Piers Handling knew this moment was coming. Over the better part of five years the CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival Group has been leading a fundraising drive for a permanent home. And in that time, his peers at the city’s other big-box cultural destinations — Matthew Teitelbaum at the Art Gallery of Ontario, William Thorsell at the Royal Ontario Museum and the late Richard Bradshaw of the Canadian Opera Company — all gave him the same warning: the last 25% is the hardest.

As that new home, Bell Lightbox, takes shape at the corner of King and John Streets in downtown Toronto, Handling and his corporate fundraising staff have declared a pause in their $196-million capital campaign. The mercury in the thermometer hasn’t risen. In the summer, TIFFG said it needed another $49 million.

Four months later, that number hasn’t changed — at least ‘not enough to make any announcements,’ says a candid Handling.

‘The oxygen gets rarer the closer you get to the summit,’ he says, quoting Thorsell. The metaphor might have come from Handling himself, an experienced climber who has breathed rare airs from the Alps to the Himalayas. And TIFFG’s $196-million bid is Everest in scale.

‘TIFF has largely been a sponsorship-driven organization,’ says Handling. ‘Until we went into capital campaign mode we did not need individual donors stepping up to the plate. Philanthropy was not a great need.’

Now it is. Handling says TIFFG’s board of directors decided a third-party assessment was in order. They brought in Toronto-based Inspire, a consultancy that specializes in tapping deep wells of philanthropic capital. Its partners, Susan Egles and Sandy MacKenzie, have worked on the ROM and AGO campaigns.

The Lightbox has a few things going for it, according to fundraising guru Bonnie Hillman, president of Toronto fundraising consultants Arts & Communications, who is also advising TIFFG.

Foremost is the building itself. ‘When people see tangible evidence,’ says Hillman, ‘that gives them confidence.’ As well, over its 33 years, the festival has amassed an outstanding roster of directors, advisors and supporters — present and former. ‘They are very committed and very connected,’ she says.

‘What I’ve learned is that cultivating relationships is a long-term proposition,’ says Handling. ‘There are no quick hits when it comes to philanthropy. Unlike sponsorship, which is a commercial, transactional relationship with a return on investment, it’s something that’s coming from the heart.’

The hope is that TIFFG will find a single source who will substantially close the gap, ‘an individual champion.’

From the heart or via the hedge fund, trust fund or foundation, that champ better come soon. TIFFG’s philanthropy experts have given Handling another warning. ‘We’ve got two years,’ until the complex is due to open, he notes. ‘By the time the building is up, the game is over.’