The Endowment Handbook

2Are You Ready to Build Endowment?

This chapter enables you to:

• Understand the prerequisites to building endowment.
• Take stock of an organization's status and determine whether the time is right to initiate an endowment‐building effort.
• Engage key staff, donors, and other stakeholders whose support of endowment‐building will be essential.
• Identify and “de‐bunk” some of the myths that stand in the way of progress when building endowment.

Building an endowment requires specific fundraising techniques and fiscal discipline. It is essential for some causes while unsuitable for others. This chapter discusses the signs of an organization's readiness to launch a new endowment or build upon a nascent one. Some organizations conduct a formal assessment to determine if their development office is ready and the donors are receptive. The role of volunteers must be determined: will there be an endowment committee or an informal group of endowment champions? Based on an evaluation of several factors, every organization must identify how to build internal capacity and when to start the endowment‐building process.

Prerequisites for Endowment Building

No rule book dictates which organizations are ready to build an endowment and which are not, but there are several factors to take into consideration. Any organization that decides to prioritize endowment should assess strengths in the following areas and shore up weaknesses before devoting substantial resources to the effort. The factors, ...