St. John the Evangelist

Listening

St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota is at a point of inflection. As they discern the potential for a capital campaign, St. John's is considering a comprehensive process to foster healthy relationships with money, unpack individual and collective money narratives, and deconstruct dominant systems of power and control as they relate to finances.

It is is time to ask how the projects they've identified align with their values of social justice and care for the world around them. As a progressive faith community, while they  articulate the ways in which their church has been complicit in and intertwined with structures of systemic racism, this potential campaign provides an opportunity for repair and restoration.

We are currently engaged in a listening process to prepare them for a feasibility study and potential capital campaign. During this listening process, we are:

• Facilitating a congregational-wide survey that asks questions around individual and corporate money narratives, in addition to asking questions around potential capital projects and how they connect with St. John's identity

• Leading a day-long, in-person retreat to explore our money narratives

• Providing a report that is rooted in their faith community’s context with recommendations for future practices regarding a holistic relationship

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Strategic planning

St. Mary's Episcopal Church has been thriving in the Napa Valley for over 150 years. In recent years, they have experienced significant identity shifts between a change in long-term leadership, the pandemic, and shifting wider cultural norms.

We are working with them to help put words to what makes St. Mary's unique, and explore what might be in store for the future. In our listening process, we are:

• working alongside a core team

• organizing and conducting focus groups

• writing and reviewing surveys — analyzing data and reflecting back what we hear

• making recommendations for next steps

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Strategic thinking

The people of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church seek to witness God's love in word and action. Located in State College, PA, they're a parish committed to students through their mission Episcopal At Penn State, and to local outreach at their Community Cafe.

Leadership at Saint Andrew's understands that, given rapidly changing cultural understandings and expressions of faith and religiosity, churches are best served by articulating the core of who God is calling them to be in the world, and by making decisions consistently based on those values. We are working with leadership to:

• articulate their core values

• lead a Vestry retreat to practice the work of collective decision-making based on those core values

• translate their core values into a strategic filter for the entire congregation to utilize so that every decision, no matter what the scale, can be rooted in this parish's most meaningful shared beliefs

• utilize their new strategic filter to evaluate three areas of their life together — such as stewardship, buildings and grounds, and programming

Ascension School Camp and Conference Center

Feasibility study

Ascension School Camp and Conference Center is a vital ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Eastern Oregon. Situated on approximately 100 acres of land, they are - in their own words - "A Place Apart to connect with God's mystery, celebrating the dignity, diversity and oneness of all creation." Ascension's identity is rooted in the core values of the diocese: human dignity, creation care and spiritual formation.

We're working with leadership to understand if and how, through collaborative partnerships, they can raise funds for capital projects that would transform their facilities, impacting campers and their families and conference attendees, as well as the local community at-large. We are working on a feasibility study to:

• hone in on and articulate the vision for a potential capital campaign

• create spaces for listening to current and potential donors, as well a variety of stakeholders (campers and their families, conference attendees, diocesan contacts, several community partners, and neighbors in Cove) to understand what is important to them and where their concerns or resistance may lie

• create opportunities for relationship-building and strengthening of partnerships for a common cause

• determine the quantifiable level of financial support that can reasonably be anticipated for the proposed projects and determine a feasible fundraising goal

Episcopal Church of the Nativity

Feasibility study

The Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Huntsville, Alabama is a congregation committed to the theological principle of being one body in Christ. In their own words, "when all the members of this body are able to be together, we will be made whole; we will be one body."⁠

To be one body, their congregation is considering a capital campaign to make their buildings accessible to all bodies. In fall/winter 2023, we worked with this community on a feasibility study to determine next steps toward making their buildings reflect their theology. Together, we identified:

• the projects that rank highest in importance to congregants

• the level of financial support and volunteer support leadership can expect from the congregation

• best practices for communication and education if a capital campaign is planned, so the process is engaging and transparent

• money narratives at play among congregants that will be important for leadership to keep in mind as they navigate fundraising

Christ Episcopal Church

Feasibility study

Christ Episcopal Church has had a presence in downtown Little Rock for more than 150 years. As leadership considers capital improvements, they seek to understand what it means to be a part of a reawakening community, and how working together for the common good includes their congregants and neighbors alike.

As part of a wider commitment to listening to what the Spirit is saying to the congregation and to their neighbors, we worked with this congregation on a feasibility study to determine the level of support for a campaign that would:

• create a new entrance hall to improve accessibility, visibility and welcome

• expand their performance space and pub to accommodate and expand communities who gather there for artistic programming and more

• renovate their parish house with a commercial kitchen and accessible restrooms to expand welcome and hospitality to all

• refresh outdoor spaces to demonstrate gratitude for God’s gift of the land that they steward

National City Christian Church Foundation

Feasibility study, annual giving + design

National City Christian Church Foundation was established in 1926 “to hold in trust, preserve, and maintain for all Disciples the physical facilities of National City Christian Church.”

Those physical facilities — specifically National City Christian Church’s neoclassical building in Washington, DC — require significant work. Their donor base is both local and national, as the building is actually owned by the denomination and yet inhabited by a local congregation. Alongside leadership of the Foundation, we worked on their year-end fundraising and in conducting a feasibility study to understand their fundraising potential and possible roadblocks. Our work included:

• coaching on creation of team and structure for feasibility study

• creation of project budget

• board facilitation

• writing and design for end-of-year fundraising letter

• writing and design for feasibility case statement

• creation of feasibility infrastructure

• receipt of surveys and conducting interviews

• data analysis

• creation of comprehensive report for next steps

UKirk SMU

Feasibility study

UKirk SMU is a place where all belong on the campus at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Just a few years into their LGBTQIA-affirming, anti-racist ministry, they identified a need: their students need a long-term, permanent space where they can connect, share meals, study, engage in service, rest and most of all, call home.

We conducted a feasibility study to explore possibilities in establishing their own place of belonging. Alongside leadership, we:

• facilitated conversations that crystalized and articulated UKirk SMU's vision

• aligned potential projects with organizational values in a way that resonates with potential donors

• laid the groundwork for ongoing communications related to developing a case for a capital campaign

• created spaces for relationship-building and strengthening partnerships in common cause

Annual giving + Fundraising

After an invigorating feasibility study, we recommended that UKirk SMU establish an annual giving program. An intentional and robust fundraising infrastructure is essential for the success of potential capital campaigns, and this infrastructure also creates meaningful opportunities for community and donor engagement.

Equipped with data generated by feasibility work, and after analyzing UKirk SMU's giving data, we:

• created a 12-month fundraising plan

• organized events for individual and congregational donors to experience the power of the UKirk SMU community

• prepared for one-on-one invitations to pledge to the UKirk SMU community over both an annual and multi-year period

• created a thank you rubric which engages fundraising committee, board and staff

• implemented an of year-end campaign

• planned a gala fundraising event with volunteers and staff

Good Samaritan Episcopal Church

Phase I: listening + core values

In the midst of the pandemic, the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan was asking crucial questions about their identity. As the congregation experienced online worship and virtual community, parishioners were reflecting what was of value and remained true over a changing season. Through a parish-wide listening phase we:

• implemented a process for all voices to be heard

• identified and defined the core values of the faith community

• created a core filter for making decisions together

• trained the leadership on how to use the filter across the organization.

In addition to identifying core values, the strategic visioning process prepared the congregation for a capital campaign as it provided a process for asking what it means to be a good neighbor in their context.

Phase II: feasibility

For some time, members of Good Sam dreamed of engaging in capital improvements. In the spring of 2023, they engaged in a feasibility study to determine the level of support for a proposed campaign. They wanted to move forward with the support of the congregation and, not having done a capital campaign in more than two decades, wanted to make sure they knew the:

• level of awareness of the proposed plans within the parish

• level of support for moving forward with a capital campaign

• level of engagement by the congregation with the projects and their perception of priority

• realistic and feasible goals should a campaign move forward

The results of our feasibility study strongly suggested that Good Sam move forward, and also provided insights into the congregation that would be invaluable to running a healthy capital campaign and to Good Sam's overall strategy for fundraising going forward.

Phase III: solicitation

With the feasibility study as as our infrastructure, we moved into the solicitation phase with confidence. In the fall of 2023, Good Sam launched Assurance of Things Hoped For, a capital campaign with a goal of $1,203,071. Leadership and volunteers invited gifts while also making sure to keep the congregation informed and engaged, and the process transparent.

In January 2024, Good Sam raised $1,305,155. They surpassed the goal the feasibility study pointed us toward, and just as importantly, they strengthened relationships and inspired the congregation to imagine new possibilities for love, active caring, and servanthood. A healthy capital campaign by all of our standards.

Sycamore Collaborative

Strategy + vision, communications, identity

Serving Schenectady County in upstate New York, Sycamore Collaborative (formerly Schenectady Inner City Ministries, or SICM) has been a lifeline in a time of increasing food insecurity and an inspiration for community engagement to volunteers and clients alike. Embracing their decision to become intentionally interfaith, we walked alongside the organization to look across all its communications to understand more clearly what they want to say, to whom, when and how. 

For our communications audit, we: 

• reviewed all current communications

• conducted key interviews

• led a retreat among organizational leaders and key staff

• organized and analyzed data

• reviewed staffing capacity

• made recommendations and provided reflective language to move the organization forward

As our communications audit concluded, we recommended a strategic planning, renaming, and rebranding process. In this iteration of our work, we:

• articulated core values

• created a strategic filter for decision-making

• collaboratively created a far-reaching strategic plan

• created a new visual identity, name, and website

Calvary Episcopal Church

Calvary Episcopal Church is an eclectic bunch of Christian people who don’t all think the same thoughts, or dress the same way, or vote for the same candidates, or even believe all the same things about the mystery of God and what it means to be human.

Together we helped them discern how their space reflects their core values and what is needed for the congregation to live into their collective vision. ⁣We created and led a listening process where guided conversations fostered deeper relationships and capital improvement projects were identified. We then engaged in a feasibility study, concluded that there was indeed a campaign to conduct and are currently in the midst of implementation of soliciting gifts. 

An excellent sermon regarding feasibility study results in which The Rev. Scott Walters speaks beautifully about how and why we do our work.

Christ Episcopal Church

Fundraising

The people of Christ Church Episcopal are passionate about living and loving more like Jesus every day. It is their collective belief that their community isn't only called to go to church but to be the church. To be the church, they're engaged in worship as well as active care for their community through food justice work at Shalom Farms, and through housing justice work at Habitat for Humanity.

Our team has worked with this congregation since 2020. Over the past four years, they have undergone a cultural shift in providing transparency around giving and the culture around confidentiality in pledges. Now, as they have successfully called a new rector, their congregation is ready to implement a year-round stewardship model that will allow formation and education throughout the year.

West End Church

Phase I: communications audit

West End Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is a community with deep roots, curious spirits, and hearts set on God’s way of justice and peace. They want their neighbors, and the whole world, to know what they're up to, why it matters, and how to be involved, especially in this time when connection and community are so vitally important. 

After leading a robust communications audit including a strategic retreat, series of interviews and a survey, we created a framework authentic to them through which to view their communication strategy. We then rebranded West End Church through a new logo and communication system, and built and launched their new website. We continue to provide on-going communications support as they live into their new look and articulated identity.

Phase II: fundraising

Alongside our on-going communications support, we work with West End to develop annual campaigns that reflect their culture, identity, theology of giving, and goals. Our work together has included:

• creating opportunities for leaders to reflect on money narratives

• creating and implementing segmentation of giving data to consider appropriate strategies

• increasing volunteerism through training, ongoing coaching, and celebration

• developing compelling communication pieces for multiples audiences and special occasions