The usual length is from several weeks to several months, but be prepared for the fact that annual campaigns almost always take longer than planned. An annual campaign relies upon a great many solicitors, and those solicitors will not all operate at optimum efficiency. They have other commitments, and the people they are trying to reach are not always available on the first try. Realistically, from the time solicitors start contacting prospects to close of effort, I like to see an annual campaign last no more than about six weeks. Because of its broad-based nature, an annual campaign cannot rely upon individually rating prospects as strongly as do capital and endowment campaigns.
Annual campaigns can have hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of potential donors.
You rate and evaluate as many of those prospects as you can. At the Cleveland Orchestra, volunteer groups, such as our Women's Committee, were asked to go over the list of subscribers who were non-donors. Those subscribers whom someone could recommend as being able to contribute a specific amount were solicited for that amount. Subscribers for whom we had no information other than where they lived or the cost of their seats in our concert hall would be put down for an arbitrary, but we hoped realistic, suggested giving level. Failing to suggest a specific gift size is the most common mistake made in annual campaigns.