Capital Campaign Strategy & Community-Powered Fundraising

Challenger Learning Center of Northwest Indiana faced a critical moment. The organization needed to launch a $1,000,000 capital fundraising campaign to support relocation to a new facility and secure its long-term future. The timeline was tight, the stakes were high, and the board needed a campaign that could reach both the general public and high-level community decision makers.

They needed a structured, strategic campaign framework that could support public-facing fundraising, major donor conversations, grant requests, and sponsorship outreach simultaneously. campaign that was organized, repeatable, community-driven, and credible with institutional funders.

The campaign needed to function at two levels: broad community engagement and targeted leadership fundraising.

Key goals included:

• Build a branded, credible capital campaign platform

• Develop professional materials for grant and sponsorship meetings

• Create public-facing campaign messaging and visuals

• Expand fundraising capacity beyond the board of directors

• Equip community leaders to actively participate in fundraising

• Launch a structured social media crowdfunding campaign

We approached the campaign as both a marketing initiative and an operational fundraising system. 

First, we established a clear campaign identity and message framework that could be used consistently across public communications, donor meetings, sponsorship decks, and grant conversations. From there, we built a dual-track campaign structure: one path focused on broad social crowdfunding and community awareness, and the other focused on high-value leadership meetings and institutional funding conversations.

To scale effort without overwhelming staff or board members, we created a Champion Toolkit and campaign playbook that enabled selected community leaders to fundraise independently using approved messaging, templates, visuals, and outreach plans.