Fund the Big Picture: Community Impact and Capital Campaigns

At the turn of the 20^th century, Alamance County (N.C.) was home to 30 textile mills. By 1950, the city of Burlington was dubbed the Hosiery Center of the South. At the next turn of the century, the fabric of the textile-based economy was in question as companies moved overseas. In 2005, the Alamance County Economic Development Foundation was formed to ensure a transition toward new industries and livelihoods for local residents.

“The community really saw that as a crisis, decided we needed to do more in economic development and established an economic development foundation to fund bigger picture efforts,” said Andrea Fleming, the director of existing industry services for the Alamance Chamber. As the chamber stitched together a future vision that went beyond textiles, the organization needed a way to pay for the shift in focus.

The Alamance Chamber did in-house capital campaigns in both 2005 and 2008, raising $600,000 with each effort. In 2011, Convergent Nonprofit Solutions started working with the chamber and raised $1,780,000 to be invested over five years. “To raise that much additional money, you really need to have a process, a strategic plan and very professional asks for those kinds of dollars,” said Fleming. The chamber’s current campaign, which started in 2016 and runs through 2021, raised $1.9 million.

Convergent has supported campaigns that range from $1 million to $20 million, with those funds usually spent over three to five years. Rick Kiernan, a principal at Convergent, said fundraising is centered on community needs that a chamber or economic development organization can help tackle. 

“For most chambers, when you look at revenue streams, you’re looking at dues, non-dues revenue and cause-related fundraising,” he said. “It’s addressing those community needs. If they help you write your plan, they help you underwrite your plan.”

Fleming said the keys to their campaign’s success, launched with Convergent’s guidance, include leadership buy-in, sharing return on investment and communicating with investors. The chamber set a goal of creating 1,500 jobs and securing $250 million in announced investment. To date, there are 1,461 new jobs in Alamance County with nearly $530 million invested locally.