Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves leading the successful completion of AMAZING CHARITY’s $15 million campaign to accomplish the strategic priorities that you played a role in shaping that will change lives. First, make your own leadership gift. Then, help recruit a dedicated team of volunteer solicitors willing to do the same. However, it is essential that some of your team members have a proven record of securing major gifts.

You will also need an experienced campaign professional to keep you and your team on task. You have 48 hours to accept your assignment. As always, should any member of your team be caught off guard with a sudden gift, we will disavow its unexpected nature and happily celebrate. This message will self-destruct in five minutes.

I just love an action-packed film like Mission Impossible with incredible feats, all accomplished despite many daunting obstacles. An unlikely collection of characters with super human stick-to-it-tiveness working together towards a common goal will have me rooting for them scene after scene. This winning film formula may also apply in a competitive campaign environment, because sometimes embarking on a campaign may feel like an impossible mission requiring “special” forces.

A campaign usually has challenges, especially in today’s new economy. However, by adequately preparing your amazing leaders who believe they can and will succeed, the campaign will attract support in spite of any obstacles.

You need amazing leaders. A successful campaign requires a cast of characters who demonstrate vision, courage and down-right determination. Important details will need to be sorted out well before the quiet launch; at the very top of your pre-campaign checklist is assembling this team.

For starters, having a chief executive with a clear vision and the ability to passionately share it will set the stage for your overall campaign success. You want staff and board members alike racing to fulfill this vision.

Equally as important is a dedicated board, respected by the community, who sets the giving bar high. It is not unusual for an organization to strengthen its board in preparation for a campaign.

Selecting your campaign chair (or co-chairs) will definitely involve more time than Agent Ethan Hunt takes to select his Mission Impossible teammates. You will need to cultivate someone who will enthusiastically share in the process of creating the campaign goals and objectives. Your campaign readiness process may require a feasibility study, a market testing or a combination of both, a process that may help narrow your search. You want a strong leader who is highly regarded, genuinely passionate about your mission, willing to give a major gift and unafraid to ask others to do the same.

The right campaign leaders will make the seemingly “impossible” possible.

Campaign leaders must have an unwavering belief that success is theirs. Live it. Breathe it. Think it. Feel it. And like Ethan Hunt and his Mission Impossible team, never, never, never, never, never give up until you can say: Mission accomplished!