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Home > The Building Process > Determine the Feasibility
Determine Feasibility Before You Commit to a Project
Building projects create excitement. This excitement, if not tempered by a careful assessment of what can realistically be accomplished by the parish or school, can quickly lead to unrealistic expectations or disappointments if the goals become unattainable.
For these reasons, the next step after envisioning the project and assigning leadership for the project to a committee, is to address the feasibility of the project or "affordability". This includes a campaign feasibility study, which is an assessment of what the capital campaign might yield, and a facilities needs assessment, which determines what size and type of building you can afford based on the estimated fundraising goal, as well as the repair and maintenance needs of your current physical plant.
You may choose to hire a capital campaign consultant to conduct a campaign feasibility study. This type of feasibility study is a systematic analysis and projection of:
- How much revenue you can expect to raise toward the project
- How long it will take to raise that revenue
- How broad-based the support will be within your parish
- The extent and amount of special, large donations that can be anticipated
Together, this information will tell you if your project as envisioned is too ambitious or if the project needs to be modified, scaled back, or split into several phases.
After your campaign feasibility study, and as you start to see the results of your capital campaign, CFC can work with you to revise your project cash flow pro forma (financial feasibility) and update your assumptions. The revised pro forma might suggest that the project be smaller or larger than originally envisioned.
Without a formal feasibility study, any figure you discuss will be largely an educated guess. For this reason, the Archdiocese Administration and Financial Services area recommends that you conduct a formal feasibility study for any sizeable project.
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