Follow the Basics in Campaigns

To the Editor:

The Chronicle’s coverage of Marianne Briscoe’s presentation at the National Society of Fund Raising Executives conference, “Venture Capitalists Are Changing the Capital-Campaign Rules, Fund Raisers Told” (April 6), was extremely interesting. She gives us flexible strategies for campaigns and to respond to the new environments we may find as we build the case for a specific campaign.

However, as a fund-raising professional also working in Silicon Valley, I would suggest that it is still prudent, unless “counter indicated,” to follow classic fund-raising practices and seek out lead gifts and campaign leadership early in the process. We have had good results asking for the million-dollar donation, even from a corporate investor, at the onset of the campaign. We have also been pleasantly surprised by our ability to recruit important community leadership to chair our campaign. We expect that this will aid us in meeting both our fund-raising and time-delineated goals.

Honey Meir-Levi
Executive Director
Ronald McDonald House at Stanford
Palo Alto, Calif.