Campaign Planning When the Future Is Fuzzy

The Intentional Fundraiser Podcast · Aug 18, 2026 · 24m

"What's our plan if we only raise nine?"

A campaign chair asked that in a planning meeting for a $14 million campaign, and the room went completely quiet.

She wasn't being negative. She'd run a manufacturing business for thirty years, and she said, "I've never run a three-year plan that came in exactly where the model said it would."

So we built an answer. Three of them, honestly. Conservative, moderate, and optimistic, all built around one internal working goal.

Eighteen months later, the $4 million lead gift came in at $1.8 million.

In most campaigns, that's an emergency board meeting. In…