The Roaring 40s – The Hodge Group

Over recent years, I’ve been fortunate to travel on several occasions far into the
southern hemisphere. The lower latitudes are known as the roaring 40s, the fierce 50s, and the scary 60s. This refers to some of the world’s worst weather at these latitudes, but it also made me think about campaigns and fundraising.

My experience of 30+ years shows that when a campaign has raised 40-60% of its goal, the climate can become pretty ferocious. Why?

You’ve had a great start to your campaign and built momentum, and things have gone comfortably to the 40% mark. However, reaching that 40% required 2-4 asks and now you have to make another 20-40 to close out the campaign.
You’ve visited with your best prospects and had a high degree of success. Now,
you’ll need to do more research and board-led peer review sessions to “get more names on the table.”

Your confidence doesn’t match what’s in front of you. The reality is that there are some headwinds and big waves ahead.

The larger prospect pool is going to require more administrative work and
research capabilities.
As you get further down in your prospect list, people may not be giving at what
your organization expected, or they may not give at all. You have to push through the roaring 40s, the fierce 50s, and the scary 60s to get to a place where the campaign is seen as “almost done” and the foundations love you. This is when you’d hit around 80% of campaign goal.

Navigating through these tough waters is what we do at The Hodge Group. Our full
fractional model is built so that we understand your current and potential donors from month one of our engagement with you, and that in turn allows us to identify potential donors you may not have heard of yet as well. We recruit volunteers for peer review sessions and lead them through a cohort model that empowers but doesn’t overwhelm them.