Campaign Readiness Assessment for Zero Waste Washington Part I- Campaign Readiness Score 1) A clear statement of mission, vision,

and values- 4/5 2) An agreed upon statement of campaign objectives- 5/5 3) An informed constituency- 3/5 4) An awareness of the organizations niche- 5/5 5) A prospect development plan and research system- 1/5 6) An efficient record keeping and information system- 3/5 7) A creative, effective communication plan- 3/5 8) A history of gift support- 6/10 9) A sound strategic plan for the future- 10/10 10) Competent staff with adequate time and training- 5/10 11) An involved, contributing governing board- 12/15 12) Qualified potential lead-gift contributors- 9/15 13) Capable fundraising leadership- 10/15 Total score: 78/110 Assessment: Zero Waste Washington is in a building period and not ready to launch a campaign at this time Part II Organizations Culture of Philanthropy 1) Does your organization feel welcoming to someone who walks in the door?

Yes! The Zero Waste Washington is cozy and intimate. When you walk in, you see campaign literature, our project manager Evas desk, and a plush couch. There is wonderful natural lighting from a skylight in the ceiling. 2) Does the receptionist know the mission of the organization? Can s/he summarize it in a way that makes you know that s/he believes in it? There isnt a receptionist per say, but Evas desk is right next to the front door. She has been with the organization for six years, knows our campaigns inside and out, and is wondering about giving elevator pitches on each of our programs. 3) Are the donor plaques your organization displays from prior fundraising initiatives well displayed ad well cared for? OR are they tarnished, hanging at odd angles, or tucked away in back corners? We do not have any plaques. The organization has just started to prioritize fundraising over the last year. 4) How long does it take for a donor to receive a thank-you note after sending a contribution? Are the notes warm and personal or pro forma and impersonal? All thank-you notes are sent within 5 business days of receiving a contribution, and tax receipts are mailed out on January 15th of the next year. Thank you notes are form, but we always hand-write a personal message in the card. 5) How many times in the course of one day do you say or hear negative phrases abut fundraising in your office? Never! The staff and the new board are very supportive of all fundraising efforts. 6) How much nonmeeting time do development staff members spend getting to know what is going on in the organizations programs?

Currently, there is no paid development staff; as the chair of the board fundraising committee, I manage all of our fundraising efforts along with our project manager and program director. When a fundraising manager is hired s/he will be working intimately with the other two paid staff member to get to know the programs before developing his/her suggestions for the organizations fundraising strategy.

7) Is personal contact with donors seen as a way to build mutually beneficial relationships or simply as a means of raising money? It was only recently that contact with our constituents was seen as a fundraising potential. Prior to this, the majority of contacts were about networking opportunities for our program staff, seeing how we could partner with other stakeholders to make our efforts more effective. Since increasing our focus on fundraising, I have made sure to emphasize to our staff the rest of our board that we need to continue to maintain a positive relationship with our donors so that they know we view them as more than check-writers. We need to maintain a dialogue so that we know what our donors view as important, and what they feel we need to be addressing in our community. 8) Do your development officers know what your major donors are passionate about? Given that we do not have development staff yet, I will answer this about our program director who does the major donor work with me, and yes, Suellen is always on top of what our donors are interested in. We have a relatively small group of major donors ($250+ for us, and there are about 20 of them) so we are always in contacts. We give them updates on legislative session, and we always make sure to ask what additional

legislation or news trends they have been following. We log all this information in our database, as well as in paper files in the office. 9) Does the board view fundraising as an important part of their work? Are they invited to have a role in fundraising? Expected to? Required to? As I previously stated, the board of Zero Waste Washington has gone through a missive sea change in the past year. Before I came onto the board, there was no emphasis on individual gift fundraising. The program director and the project manager sent out the same form letter to the same appeal list every year, cashed any checks that came in, and wrote grant applications to hopefully cover everything else. The board started the conversation that maybe they should get more serious about fundraising when the loss of one grant put the organization in terrible economic standings. This was when I was approached about joining. Since I joined the board, developed the fundraising committee, and became the treasurer, I have done multiple presentations on the importance of increasing our individual gift efforts, and the basics of fundraising. Somewhere along the way, a light came on for our board members and everyone started to increase their own individual gifts to the organization, and they became hungry to learn about fundraising skills and practices. Fundraising is not something that is required or expected of our board, but it is something that all board members help with out of a desire to help build the organization. 10) Does your organization regularly invite major donors to come to see the outcomes of their contributions? Since the majority of our organizations efforts are policy based, and outreach efforts surrounding producer responsibility, we do not have a tangible product to show off to

donors. What we do instead is take our major donors to lunch or coffee and discuss recent accomplishments and legislative progress. 11) Do the executive director and the board chair play an active and willing role in the development process? Our board chair and program director are always eager to help in any way that they can. Whether this means calling donors, writing letters, or reaching out into their social networks to help the organization make an appeal goal, they are always on board to help. 12) Are key volunteers, staff, and donors meaningfully involved in shaping the organizations future? Yes. We recently went through a strategic planning process that involved the entire board, staff, and a handful of key donors and volunteers to decide what our organizational and program goals will be for the next five years. Everyone had an equal voice in this process and wonderful conclusions were reached. Part III- Is the organization ready for a capital campaign? What are the organizations strengths and weaknesses? What are specific areas of concern? At this point, Zero Waste Washington is not ready for a capital campaign. The spirit of the organization is willing, but we do not have the organizational capacity to take on such a large task successfully. Recently, when the organization when through our strategic planning process, the decision was made that our organizational goal was to be ready to launch a capital campaign to purchase an office space in five years. This means we have to bring our staff up to capacity, and develop our annual fund to a healthy level in the next five years. Our first step in the process is bringing on a part time fundraising manger, and adding non-board members onto the fundraising committee. Once these two things are accomplished, we will be

able to expand our annual fund efforts, grow our donor based, develop our relationships with donors, and start to identify who would make good lead donors for a capital campaign. What is good about our boards pragmatic approach to this is also what worries me; the board the organization has now is very engaged and excited about the idea of launching a campaign in five years. What I am concerned about is if we do not harness that energy, and give our board tasks to put that excitement to good use, they will leave for an organization that is ready to launch a campaign tomorrow. Because of the high visibility of a capital campaign, it is not something to be entered into lightly. We do not want to announce a campaign unless we know it will be successful. I do not want to lose our momentum or our good board members before we are ready to launch, but we do not want to launch a campaign prematurely simply out of fear of losing our good board members. As stated, one of the areas we have to focus on is growing our annual fund program to support a capital campaign. Seattle is a very generous town, but I am concerned that without the right person in that fundraising manager position, five years might not be enough time to build our annual fund. Currently, the organization brings in almost $250,000 a year through our annual fund, and we would need a capital campaign of at least $500,000 to purchase a house as an office building in the neighborhood we want to be into make the campaign successful. We do not want to drag the campaign on for more than two years or else we risk being priced out of the neighborhood, so we would need an annual fund program of at least $500,000 per year to support that type of capital campaign. I know that if we get the right person into the job, they would have no problem doubling our annual fund in that amount of time, but the key is finding that person. At this point, our staff capacity and the size of our current annual fund programs are our primary weaknesses, but I feel that the enthusiasm of the board will be able to easily overcome these

challenges. Once we bring on a solid fundraising manager, and bring more money in the door, we will be able to expand staff hours and thus expand our capacity to handle a capital campaign. Additionally, I feel that with the proper training, and the proper harnessing of their excitement and ambition, the board of Zero Waste Washington would be able to take on the additional responsibility of a capital campaign with finesse and expertise.