When the Water Quality Association (WQA) was considering whether to launch a major capital campaign to raise funds for its research foundation, it decided to test the waters first with a feasibility study.

This type of study, performed by an association or in collaboration with a consultant, helps organizations determine whether or not they should move forward with a capital or fundraising campaign by surveying a set of potential donors.

Done in-person and electronically, associations ask these potential donors if they would give to a certain campaign, whether they think the cause is important, and what they think about the potential campaign's timing and vision, among other questions. The entire process can take months, but it helps associations gauge a campaign's likelihood of success.

"In terms of fundraising, there's a difference between a good idea and a fundable idea," says Tyler Eble, assistant vice president at Association Development Solutions (ADS), which conducted the study on behalf of WQA. "That's what a feasibility study is going to answer for you. If you're doing a specific feasibility study for a campaign, you're testing whether or not this idea resonates with people."

If you're doing a specific feasibility study for a campaign, you're testing whether or not this idea resonates with people.—Tyler Eble, Association Development Solutions

Over the course of four to five weeks, ADS conducted personal interviews with dozens of WQA's most-engaged members, asking questions such as:

• How much would you personally invest in the research foundation?
• How much would your company invest in the research foundation?
• Are you interested in investing in the foundation's research? If so, what kinds of research are you most interested in helping to fund?

Those questions, and others, were then pooled together to form the basis of a supplemental electronic survey. The high level of interest and engagement among those surveyed led WQA to move forward with the capital campaign. "That was the one piece of data that told me that this is the time because if we wait another year and do another feasibility study, it could be lower based on the time [or] how the economy is—all of those things that you can't predict," Laura Undesser, WQA's deputy executive director, says.

As the campaign closed, WQA exceeded its goal of raising $2.5 million, bringing in closer to $2.9 million.

"Can you be successful without doing a feasibility study?" Eble asks. "Of course, it is possible, but you don't want to leave it up to chance."

For instance, if an association were to just "shoot from the hip," Eble says, and dispatch a capital campaign without first checking its feasibility, it could find that members aren't excited about it or that the industry isn't going to support it.

Not only could the campaign fail, it could also end up irritating uninterested members. Because once you start a capital campaign with a big, lofty goal, "it's important that you see it through even if it takes years" to reach your goal.

Looking back on the experience, Eble says he probably would not start another capital campaign without first conducting a feasibility study. The information collected helped WQA to time the campaign, create reliable messaging, and establish a benchmark aligned to investor's expectations.