There is a legend in baseball that one of the reasons Ted Williams was such a great hitter was due to his ability to see the seams on the baseball as it came hurling toward him at 95 miles an hour. Supposedly, his eyesight was so good, he could essentially slow the ball down, seeing the seam and curve of the ball, making it easier to hit.
Running a capital campaign can feel as intimidating as trying to hit a major league fastball. But, like Ted Williams, or any great hitter, we need to recognize that hitting a ball requires several key steps, performed in the right order. With practice, we get better and better and soon we don’t think about the individual steps. We just see the ball coming, swing, and hit it out of the park.
A batter focuses on his stance, the release and swinging to where the ball is going to be. As nonprofit leaders, we too have steps to do before we can take our swing. So let’s slow it down and look for the seams.
First, we need a solid stance. We talk a lot about Case, Prospects, Leadership and a Plan. We emphasize this because we know that success in any campaign comes down to success in these four areas. Failure is usually a result of weakness in one or more of them – a weak stance.
Next, we need to watch the pitcher. Without a pitcher, there would be no ball to hit. Without the donor, our mission can’t succeed. Like a hitter responds to the action of a pitcher, we are in a relationship with our donors, looking to them for cues, feedback and the indication that they’re ready to play ball.
And finally: the swing. If you’ve ever watched a Little League game, you know the pain of watching kids swing at pitches way over their heads or standing timidly while perfect strikes are thrown past them. During campaigns, we need to think about the swings we take too – not stretching far beyond our home plate for pitches we have no business with, nor failing to reach out and connect with the pitch sent right down the middle.
Preparation and cultivation are the seams of our campaign ball. When we can slow down our campaign enough to see that those seams are stitched tight, we can be confident in our ability to connect with donors and take our game to a whole new level.
