Market rate for a capital campaign feasibility study averages $30,000 to $60,000, and often runs higher, depending on the size of the goal, the number of interviews, and whether prospect research is folded in. Some firms sell a shorter version — a market test, a pre-campaign study — for less.
What the study actually buys you
A consultant takes your top prospects, your board, a few lapsed donors — and interviews them confidentially. What would you support? At what level? What would you need to see first? What do you think of the leadership? People say things to a third party they will never say to your face.
You get back a report with a recommended goal, a gift table, a read on who your lead donors might be, and an honest picture of your reputation in the community.
What it won't ask
A study won't ask whether your development director has forty hours a week that aren't already spoken for. It won't ask whether your ED intends to still be in that chair in year three, or whether your board chair understands that "supporting the campaign" means picking up the phone and asking a friend for $50,000.
Do these in the wrong order and you pay for both
The report comes back cautiously positive — most of them do, because people are polite in interviews and nobody in the room has an interest in the campaign not happening. Board votes. Campaign launches. Six months in, nobody can pull a clean prospect list, and the development director just gave notice. So you hire somebody else to fix the wiring. Mid-campaign. That second engagement costs more than the first one would have.
What belongs first
Run a readiness audit on yourself. Eight places to look: mindset and cultural readiness, transformational vision, board and leadership alignment, case for support, financial clarity and feasibility, fundraising infrastructure, donor base and potential, reputation and track record. The free Campaign Readiness Assessment walks all eight — 34 questions, about fifteen minutes.
Do your own donor listening. Call your top fifteen donors. Ask what they think the organization should be doing five years from now, and listen for whether the building comes up on its own.
Clean the data before someone bills you $50,000 to be surprised by it. Every campaign I've been part of has had a week where the whole thing stopped while somebody reconciled the database. Have that week now.
Get the board conversation on the record. Ask, out loud, in a meeting: who at this table is willing to make an ask? Write down the names.
Then hire the study.
When the study is exactly the right spend
If your readiness picture is solid and the only genuinely open question is the number — hire the study. Same if your goal is several times your annual operating budget and nobody internally has a defensible sense of scale.
What I'd argue with is spending it to avoid a conversation you could have next Tuesday for free. That conversation is what the Capital Campaign Incubator is built around.
Free guide
Hiring campaign counsel? Run the gut check first.
25 interview questions with scoring, the red flags that mean walk away, and a scorecard your whole board can fill in before anyone signs. Free — and it's in your hands the moment you sign up.
