What To Do When a Big Fundraising Campaign Fails

by George Konetes | Jun 6, 2025 | Fundraising

Everyone wants every fundraising campaign to be a monumental success. What many do not realize is that some of the biggest successes out there occurred because previous campaigns failed, and the team did not just sweep it under the rug but looked for clues as to why and embraced the learning process.

Whether you fell short of your revenue goal, had poor acquisition numbers, or received blowback from your donors or the media, if you acknowledge the outcome and work to find the misses, you are taking the shortest path to future success.

First, let us examine some of the most common reasons campaigns fail.

Bad Timing– For example, launching your new partnership campaign in the middle of summer will likely return results that are lower than they could have been if the timing was before or after vacation season.

Not Enough Communication– If the first invitation to your big event lands in homes just a week before show time, it may be hard to get people to come, even if they are your most loyal fans. Sometimes, advanced and frequent communication is needed to rally people to action.

The CTA Was Not Compelling– I have seen asks to give that essentially amount to “help us keep doing stuff.” There is a time to be general, but a big fundraising campaign should be able to concisely and emotively communicate not just what the funds will do but the lives transformed by the donor’s generosity.

Errors in Systems or Methodology– Not only do all the moving pieces like donation pages and vanity URLs need to work, but the flow of communication and response needs to make sense to the donors. Everything should be clear and in order, and connected properly for tracking and reporting.

Misalignment of Message– Sometimes, donors do not see things the way you see them. Your team thought it was clear and strong, but perhaps a cultural or political miscalculation caused your message to be received with confusion or even offense.

Finding the cause of poor results is important. It is not about blame or wallowing in failure. It is about getting better, smarter, and more effective. A campaign may be lacking in donations, but it could be abundant in lessons learned, and that silver lining should be affirmed. It is important to keep yourself and your team positive about this.

If the search for answers is not fearful or negative, you will get better insights from your team and more willingness to turn over every rock in the name of learning and improvement.

The specific reasons for failure could be diverse. But once you determine the factors that impacted your campaign, there are three general things you can do to act on your learnings.

Share the learnings– This should be obvious, but many good accounts of what went wrong end up collecting dust on a desk somewhere. Make sure the lessons learned are communicated to the right people in a positive way so all can benefit.

More advanced planning– Some campaigns are based on current events, and the only thing you can do is make decisions faster early on, but usually campaigns are seasonal or tied to known events that allow more lead time. If you give good people enough time to think, prepare, double-check, and research, you can solve and prevent a lot of problems.

More perspective– We all only know what we know, and we only see things the way we see them. Getting some outside eyes and ideas can help avoid potential land mines and develop better ways to accomplish the objectives.

Do you want to add some additional perspective for your next campaign? We would be happy to chat. Click here or call us today at 724-733-1200.