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Fundraising Assessments

Confidential, board-ready fundraising assessments — the work the field calls a feasibility study — that give boards the data they need to move forward, or to wait.

Practice
Fundraising Assessment
Scope
30–60 confidential interviews
Engagement
12–16 weeks, fixed fee
Fundraising assessment — NPI Strategies

Overview

Better to find out now than mid-campaign.

The cost of a failed campaign isn’t the lost revenue — it’s the donor relationships and board confidence that take years to rebuild. A rigorous fundraising assessment surfaces what a campaign will actually require, before the first pledge card goes out.

What the assessment actually produces is not market research — it is a series of candid 1:1 conversations with the 30 to 60 people whose commitments will determine whether the campaign succeeds. Principal donors will tell a third-party interviewer things they won’t tell your CEO: that the case isn’t compelling, that the goal is too high, that a board member they don’t trust is chairing the cabinet. Those inputs reshape the plan before a dollar is raised.

An assessment is also a credible reason to slow down when the board is impatient. It puts data behind the recommendation to wait — or to modify the goal, the case, or the leadership structure before launch. We have delivered studies that recommended campaigns proceed immediately and studies that recommended a 12-month readiness period first. Both outcomes are useful. The one outcome we don’t deliver is a study that tells you what you wanted to hear.

You may know this engagement by its traditional name, a capital campaign feasibility study. We call it an assessment because the work is broader than a single go / no-go test.

Organizations call us when

  • The board wants to launch a campaign but the CEO is not sure the timing is right
  • A gift-range chart exists but no one has tested it with the top 20 prospects
  • An anonymous donor or estate gift is forcing a decision about a capital project
  • A previous campaign missed goal and the organization needs to know what changed

At a glance

A structured answer to a structural question.

30–60
Confidential interviews with principal prospects and leaders
12–16wk
Typical engagement, launch to board-ready report
100%
Of studies deliver a go / no-go / modify recommendation
3–5yr
Campaign arc the study is designed to de-risk

How we work

Four disciplines, every assessment.

  1. Define the question

    Scope, case, and preliminary goal — the hypotheses the study is actually testing, not a generic market scan.

  2. Interview the top tier

    Confidential 1:1 conversations with 30–60 principal prospects, board members, and institutional partners whose commitments will anchor the campaign.

  3. Pressure-test the case

    Reactions to case language, gift-range plausibility, and leadership gaps — the inputs that reshape the plan before a dollar is raised.

  4. Deliver a decision

    A board-ready report with a recommended goal, timeline, and pre-campaign workplan — or a candid case for delay.

In the field

This service, in practice.

All case studies →
VNS Health Behavioral Health
Featured · Federal Grants · Behavioral Health

$4M

A first-attempt federal win, stood up on schedule, managed through the full four-year award.

VNS Health set out to launch a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic in the South Bronx. NPI led the SAMHSA application, the 12-month implementation, and the three-year grant management partnership that followed.

Read VNS Health Behavioral Health’s story

Questions

Common questions.

Is a fundraising assessment the same as a feasibility study?
Yes — a fundraising assessment is what the field has traditionally called a feasibility study. We use "assessment" because the work is broader than a single go/no-go test: it answers both can we raise this? and how do we raise this? in one integrated engagement.
What if the study says we're not ready?
That is one of the most valuable possible outcomes. A pre-campaign delay is vastly cheaper than a public miss — and the report becomes a workplan for the 12–18 months of readiness work ahead.
Who do you interview?
Your top 30–60 prospects and stakeholders: principal donors, board members, major institutional funders, and peer CEOs. Scope depends on campaign size and constituency.
Do interviewees know the campaign goal?
We test a goal range with each interviewee and calibrate based on reactions. Candor is the point — confidential 1:1 format is what lets prospects tell us what they wouldn't tell you.
Can an assessment be done in under 12 weeks?
Rarely well. The calendar friction is interview scheduling, not our capacity. Compressed timelines usually mean fewer interviews — which means less reliable findings.

Start a conversation

Tell us what your board is weighing.

A 30-minute call with a senior advisor. We'll tell you whether a full assessment is the right next step — or whether a lighter readiness check will do.

Book a 30-minute call