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CAMPAIGN

At Ostara, our campaign approach is holistic and rooted in strengthening clients' overall fundraising capacity.

We provide on-the-ground support because we know that a successful campaign is built on the foundation of a thriving annual fund operation.

In close collaboration with your staff and board, we help identify achievable goals and build a comprehensive campaign plan. We partner with you to deepen authentic and meaningful community engagement so that your organization can achieve lasting sustainability after the campaign ends.

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Planning - including visioning, case development, goal development, fundraising strategy, and implementation & prospect mapping

Feasibility - stakeholder engagement and community outreach

Development Assessment - to ensure campaign readiness

Campaign Readiness - high-level discussions regarding campaign preparations

Campaign Training - on how to cultivate and solicit donors

Campaign Grant Research & Execution

Case Development

Campaign Management - committee facilitation, moves management tracking, and prospecting and dashboard tools

General Campaign Counsel - strategy for and execution of any campaign-related activities, once a campaign is underway

Case Studies

Bainbridge Performing Arts

Bainbridge Performing Arts (BPA) promotes appreciation of and participation in the performing arts to build, educate, entertain, and inspire our vibrant, creative community. BPA envisions an inclusive and connected community in which we spark joy and change lives by creating a “brave space” for the pursuit of equitable, creative, and educational experiences.

At BPA, we value imagination, diversity, accessibility, transparency, inclusion, sincerity, respect, equity, equality, joy, responsibility, sustainability, and leadership in the course of our creative exploration of the performing arts. We believe unequivocally that Black lives matter.

By the winter of 2019, Bainbridge Performing Arts had been building up to a capital campaign for nearly four years - but it was Ostara that helped us turn momentum into direction.

When Covid-19 closed our doors just a few months later, our consultant joined us for an enormous pandemic pirouette. Together we strategized, redesigned, and creatively relaunched a campaign that didn’t just raise the money that the organization needed, we raised the spirits of a community desperately seeking hope in a moment of unparalleled uncertainty. Ostara's support lifted us with every turn: an expert for the committee, a partner for leadership staff, and a fount of encouragement for volunteers and donors alike.

In October of 2023, after successfully raising $18 million, we opened The Buxton Center for Bainbridge Performing Arts on time, on budget, and without debt - a feat that could not have been accomplished without Ostara at our side.

Porchlight (formerly Congregations for the Homeless)

Porchlight, formerly known as Congregations for the Homeless (CFH), operates East King County’s only emergency men’s shelter and provides wraparound programs and care to support men experiencing homelessness.

In 2018, the organization cast a vision to build the eastside’s first and only permanent emergency men’s shelter, and began raising capital to renovate their temporary shelter and construct a permanent facility. In 2021, with $10 million in government and private commitments in hand, they sought to raise a final $5.5 million in private funds over 1-2 years.

Ostara was hired to provide comprehensive campaign counsel, including establishing clear goals, timelines and reports, managing and training volunteer fundraisers, advising on grants and major donor strategy, and project managing campaign meetings and activities. With our practical experience shepherding large capital campaigns and our empathetic, shoulder-to-shoulder approach, we embedded with the team to navigate the complex project and relationships.

With a strengths-based approach, Ostara helped leverage an effective steering committee, project team and executive director, as well as expand the case for support and goal around a more comprehensive $25 million vision to account for increased costs, capital reserves and startup operating expenses. Over the next 18 months, the vision was met with enthusiasm by the funding community, and as construction drew to completion, the staff took the campaign over goal with a public phase and celebration in 2023.

Youth Eastside Services

Youth Eastside Services has been providing mental health counseling and substance use treatment to youth, from birth to age 22, and their families for over 55 years.

Youth in the US have seen a rapid rise in mental health challenges over the past several decades, and recent world events have only made circumstances more dire and the support that YES provides even more vital. Yet YES’ ability to meet rapidly growing demand has been restricted by a constantly changing financial landscape that includes unpredictable insurance and government Medicare reimbursements. Unsatisfied with these limitations, YES determined that they needed an enduring solution to their financial constraints.

Ostara is partnering with YES to build an endowment strategy that will secure their future. Ostara is currently delivering campaign strategy, campaign management, planned giving counsel and case for support development.

Green Lake Small Craft Center

According to the Trust for Public Land, Green Lake Park is the most visited public park in the Pacific Northwest, welcoming over 3,650,000 people each year. One of the park’s most heavily-used facilities is Green Lake Small Craft Center. Nestled in the southwest corner of the park, it is one of the very few options for low-cost water sports in the city.

With its growing popularity and use, the Green Lake Small Craft Center realized a great need to increase its capacity to serve more visitors. To do this, the organization began a $6.2 million campaign to create a new Green Lake Community Boathouse. The new facility will create a community gathering place that connects people of all ages, abilities, neighborhoods, incomes, and backgrounds to the transformational experience of water sports.

In 2017, the Green Lake Small Craft Center approached Ostara to help lead the organization through a campaign planning study, grant-writing support, and campaign counsel. Together, we built a strong campaign strategy and a unique partnership between the campaign’s dedicated volunteers and Ostara. Even with limited staff capacity, this task force took on the campaign with ease, raising 95% of its $6.2 million dollar goal by the end of 2019.

Green Lake Small Craft Center is on track to begin construction in the summer of 2020. This campaign demonstrates what can be accomplished with a stellar volunteer project manager and a fearless volunteer team that has a common goal, strategy, and passion. We are thrilled with the progress they have made and look forward to seeing the impact of their new Green Lake Community Boathouse.

Ballard Food Bank

Ballard Food Bank’s mission is to bring food and hope to our neighbors…because there can be enough for everyone. To achieve this mission, Ballard Food Bank provides access to nutritious foods and services that support self-sufficiency through our food bank, home delivery, and weekend food for kids program, as well as an emergency financial assistance program. Ballard Food Bank serves northwest Seattle across seven zip codes, all the way up to 145th.

With the lease on their current building ending, the food bank was in need of a new home. To help plan and prepare for the major fundraising required to fund a new space, Ballard Food Bank engaged Ostara to do strategic planning, interim staffing, grant research and execution, talent management, campaign planning, and campaign counsel.

Ostara was able to partner holistically with Ballard Food Bank. From board retreats to the campaign planning study to interim staffing, grant research and management, and campaign counsel, Ostara has been a consistent thought and strategic partner with the food bank. We have also had the privilege of working shoulder-to-shoulder with food bank staff to help ensure that annual fundraising efforts continue to advance while helping to meet critical campaign milestones.

Ballard Food Bank has experienced tremendous growth and continues serving the community through its grocery store-model food bank and resource hub. The food bank also continues its efforts to raise funds for their new home on Leary Ave. Ostara is proud to remain as both a strategy and execution partner with the food bank to help realize their ambitious vision to ensure that all in our community are food secure and have the resources we need to thrive.

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