Economic & Community Development Expert
Joins STELLAR Executive Team

Susan L. Milhoan, MBA, APR, CAE has joined STELLAR Fundraising Executives, Inc. as Executive Vice President.

Milhoan brings more than 20 years of economic and community development and association management experience to the table having served in an executive capacity with chambers and trade associations in Florida, Michigan and Virginia. She is also spent many years as a journalist and communications counselor and is an accredited public relations practitioner. "Susan's role at STELLAR will enable us to improve on our high quality communications and marketing efforts on behalf of our clients and their campaigns," commented STELLAR Founder and CEO Terry J. Cusack.

Most recently Milhoan has served as a consultant to nonprofits via Association a la Carte. Her certification as an association executive (CAE) will further strengthen and bring added-value to the STELLAR portfolio of client services. "I learned so much from Susan and I gained tremendous respect for her work while we held executive positions at the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce. A few high-profile projects we directed included Jacksonville's bid to be awarded the NFL Jaguars franchise, and with direct responsibility for the chamber's very first $10 million economic and community development initiative, Cornerstone Partners-in-Progress" added Cusack.

If you'd like to reach Susan to congratulate her on joining STELLAR, or you'd just like to say hello, please email her today at susan@stellarfundraising.com; we're sure she'd love to hear from you!

To learn more about Susan Milhoan, her experience and impressive credentials, please click HERE!

The Santa Rosa (CA) Chamber Hits $3 Million Goal;
Extends STELLAR Campaign Engagement

With a campaign goal of $3.0 - $3.25 million for the very first ever regional economic and community development campaign by the Santa Rosa (CA) Chamber of Commerce, BEST (Building Economic Success Together) has hit its $3.0 million fundraising campaign goal! "Regardless of what you might have read or heard about the national -- and especially the California economy, chamber President and CEO, Jonathan Coe and his visionary volunteer leadership team are taking full responsibility for Sonoma County's (CA) future economic and community prosperity and laying claim to, and proactively shaping, their future economic vitality in a bold way that more communities should emulate" said STELLAR Founder and CEO, Terry J. Cusack.

"The Chamber leadership realizes that there still remain many more potential investors that must be invited to participate in the Campaign" said STELLAR VP, Trip Snelson. "There's considerably more funding still on the table to be raised to reach or exceed our stretch goal of $3.25 which will subsequently enhance our already aggressive budget to foster jobs and capital investment in the North Bay."

BEST is a bold new five-year regional economic and community development program with five strategic initiatives designed to create jobs, develop the workforce, and improve the regional business climate.

To learn more about the BEST effort, visit the campaign and info website by clicking here. 

There's Always Funding Available for Important and Impactful Organizations and Initiatives

In today's economic climate far too many economic and community development entities are quick to assume that funding opportunities just aren't available at this time. Too often such organizations act timidly and shelve their capital campaign needs in the misplaced hope that an improving market might be more promising.

Counterintuitively, there is no better time than now to be out raising big money for your communities' future prosperity. Organizations that have a track record of delivering results or that make a thoughtful and compelling case for funding are meeting with considerable success (as evidenced by the above story!). The key is planning, understanding your current and potential investors and your marketplace and making the appropriate bold, compelling multi-year "ask" for support in a way that demonstrates your programs overall economic impact and investor ROI; your investors are sick and tired of being nickled and dimed for warm and fuzzy events and non-job producing/retaining service programs!

Today your major supporters will only invest big dollars in programs that will produce positive economic results for their communities. Similarly, investors demand a funding approach based on strategic outcomes. It is not enough to suggest that "if you build it they will come." However, if you outline a plan and identify aggressive, yet realistic results that resonate with investors, our experience in communities large and small and from coast to coast clearly shows that campaign success is dramatically improved.

"In almost two decades of working with economic and community development groups, I have learned firsthand that there's always funding available for important and impactful organizations and initiatives," said STELLAR Founder and CEO Terry J. Cusack. "The goal is rarely to fund 'bricks and mortar' projects; we typically raise program funding targeted to recruit, retain and grow jobs and capital investment and that address current local workforce issues. Truth be told, when it comes to 'bricks and mortar" campaigns; it's the bundle of program needs you've attached to your 'bricks and mortar' needs that actually sell the need for building projects and not vice-versa. Results sell programs."

If you're in charge of developing your community and area economy, you must have the vision and guts to LEAD, think and act boldly, that's what winning communities have been doing for decades – that's how they became winning communities (and winning executives) in the first place! A well-crafted funding strategy is essential to success, Cusack advises. Communication and connections with investors early in the process enables organizations to fine tune their plans and brings top area leadership and their investment dollars to the table. Doing the same old tired small-scale funding efforts aren't going to propel your organization, your community, or your career anywhere but down the road to the corner of irrelevancy and inconsequential!

NOTE:  Start building a better-funded, stronger-led, more-respected organization today that can help accelerate your future economic success, prosperity and vibrancy to exciting new levels, just by clicking HERE you can request your FREE STELLAR Fundraising info kit or by simply calling 888-897-4667

When you’re on the call (888-897-4667), please remember to ask STELLAR Business Manager Erin Rodriguez to schedule a FREE 45-minute private call with STELLAR Fundraising Founder and CEO, Terry J. Cusack where together you and Terry will work to flesh out and identify and discuss your community’s most critical needs, opportunities and threats. Next Terry will show you how you can transform this new data into a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) that’s ready for use in a Feasibility Study to measure community support for your organization, garner feedback on the community’s past, present and future economic development, and determine at what financial level stakeholders might be willing to invest. If sufficient community and financial support is found and cultivated during the study-process, a fundraising goal and estimated length of campaign should be ascertained and included in your Feasibility Study Findings Report.

Conducting a Feasibility Study is like doing your due diligence before launching a campaign; plus there’s enormous PR value in conducting a Feasibility Study, when was the last time your top 100 community leaders sat down for an hour and focused exclusively on your organization, it’s vision and goals and asked to become engaged?

Filling Up Your Funding Tank: Six Critical Errors Can Leave Your Campaign Running On Empty

STELLAR Executive Vice President, John J. Vishio has conducted feasibility studies and capital campaigns for more than 35-years throughout the country, soliciting millions of dollars for organizations of all types and sizes. As diverse as the fundraising goals may be, all campaigns can die as the result of six critical errors according to Vishio.

1. Insufficient program and campaign plan orientation of volunteer leaders and staff.
2. Invalid or incomplete Case for Support (Case Statement) and weak or off-the-shelf R.O.I.
3. Unrealistic evaluation of investor prospects.
4. Selecting the wrong campaign leaders; particularly in the general chair(s) position.
5. Solicitation of prospective investors without proper cultivation and from top-investors down.
6. Failure of campaign leaders to make their own pace-setting pledges of support early and to “show the way for others to follow and emulate.” 

Effective and experienced campaign management should identify and address each of these challenges before damage is done to a campaign.

"For many clients, a capital campaign is unfamiliar territory," Vishio explains. "Someone unaccustomed to fundraising could easily overlook these critical errors, and inadvertently damage the campaign, organization and credibility with top volunteers."

To learn the right steps now on what it takes to run a successful, community-wide, large-scale campaign, click HERE! , or email John at john@stellarfundraising.com as he's a wealth of info and more than happy to help you; just be warned, John's a New Englander so he talks kinda funny! Seriously, John's a GREAT guy who'd welcome your call Toll-Free 888-897-4667

Don't get left out of next year's budget, or wait until 2013!

According to STELLAR EVP, John Vishio, "The Fall is the ideal time to do a Fundraising Feasibility Study, since local corporations are finalizing next year's giving budgets at about this time of year." A Fall Study allows STELLAR clients to get on the "radar screen" for next year's budgets, preventing the common objection we often hear at STELLAR;

"I'm sorry, but our budget is set for this (2012) year, perhaps we can begin our new five year campaign imvestment next year (2013)."

Savvy clients are launching Campaign Feasibility Studies now so they can begin to receive Campaign cash-flow next year, vs. being forced to wait until 2013 budgets! Also, please remember, make no small plans! And if you go to the well, draw deep, and cover all your program and facility needs via one bold multi-year campaign! Feel free to contact John with questions or for assistance at john@stellarfundraising.com or call him Toll Free at 888-897-4667. John is always happy to lend his support and share his vast fundraising knowledge.

We're Hiring - Join The Growing STELLAR Team

Interested in learning about joining the growing STELLAR Fundraising team?

Our experts come from varied backgrounds such as fundraising, economic development, politics, nonprofit management, legal, business, banking, chamber and EDC work and various other fields. STELLAR is looking for hard-charging, can-do executives that exude confidence and who aren’t intimidated by large projects. They enjoy being the out-of-town expert who’s genuinely here to help a campaign succeed. They work closely with the area’s TOP business and community leaders to raise millions for important bold new community initiatives, projects and/or major undertakings to help ensure that the community gets stronger, adds jobs and capital investment; or maybe revitalize a community by helping fund the renovation of an historic downtown theater back to its glory days!

If you’re reading this, you’ve likely orchestrated a number of terrific projects for your home town market, so why stop there? Why not replicate your success nationally as a member of the STELLAR team and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. When you join STELLAR, you’ll be working with the best-of-the-best; people who love making a difference and helping communities survive and thrive! After your intensive STELLAR training period, you may be running a small $1 million chamber building campaign in Mississippi, or working in Seattle, Washington on a feasibility study for an exciting new $10 million branding and marketing program designed to market the region to business relocation consultants and prospects. As a Vice President and Senior Consultant with STELLAR, the scenery is always changing: every year or so you’ll be charged with directing another feasibility study and cool fundraising campaign anywhere in the US. Client communities are as diverse as their funding needs.

If you’re guided by a strong moral compass, and you “work hard to always do the right thing, even when no one else is looking” you may have what it takes to become a member of the highly respected STELLAR Team and we want to talk with you soon! As a 1st-step, please email a cover letter detailing precisely what you feel you’d bring to STELLAR and our clients, and why you want to join STELLAR, then please email your letter and résumé to BOTH susan@stellarfundraising.com AND erin@stellarfundraiising.com.

We hope you enjoyed this issue of Fundamentals and the helpful information and ideas it provided. Feel free to check out past issues of Fundamentals and other helpful articles from our STELLAR team of experts HERE.

Again, please remember, Make No Small Plans!

And, if you go to the well, draw deep, and cover all your program and facility needs via one bold multi-year campaign! If I can be of assistance, please email me directly at ceo@stellarfundraising.com or call me personally on my cell phone at 770-380-7707.

Terry J. Cusack

Founder, CEO and Fundraising SME
STELLAR Fundraising Executives, Inc.

STELLAR Fundraising Executives, Inc.
438 Osceola Avenue
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250
Toll Free: 1-888-897-5667
Off: 904-270-0153
Fax: 904-270-0189

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