add new and improved programs or services, or uniquely address significant needs of those they serve. By their very nature, campaigns are designed to take an organization from where it is today to where it wants to be in the future, and with that transition comes some degree of change. Sometimes the changes are incremental, and sometimes they are transformative in ways that can be disruptive to everyone involved.
But how often do those charged with designing and implementing a major campaign consider the necessary organizational and individual changes that are inherent in the campaign’s processes and outcomes?
A major gifts campaign is an organization-wide commitment.
Mounting a campaign is a significant investment that requires coordinating and managing several interdependent elements, divisions, and resources across an organization, all with their respective limitations on time, people, and money.
It is essential to understand the nature, scope, and impact of changes on the organization and the individuals within it, not only within the fundraising operation itself, but also the other key parts of the organization that support the campaign effort, such as marketing, IT, finance, etc. Doing so enhances the potential for successfully achieving the campaign objectives on time and on budget. And who doesn’t want that?
Managing a campaign is about managing change.
The level of organizational complexity and the scope of the campaign significantly influences how much change management needs to be incorporated into campaign plans.
At a minimum, I recommend that campaign plans address the impact on individuals, at all levels and in every role, who are tasked with making the campaign a success. Are they ready and equipped to make the changes that are necessary?
The worldwide authority on change management, Prosci©, has conducted decades of research on how to manage change at the organizational and individual levels. They have determined that there are five foundational tenets of change management:
- We change for a reason.
- Organizational change requires individual change.
- Organizational outcomes are the collective result of individual change.
- Change management is an enabling framework for managing the people side of change.
- Applying change management helps realize the benefits and desired outcomes of change.
Managing individual change can increase a campaign’s success.
Organizations don’t change; people change. Encountering resistance to change is natural and inevitable. People resist change for a variety or reasons that are unique to each individual – it could be that they don’t understand the reasons for the change due to poor communication, or it impacts their workload or responsibilities. Sometimes it’s fear of the unknown and uncertainty about the future. Quite often it’s because they were excluded from the decision-making processes which created feelings of mistrust and alienation, or it’s something more personal such as age, health, and circumstances that may not align with the change. Understanding these reasons can help organizations better address resistance and support employees through the change process.
Take, for example, the potential change that can occur in the early stages of campaign planning when an organization’s leadership decides to transition from an internal, legacy donor management system to a new, state-of-the art software solution. This decision was made to enable the organization to implement its first-ever capital campaign more effectively and efficiently.
Several departments beyond the development office – most notably the IT department and marketing departments – are directly impacted by the decision and are critical to the success of the implementation.
However, not everyone involved in the implementation is enthusiastic about moving in this direction. Some of the development officers and support staff would prefer to hold onto their legacy system because they understand it and don’t want to be forced to learn something new. Others outside of the development office don’t see the need for it and think it’s a waste of time and money. This level of resistance to change can significantly slow down the campaign process and possibly threaten its success.
This situation could significantly benefit from infusing Prosci’s ADKAR© model for managing the “people side of change” into the campaign plan.
Awareness considers the compelling rationale for individual change. You need to be able to answer these questions:
- What is the nature of the change and how does it align with the vision for the organization?
- Why is the change being made and what are the risks of not changing?
- How will the change impact the organization and/or the community?
- What’s in it for me?
Desire relates to the personal choice to change. The key questions include:
- How will the change impact the individual?
- What is their perception of the organization?
- What is their personal situation?
- What are their expectations and what motivates them?
Knowledge is about understanding the requirements for individual change. Ask these questions:
- What is their current knowledge base?
- What is their capacity or capability to gain additional knowledge?
- What resources for education and training are available?
- Do they have access to the required knowledge?
Ability is about the potential required for individual change. Key questions include:
- Are there psychological blocks that are barriers to change?
- Are there physical limitations that create barriers to change?
- Do they have the intellectual capacity to make the change?
- Do they have the necessary time to implement the change?
- Are the resources available to enable the change to take place?
Reinforcement is about sustaining the individual change. Ask these questions:
- Is the reinforcement meaningful to the person making the change?
- Is the reinforcement associated with actual progress and/or accomplishment?
- Is there an absence of negative consequences for making the change?
- Are there accountability systems to sustain the change
Campaign consultants and managers would be well-served to use the ADKAR© model and address key questions early in the planning process, especially if significant organizational change is involved. Doing so increases the likelihood that the campaign will be implemented more smoothly, with less resistance, and more successfully. And moreover, managing the people side of change effectively increases readiness, flexibility, and adaptability; enhances engagement, morale, and preparedness; boosts performance and the likelihood of achieving long-term benefits; and reduces disruption, performance declines, and the learning curve during the transition.
Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many tools and templates that can guide your use of change management concepts and methodologies, and that are easy to incorporate into your campaign planning and management. If you are interested in learning more, visit this site – Prosci | The Global Leader in Change Management Solutions
