April 24, 2012 • By nevan • Comments Comments Off
Wellspring is Kentucky’s leading provider of housing coupled with services to individuals struggling with psychiatric illness. Nearly 45,500 adults in the Louisville area suffer from some type of severe mental illness. Since 1982, Wellspring has been providing supportive housing coupled with psychiatric rehabilitative services for people living with mental illness. In order to better serve adults experiencing psychiatric crisis, Wellspring developed a plan to build a new crisis stabilization unit, realizing that they would need to raise the funding to do so. With an eye towards the future, Wellspring leaders also determined that they needed to raise sufficient funding to renovate and refurbish existing structures and fund their ongoing maintenance, develop seed funding for new opportunities, and establish a centralized administrative center. To accomplish these ambitious goals they sought help from The Covenant Group.
Nancy Doctor, Director of Development recalls, “We needed a “reality check,” a true assessment of our potential to raise the needed funds. If we had tried to survey potential donors ourselves, we would not have gotten nearly as accurate of an estimate of our capacity.” She added that although she was not on staff when the decision was made to hire The Covenant Group, she immediately had a favorable first impression. Board members who had previously worked with The Covenant Group were extremely complimentary. They shared many positive stories about past campaigns where they had worked together with Len Moisan and his team. Kathy Dobbins, Wellspring’s Executive Director is pleased to say that The Covenant Group lived up to their strong reputation. “Everything The Covenant Group did to help us position the campaign in the initial stages was helpful. From the development of the case statement; to our campaign materials; to the training of our Board members in solicitation strategies; all these steps laid the foundation for eventual campaign success.” Doctor doubts the campaign would have achieved the same results without the counsel of The Covenant Group. “They brought such a high level of professionalism, a wealth of experience and a strong track record of integrity and campaign success… just being associated with The Covenant Group helped us raise more money. Their connections to key players in the community helped us open the right doors.”
Board members are pleased with the results of the campaign, the proceeds of which now top $2.1 million. As a result, the new crisis stabilization unit is now operational and has doubled the services available to the community. Dobbins lists additional benefits of the campaign, “Not only can more clients be served, but our program sites are safer, more comfortable and more energy efficient. And with the agency’s new administrative center, the total workplace environment is improved. Due to the increased space, we now have in-house training facilities and we can host on-site Board and committee meetings, which we could not do before.”
Doctor concluded by saying that she would recommend The Covenant Group to other organizations seeking fundraising counsel; in fact she “does it at every opportunity.” Dobbins added, “They really meshed with us and were a great fit for our organization. They motivated our Board members to keep the campaign moving…they were vigilant and tenacious, yet respectful. Personally, more than just having received good counsel, I feel like we’ve made good friends.”
March 7, 2011 • By nevan • Comments 0
St. Mary of the Knobs (SMK) parish had outgrown its church facility. Built in 1906 for 160 families, by 2005 the facility was serving more than 1,000 families. It was clear to the parish leaders that they needed a new church building. Pat Byrne, one of four campaign co-chairs explained, “With the growth of our school and church ministries and our future needs we knew the current facilities could not accommodate us. We had to act.”
Initially parish leaders had considered another consulting firm to help with the campaign. However, after one informational meeting with The Covenant Group they made their decision. Father John Geis, Pastor at SMK reflected, “The Covenant Group inspired us from the beginning. We saw it the first night we met with them. They were excited about our campaign.” Father John explained further, “We didn’t want a firm to come in, train our volunteers and then leave. The Covenant Group was there working alongside us throughout the whole process.”
Byrne credits the pre-campaign planning process of The Covenant Group as a key to the campaign’s success. “The feasibility study and the focus groups were invaluable,” said Pat. “They helped us listen to our members, determine the needs and priorities and communicate openly.” The feasibility study revealed that $5 – $6.5 million (at the high end) could be raised, but the parish needed both a worship center and a multi-purpose facility with a total estimated cost of $8.3 million. The Covenant Group suggested putting the full project in front of the parish, even though it was a significant stretch knowing that the projects could always be phased. Campaign Co-Chair Gary Libs added, “The Covenant Group process gave us the tools to communicate and showed us how to get people on board.”
Thus far, contributions total more than $10.9 million, with additional pledges continuing to come in. Pat Byrne recalled, “No one anticipated we could raise this amount. Even the Archdiocese is surprised. The funds raised represent about 15 times our annual giving. But it’s not just the financial results.” All of the Co-Chairs commented on the positive impact the campaign has had on the parish. Bill Sprigler noted that the church is more unified. “People are not in a hurry to leave church. They stand around talking more than they did before the campaign.” Father John adds that he has seen families return to the church that had stopped attending and he feels “a renewed and energized spirit among the staff.” Libs called the campaign, “the most exciting thing to happen in our parish in the last 100 years.”
Father John and each of the Co-chairs enthusiastically affirmed that they would unequivocally recommend The Covenant Group to other churches seeking campaign counsel. Gary Libs concluded, “The Covenant Group is superior in their profession.”
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
Instead of following our typical case study format, we felt it appropriate to let this original letter speak for itself. It came from the pastor, Father William Hammer. It was sent on 4/28/08 from the Pastor of St. Joseph parish, Father William Hammer. His remarks were in no way solicited and we publish them with his full knowledge and permission as follows:
“I want to thank you very much for the wonderful job that you, Joe Cecil and The Covenant Group staff offered to our parish in our recently completed “A Time to Build” Capital Campaign. From the very beginning of our initial interviews and throughout the process I have always appreciated your approach which is faith-based upon principals of good stewardship and community building. I do believe that our parish is stronger and grew spiritually throughout the process. Your advice and counsel insured success beyond our initial expectations.”
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
The Louisville Deaf Oral School was at a crossroads. After 50 years of operating as a leading educational facility for deaf and hard of hearing children, they had begun the process of determining what they were going to be for the next 50 years. The Covenant Group stepped in to help them realize a new vision.
Louisville Deaf Oral School had decided it was time to expand their mission. They embarked on a capital campaign to raise funds for the new Edith & Henry Heuser Hearing Institute. This unique institute would continue to provide child education to the deaf and hard of hearing, but would also house an on site medical clinic, an assistive device center, a hearing research facility, and numerous other facilities for the deaf community.
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
The Home of the Innocents offers hope for children, youth and families in crisis by providing care, shelter and support. Unfortunately, demand for their services has continued to grow. At a time when the Home was landlocked and overcrowded at its main facility and three other facilities across Louisville. In order to meet both the immediate and future challenges, the Home desperately needed a new location.
That’s when The Covenant Group got involved. Thanks to a strong capital campaign, the vision for a new facility has been realized. Gordon S. Brown, President & CEO, stated it this way, “We called on Dr. Moisan’s company to help us plan and manage a successful campaign, and we believe their involvement was critical to our success. We have already raised over $23 million and we will definitely exceed our $25 million goal … The more than 1,000 kids we serve every year will have a new home. It is an exciting new beginning.”
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
Brooklawn Child and Family Services faced a challenge. The organization, which provides residential treatment programs that help severely emotionally and behaviorally troubled boys, experienced an 80% increase in referrals from state agencies between the years 2004 and 2006. Also, over the previous four years, the number of children served daily in residential care programs increased from 65 to 107. Brooklawn was out of space and something had to be done.
The Board and staff knew they needed new facilities, but they were a bit uncertain as to how to proceed. That’s when they turned to The Covenant Group for help. The first step was to conduct a feasibility study and they combined it with a development audit. Mike Schultz, Vice President of Development, recounted the key role this approach played in the overall success of the campaign. “These processes were very helpful. The outcomes gave us a good idea of who we were as an organization and what we would be capable of achieving in a campaign.”
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
Explosive growth at St. Michael Church helped parish leaders realize it was time to embark on a building expansion project. “We not only wanted to expand our worship space,” explained David Miles, the campaign chair, “we also wanted to expand our recreational and educational space. We knew we weren’t professional fundraisers, and much of our parish’s future was at stake based on our ability to raise money. We needed help.”
“I’ve been involved in several of the parish’s campaigns,” Miles said, “many of which we managed ourselves, and one of which was managed by a company other than The Covenant Group. For this particular campaign, because of its size and importance, we needed to hire the best. The archdiocese gave us several people to interview, and based on all of those interviews, The Covenant Group was the obvious choice for us.”
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
The recently completed Actors Theatre of Louisville capital campaign achieved amazing success. “We beat the original $12 million goal by $1.5 million,” said Christen McDonough-Boone, Director of Development.
In addition to the $13.5 million raised in campaign gifts, Actors Theatre also generated $3.5 million in annual commitments. “Dr. Moisan instructed us to ask for the campaign and annual gifts at the same time”, said Todd Lowe, President of the Board. “This strategy obviously worked.”
In 2004, The Covenant Group conducted a feasibility study for Actors Theatre. “The feasibility study process was really helpful, especially to the strategic planning phase of the campaign” said McDonough-Boone. “The interviews and ground work completed by The Covenant Group helped us craft and then refine our case statement, uncover new donor sources and word our case in a way that helped generate people’s interest and involvement.”
February 1, 2011 • By admin • Comments 0
Sojourn Community Church has a mission and vision for the future, and they are passionate about them. Their congregation had been growing rapidly, and six years after the church opened its doors, they were in desperate need of a new building. With services overflowing, children’s facilities that were less than acceptable, and parking that was a challenge at best; it became obvious that they needed better facilities. When an old elementary school came up for sale, Sojourn decided that this was the place for them. However, they needed to raise an estimated $1.5 million to purchase the building and complete the necessary renovations. That’s when Sojourn’s pastor Daniel Montgomery called the Covenant Group.
