Few situations are more damaging to the image of an organization than announcing the planned construction of a new facility and then failing to raise the money to build. The motivating force for a capital campaign is the cost of the asset to be acquired. All too often, organizations make that cost figure the goal of the campaign without evaluating their donor base. You have to make the decision to commit to a capital expense based on your ability to raise the money to pay for it, not decide how much you need to raise based on the expense. It is vitally important not to let the tail wag the dog.
Capital campaigns run longer than annual campaigns.
Usually they should be wrapped up within a year, eliminating the risk of carrying over into successive annual campaigns. Ideally, the money to pay for a building should be in hand before ground-breaking. There is, however, a very real risk in going too far with construction. If the building is completed and occupied, and the organization is trying to raise money to pay off a bridge loan, a campaign will have lost some of its sense of immediacy. It is also likely that by that time prospects will assume the campaign is over.