Dreaming big: thanksgiving point launches its first capital campaign.

• Position: Lessons Learned

Thanksgiving Point founders and staff had a grand vision for a totally unique museum experience--something combining the fun of a children's museum with the educational value of a science museum. It would be engaging, interactive, inspiring. And it would take a lot of money to build.

The challenge: raise nearly $30 million to make the nebulous vision a reality.

The team was passionate about the new museum; they believed strongly in its potential value for local families and the community. But they had never been tasked to raise such a large sum before. "It was the first time Thanksgiving Point had gone out into the community for big support for a big new project," says CEO Mike Washburn.

So there was a steep learning curve for staff and volunteers--and for donors, who hadn't really thought of Thanksgiving Point as a nonprofit institution, says Washburn. Another difficulty was explaining the concept of a museum of "natural curiosity" to potential donors. "It's hard to adequately explain something so creative, so complex and big." he says.

And the capital campaign for the museum launched in 2008, right as the economy began to tank. As the recession dragged on, some major donors had to pull back on their commitment--including Utah County.

Despite all these challenges, Washburn says, "in the scheme of things, in a really bad economy, it actually went pretty well."

The campaign ended up taking longer than planners originally envisioned; they broke ground about 18 months later than hoped, in the spring of 2012, and the museum officially opened its doors in May of this year. In fact, the campaign is not officially over--Washburn says they're still hoping to raise another $700,000.

Getting Serious

Before Thanksgiving Point began actively fundraising, it spent several years developing the museum concept. Washburn says that an anonymous donor gave the organization enough money to work with architecture firm FFKR and exhibits company Roto, "to develop enough to actually go out and start talking to people about it."

One of the first fundraising steps for Washburn was finding the expertise to help organize a successful campaign. "Once we got serious, we realized that because we hadn't really done it before as an organization, we needed some expertise," he says. "We needed some key people--part volunteer, part paid--to help us understand how you run a capital campaign."

The paid help included new fundraising staff, as well as the nonprofit consulting...