In working with donors’ money, you want to measure twice and cut once in your building planning efforts.
In selecting an architect for your building, you should check with your peers in the region and nationally. Whom have they used successfully that knows your type of building? However, be careful, you want to use as many local people in your building process as possible (architects, contractor, subcontractors) so you can tell the story of how donors’ money has helped the local economy. A local architect can always hire a national science lab firm as a design partner to bring you the best of local and national resources to your building planning efforts.
Invite 3 to 5 people to join your building committee. Ideally, a board member who has built things before should chair it. If your board doesn’t have this expertise, a board member can still chair the committee but seek community members who have built company headquarters, run construction companies (either building or road work, ideally both). You need someone from the financial and facilities side of your nonprofit organization as well as you the major gifts fundraiser.
If you have a lead donor who has invested in the building and is interested in the process, invite them to the table as well.
If you will be needed city or county zoning permits or other political insights to make your project move forward, make sure to include people who know how the city planning system works and is used to interacting with it. Many times your architect brings these skills to the table, but it’s also helpful to have a board member or volunteer with political leverage on your side.
The committee should consider the criteria for issuing an RFP to find an architect. Your experienced committee members will have samples of an RFP or you can call a locally prominent architect that you would like to invite into the process to help you develop one. Determine if all committee members or only one person (usually better for consistently of answers) should be the contact person for inquiries. You should also consider whether to ask candidate firms to issue their questions in writing so that you can respond to everybody at once with all of the answers. Also, decide on whether you will allow them to make site visits prior to their presentations.
After issuing the RFP and allowing 4 to 6 weeks for firms to respond, the committee should meet to narrow the list of finalists to no more than 3. You should schedule full committee meetings to hear the final presentations.
Please check references. How good was the architectural budget forecasting? How well did their conceptual design work translate into construction drawings and then successful building programs? Check with other nonprofits the architect helped and with the contractors who implemented their plans.
Good luck. This is a fun process. Time consuming, but exciting.
Architectural image courtesy of WRNS Studios
Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts
In selecting an architect for your building, you should check with your peers in the region and nationally. Whom have they used successfully that knows your type of building? However, be careful, you want to use as many local people in your building process as possible (architects, contractor, subcontractors) so you can tell the story of how donors’ money has helped the local economy. A local architect can always hire a national science lab firm as a design partner to bring you the best of local and national resources to your building planning efforts.
Invite 3 to 5 people to join your building committee. Ideally, a board member who has built things before should chair it. If your board doesn’t have this expertise, a board member can still chair the committee but seek community members who have built company headquarters, run construction companies (either building or road work, ideally both). You need someone from the financial and facilities side of your nonprofit organization as well as you the major gifts fundraiser.
If you have a lead donor who has invested in the building and is interested in the process, invite them to the table as well.
If you will be needed city or county zoning permits or other political insights to make your project move forward, make sure to include people who know how the city planning system works and is used to interacting with it. Many times your architect brings these skills to the table, but it’s also helpful to have a board member or volunteer with political leverage on your side.
The committee should consider the criteria for issuing an RFP to find an architect. Your experienced committee members will have samples of an RFP or you can call a locally prominent architect that you would like to invite into the process to help you develop one. Determine if all committee members or only one person (usually better for consistently of answers) should be the contact person for inquiries. You should also consider whether to ask candidate firms to issue their questions in writing so that you can respond to everybody at once with all of the answers. Also, decide on whether you will allow them to make site visits prior to their presentations.
After issuing the RFP and allowing 4 to 6 weeks for firms to respond, the committee should meet to narrow the list of finalists to no more than 3. You should schedule full committee meetings to hear the final presentations.
Please check references. How good was the architectural budget forecasting? How well did their conceptual design work translate into construction drawings and then successful building programs? Check with other nonprofits the architect helped and with the contractors who implemented their plans.
Good luck. This is a fun process. Time consuming, but exciting.
Architectural image courtesy of WRNS Studios
Tom Wilson
Author, Winning Gifts
Permanent Link: How Should Nonprofit Building Planning Committees Work?
http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/02/how-should-nonprofit-building-planning.html
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