nonprofit_case_statement v1.0.0

name: nonprofit_case_statement description: "Write a nonprofit case statement for a campaign: the problem in human terms, the vision, the plan and its cost, proof the organisation can deliver, urgency, and the specific ask, in internal, print, and meeting versions. Ships the eight section argument structure, an evidence and consent rule set with a claim ledger, a checker that ties the budget and gift chart to the goal to the dollar, and two fully worked fictional statements at 300,000 and 6,000,000 dollars. Use when drafting or fixing a case for support, a campaign prospectus, or donor meeting material for a capital, program, or special campaign."

Nonprofit Case Statement

Purpose

Build the document a campaign actually raises money with. A case statement is one argument: here is the problem, here is what changes if it is solved, here is the plan and what it costs, here is the proof this organisation can deliver it, here is why now, and here is the specific amount being asked for. Everything else a campaign publishes, appeals, decks, grant text, meeting talk, gets cut from this argument.

Ship three versions from one source: an internal case that holds the evidence, an external print statement for donors, and a short meeting version with a leave behind. Two worked examples ship in references/worked-examples.md, a 300,000 dollar food hub campaign and a 6,000,000 dollar clinic expansion, with budgets and gift charts that tie to their goals to the dollar.

Workflow

1. Settle the campaign facts before writing a word. Fix the goal, the campaign policies (the date counting starts, the standard pledge period, what kinds of gifts count, how designated gifts are handled), the timeline, and the decision the reader is being asked to make. A case written before the policies exist will contradict them later.

1. Build the claim ledger first. Open a ledger using the columns of assets/sample-claims.csv: claim, source, claim type (measured, projected, quoted, opinion), status (verified, labelled, cut). Gather the documentation behind the case in three piles: organisational strengths (annual reports, accounts, prior campaign results), goal justification (plans, quotes, budgets, strategic plans), and problem evidence (surveys, service records, demographic data). No ledger row, no claim in the draft. Read references/evidence-rules.md in full before drafting.

1. Write the internal case. Use the eight sections in references/argument-structure.md, in order: problem in human terms, vision, plan, cost, proof of delivery, urgency, the specific ask, and the close with the stewardship promise. The internal version also carries anticipated donor questions and objections with honest answers, the basis and date of every large cost, and the weak points. Internal only, never handed to a donor.

1. Build the budget table and the gift chart, then check them. The budget sums to the goal with campaign costs and contingency as their own lines. The gift chart breaks the goal into bands. A common planning shape is ten bands of 10 percent each, with a lead gift at the top band, and prospect ratios of about 4 to 1 at the top bands, 3 to 1 in the middle, and 2 to 1 at the bottom, because many people asked will not give and many who give give below the ask. That shape is a starting pattern, not a rule: rebuild it from the organisation's real donor base. Run the checker and fix every failure before drafting the ask:

python3 scripts/case_check.py --goal 300000 --budget assets/small-budget.csv --gifts assets/small-gifts.csv --claims assets/sample-claims.csv

1. Test the draft before it hardens. Put the near final internal case in front of a small advisory group and, for a large campaign, in front of likely lead donors through confidential feasibility interviews. Ask what is unclear, what they do not believe, and what the goal should be. Record objections in the internal case and change the draft where the objection is right. A case that has never been argued with is a first draft, whatever its page count.

1. Cut the external print statement from the internal case. Keep all eight sections, drop internal doubts, prospect detail, and negotiation material. Add what donors at this level expect to find without asking: board list, most recent financial statements or a clear pointer to them, and campaign committee list for a major campaign. Every number in the print version must match the internal case and the checker output exactly.

1. Build the meeting version. A spoken case of about two minutes covering problem, plan, cost, proof, and one specific ask sized to that donor and tied to a plan component. A leave behind of one or two pages. Prepared answers to the ten hardest questions, taken from the internal case. The spoken ask names an amount, what it funds, and the pledge period. If the solicitor cannot say the amount out loud, the case is not ready.

1. Run the pre ship audit. Work the five questions at the end of references/evidence-rules.md, in writing, ledger in hand. Then set the refresh date: the case is reviewed on a schedule and after any material change to cost, scope, leadership, or results, and old versions are pulled from circulation.

Output Contract

• The internal case: eight sections, claim ledger, budget basis notes, anticipated questions with answers, and campaign policies as an appendix.
• The external print statement: the same argument cut for donors, with budget table, gift chart summary, board and financial information, and the specific ask.
• A one page summary: problem, plan, cost, proof, ask. Nothing else.
• The meeting version: two minute spoken case, one or two page leave behind, and the ten prepared answers.
• Checker output showing budget_total and gift_total both equal to the goal, and claims_checked with RESULT PASS, run on the final numbers, not an early draft.
• Both worked examples in references/worked-examples.md show the expected standard: every figure ties out and can be rechecked against the CSV files in assets/.

Operating Rules

• Accuracy is the whole product. Solicitation material must reflect the mission and the real use of the money asked for, and gifts must be used in line with donor intentions. A case that overstates is a liability that matures after the gift, in public.
• Never invent a statistic, a story, a quote, a waiting list length, or a matching offer. Unverifiable means cut it or label it as the projection or opinion it is.
• Stories and photos run only with written consent on file. No composite characters presented as real people, no stock photos presented as beneficiaries.
• Projections are labelled as projections wherever they appear, in the same sentence, not in a footnote three pages later.
• Keep pledges and cash separate in every results claim, and state results with the campaign's own counting rules.
• The problem is never that the organisation needs money. The problem is the condition the money changes. A case built on organisational need asks donors to fund a deficit. A case built on a human problem asks them to fund a result.
• The case statement is not an acknowledgment letter, a feasibility study, or a campaign plan. It feeds all three and replaces none of them. In the US, the written acknowledgment for a contribution of 250 dollars or more has its own required content under IRS rules, and the stewardship close should hand off to that process.
• If the evidence for a section does not exist, say so in the internal case and fix the underlying gap, a missing evaluation, an unpriced plan, before the external version ships. Do not write around a gap a donor will find in the second meeting.