How do you make your case to potential donors for your library? On this show Craig Palmer, Fund Development Manager for Sonoma County Library, returns to the podcast to expound on what he shared last year about Building Strong Library Foundations. Here, he talks about case statements—what they are, how they work, and their critical role in helping donors understand how our cause can be their cause.

Transcript

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This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. You’re listening to Library Leadership Podcast where we talk about libraries and leadership, and speak with guests who share their ideas, innovations, and strategic insights in the profession. 

How do you make your case to potential donors for your library? On this show Craig Palmer, Fund Development Manager for Sonoma County Library, returns to the podcast to expound on what he shared last year about building strong library foundations. Here, he talks about case statements—what they are, how they work, and their critical role in helping donors understand how our cause can be their cause.     Enjoy the show! 

Craig, welcome to the show.

Craig Palmer:

Adriane, I’m thrilled to be here again. Thank you.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #1:  I’m thrilled to have you back. We last talked in August 2024 about building strong library foundations. Today we will discuss using case statements in fundraising. As we begin, what exactly is a case statement?  01:28 

Craig Palmer:

[chuckle] That name does sound kind of ominous, doesn’t it? Maybe like an investment prospectus, maybe? The serious answer is the case statement is the valuable tool that explains the purpose and impact of your nonprofit to potential donors. More simply, it’s a statement that identifies an urgent and worthy need in the community, shares your agency’s bold vision for addressing that need, and then invites donors to get caught up in that vision. In short, for donors to make the exceptional difference with their participation. For me, it can be a real page-turner—or to put it in less serious sounding ways, Case statement is the Swiss Army knife of fundraising. Everything you’ll need is in it and handy.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #1:  If the case statement is the Swiss Army knife of fundraising, who needs one of these and what is it used for?  02:26 

Craig Palmer:

Oh, who needs a case statement? Boy, that’s an easy one. The answer is—everybody. Every agency raising funds needs one. Everyone. Whether the campaign goal is $100,000, $100 million—it’s perfect for the board member who is afraid to talk to donors because they don’t know what to say. It’s the seed corn—the ultimate source document for any and all components of the campaign going forward, used in a lot of mutually reinforcing ways like seasonal fundraising, appeals, speeches, website content, social media, messaging, signage. Name the strategy of the moment, the words you’ll need are in the case statement. Repeating that all the time won’t our audiences get bored, you ask? On the contrary, those multiple impressions are needed to get the message through all the white noise and into your stakeholders hearts and minds. Remember, we know our story inside and out because we live with it every day. Our prospects don’t live with it at all. Their lives are all about doing good in their jobs, family adventures, visiting with friends—for me, walking the dog, sports, anything but living with our story. What’s old hat for us is new hat for them.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #2:  Right. That said, will you share with our listeners how a case statement does this?  03:45 


Craig Palmer:

Oh, I think this is fun, Adriane, thanks for that. You know, it’s a conversation. First, it’s written from the perspective of the potential donor, literally to them, rather than a sales piece all about us. In other words, we don’t start off selling some program. Rather, we start by describing an urgent and worthy need and showing how the agency responds to it in the hopes of connecting with the prospect’s personal interest. Remember, like we talked last time, donors don’t give because we need the money. They give because our cause is their cause. We’re addressing a community need about which they care deeply and want to do something about. The writing style should be conversational, personal, not jargony, but balancing an emotional, heartfelt approach with the heady, hard facts of the situation.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #3:  This adds to what you shared in August about building strong library foundations. You say that when connecting with a potential donor, you first need to capture their interest. How can we do that?  04:38 

Craig Palmer:

[chuckle] Well, there’s two ways, Adriane. There’s two hooks, as it were. The campaign theme itself and the description of the need. I know that I come back to that a lot, but it’s the turning point, the pivot of what brings a case statement alive. The first section is always about the need—addressing that need being the ultimate focus of the campaign, consistent with the agency’s mission. This is a section where hard data and heartfelt emotion combust. 

The criterion for a compelling need is that for the community’s sake, it demands to be addressed with some urgency. For the donor’s sake, it also must be worthy of their investment of time and treasure—right now. Urgency is where the data points come in. Worthy is where the emotional appeal can be made. 

The campaign theme—those handful of carefully chosen words that will be the title of the case statement. And, in all campaign materials going forward will be the unifying rallying cry or tagline. Good taglines tend to keep the target audience in mind, and they are goal oriented—the call to action. Now we’re not looking for bright, snazzy, catchy phrases, which oftentimes can be cute but irrelevant. We’re looking for that pithy, succinct bit of fundraising, high-powered haiku. You’ve heard of the elevator pitch? The theme is the elevator pitch—when you’re on a high speed elevator and you’ve only got one floor before the target just runs out of the elevator. [chuckle] 

Here, the Sonoma County Library Foundation, the community for which we are building this new library had been ignored. Really. It was a classic, underserved community and it just could fly under the radar. We knew that building community was a key part of this. I’ve had the distinct pleasure and inspiration of building this case statement for the library with Library Director Erika Thibault. The theme is Creating Opportunities Together. You can see this case statement on the foundation’s website—SonomaLibraryFoundation.org. 

There had been an extensive community feedback phase to get this library moving, so that’s where the theme begins. Your feedback created the opportunity for the library director to create innovative programming that responded directly to six priority areas you requested as a community—which in turn created the opportunity for the architect to design the ideal space with the right flexibility to serve those six priorities, which created the opportunities for donors to see exactly where their contributions can have real impact and make a difference, which creates the opportunity for Roseland to have a model state of the art library.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #4:  I can see how that would capture the interest of potential donors. Once you have someone’s interest where does this go?   07:33 

Craig Palmer:

Well, thanks for that, Adriane. One way or another, the sections of a case statement are the same. Let me summarize the template and talk a little about each. Case statements unfold in much the same order as you would engage a donor. Think of each of these sections as a very succinct, informative, inspiring—maybe 400 words, maybe 300 words, always illustrated by one or two utterly eye-catching images. 

Each section will also get a headline. I like to think about these headlines as talking headlines, so that the reader who will just skim through our case—they’ll actually get the entire gist of it just by reading the headlines. For that reason, to get into the weeds, these headlines are sometimes set at a much larger point than 12 or 14, maybe something more like 30 or more. 

Anyway, after the need comes the agency’s history, achievements and mission. Then comes a description of how the agency proposes to respond to that need, and the impact the contributions will have. 

Then comes the budget showing the agency’s annual uses and sources of funds—that’s really important to have that, and why contributions are needed. Remember, a savvy donor will always first ask, can’t this be funded in another way? And the budget will show that, no, there is no other source. Without the donor’s participation, the agency will be unable to serve the community. And finally, with the reiteration of the campaign theme and a call to action—all the ways that a donor can participate. And finally, with the reiteration of the campaign theme and call to action all the ways the donor can participate.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #5:  That is helpful, and I know that telling our story is essential when fundraising. How does that work in a case statement?  09:18 

Craig Palmer:

Oh, Adriane, thanks for bringing the story aspect in. We always are about telling stories. Indeed, each one of these sections can be punctuated by a story, a testimonial from a person relative to that particular topic. Each testimonial will have a photo of the speaker if it’s possible. Offer just a few words—this is not a long bit of copy, and then their name as much as can be used. Sometimes in the case of a client, maybe just a first name or even a pseudonym. In the case of an acknowledged expert—full name, degrees, certifications, title, affiliation, the whole bit. 

Now here’s some examples by topic area. For example, in the need area, we’d want to recognize a third party expert in the field to validate the need. In the history section, maybe that’s the CEO, or a known beloved staff member who has been there, done that with the agency and can speak to it from the heart. In the response part, we’d like to have a client who’s benefited from the program or the agency’s work in other areas. For the budget, you need a board chair, a CFO, somebody like that. Then in the call to action, this is where we want to put a prominent donor who already gives.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #6:  You’ve given us much to work with to write a successful case statement. Are we ready to go, once we’ve done that? 10:39 

Craig Palmer:

You’d think so. But there’s one last step, and this is really the most important—we love all our babies, but they have to go out in the world and make it on their own. I like to go through one final step, which I call readers. These come from key target circles. These can include board members—I want to know, Does this case statement work for you? Can you easily navigate it? Is it easy to translate it for whatever prospect you’re with? Their feedback here can be invaluable, because the first place a case statement is going to be used is probably by board members, or solicitors, who want to use the case statement to tell the story. So the simple matter is, Does it work for you? And, whatever feedback you have I’m going to listen to and adapt.

You also want to share it with key current donors. And by the way, we’re not talking about bunches and bunches of people. We’re just talking about two or three in each one of these areas. Depending on the sections represented in your donor portfolio, individuals or institutions, select just two, maybe up to four to give a representation from each sector. Their feedback is going to come from the opposite perspective of board members. Does it reflect for them the reason why giving is so important to them? Maybe they have some other perspectives or interest areas that are more important that we hadn’t thought of. 

Finally, I like to share it with a couple of key staff members who are not part of the team who created it. Again, just select two or three. This sometimes can be a revelation in the bigger picture of establishing a culture of philanthropy in your organization. Ultimately, all staff members should be aware of the basic case at some level. No deep dive detailed necessarily, but the basic key points.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #7:  Is there anything else you’d like to share?  12:23 

Craig Palmer:

Let me just talk a little bit, sort of wide-shot about case statements—I know that as I’ve traveled in my career, case statements can be those things that have some mystery or distance or, Oh my gosh, it’s too complicated, or why do we need this, or whatnot? I always look at case statements as exactly the opposite. Doing the case statement is what ultimately animates everything else that follows, it’s the all purpose, Oh, I don’t have to worry, I have a case statement. I can go to it for whatever answer I need. I just urge everyone to think about whatever your situation is with the campaign, always start with the case statement, don’t agonize over why you don’t have it. [laughter]

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #8:  Good advice, Craig. Do you have any books or resources you’d like to share and why?  13:02 

Craig Palmer:

You know the interesting thing about it, through my career, there’s a lot of different sources online, especially now, that offer some sort of authoritative view one way or another. But for me, I just go to The Chronicle for Philanthropy, because what it’s talking about there are real-time examples of people grappling with campaigns in different sorts of ways. And ultimately, case statements are about positioning ourselves in the marketplace with the best strategy. I can get that pulse. I can get that bead going on best, there.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #9:   We can definitely learn from that. Thank you, Craig. In closing, what do libraries mean to you personally?   13:36 

Craig Palmer:

Oh gosh, Adriane, I think for folks like you and me, and everybody else listening in, these are changing times. Once upon a time, at the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, we developed a campaign around the theme Libraries Deliver Democracy. Right now, that idea has never seemed more urgent as libraries have evolved into these 21st century community centers, and safety nets in the community fray. Communities turn to our libraries for a wider range of essential services. Libraries themselves come under assault. Now libraries are the strong castle, welcoming safe places— places to hone the personal tools needed to persevere, to rise above limitations, to have hope, to fortify personal dignity. And it’s always free and it’s always accessible. So, right now for me, personally, libraries are delivering the future.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Question #10:   And Craig, the work you do building opportunities for donors to be a part of that is essential. I appreciate your information and knowledge to keep us all building that future and going strong for years to come.   14:39 

Craig Palmer:

Adriane, you provide a great service with these, and I’m always flattered to be included because it helps all of us just do better. So thank you.

Adriane Herrick Juarez:

Thank you, Craig. 

You’ve been listening to Library Leadership podcast. This is Adriane Herrick Juarez. For more episodes, tune into LibraryLeadershipPodcast.com, where you can now subscribe to get episodes delivered right into your email inbox. Our producer is Nathan Sinclair Vineyard. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time. 

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