Flight Path Dance Project

Flight Path Dance Project: who are they?

Flight Path is a tuition-free repertory training program for NYC dancers age 14-20. Beyond the studio, they engage in professional development workshops and experiences (business skills, injury prevention and management, financial literacy, meditation and wellness, professional interfacing, and performance outings), as well as an arts literacy initiative, providing a new book each month (artist biographies, science and anatomy texts, poetry, critical nonfiction, and more), all in an effort to prepare their dancers for the whole of a career in the performing arts.

Fundraising

Founded in 2018, Flight Path Dance Project established its first company of dancers in 2019. Just as they were creating a community, dance program, and the systems that would support them, the pandemic started. From their inception, they have needed to be agile and creative about their organization's sustainability. Now, we're working together to shift into a place of proactivity in their fundraising and visioning work. Together we will:

• segment and assess giving data

• create year-long fundraising plans that can adapt to changing realities

• align communication with donor needs and culture

Presbytery of Southern New England

Presbytery of Southern New England: who are they?

The Presbytery of Southern New England is comprised of 26 congregations, each of which is a unique community rooted in the love, peace and justice of Jesus Christ.

One of the ways the Presbytery seeks to support these congregations is by empowering leadership for each community to guide their congregants as they discern how to use and maintain their properties in service of their various needs, ministries, and priorities.

We’re providing support for presbytery leadership, and working with three congregations exploring land and property possibilities. We've organized this complex work into two phases.

Phase I: congregation + property assessment

• assess the needs and opportunities in the three individual congregations

• engage in congregational and community listening

• communicate with member churches about potential property strategies

Phase II: theology, core values + strategic filter

• articulate a theology of land and property that is rooted in their context

• discern core values that will reflect that theology

• develop a strategic filter for property decision-making based on these values

St. David’s Episcopal Church

St. David’s Episcopal Church: who are they?

St. David's Episcopal Church is "on a mission to know God in Jesus Christ and to make Christ known to others.”

St. David’s gives over a third of its operating budget to both local and international outreach programs to help share the love of Christ with those who are in need. There is an energizing spirit there, and a lot of programs and activities to help their community build a Christ-centered life.

Fundraising, strategy + vision

St. David’s hired an interim rector after a long-term pastorate while they engaged in a call process. Transitional periods present opportunities to reflect on how things have been done, assess what has been working, and make plans for future change. 

Our work with St. David's includes considering stewardship practices because when done well, fundraising provides opportunities to strengthen relationships, create a robust year-round ministry, deepen commitments and articulate a vision for the future. 

Together, we are:

• developing an infrastructure for donor record data segmentation

• providing guidance in aligning data analysis with giving strategies and formation

• examining individual and collective money narratives, as well as training volunteers for annual giving, at an on-site retreat

• creating a plan for growth potential to prepare for annual giving

• developing a plan for on-going tracking, education and management of volunteers

St. John the Evangelist

St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church: who are they?

St. John’s is a diverse and growing parish in St. Paul. In the 1970s, they were active in the civil rights movement, promoting voting rights, staffing a women’s center, and housing refugees. They continue to follow the radical teaching of Jesus in their commitment to justice, offering a Racial Healing Eucharist every month, and working toward the repair of the world, in their community and beyond.

Phase I: listening

St. John’s is discerning the potential for a capital campaign. To prepare, we first led a process to foster healthy relationships with money. We unpacked individual and collective money narratives and deconstructed dominant systems of power and control as they relate to financial resources.

During this listening process, we:

• facilitated 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

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

• interviewed community partners to understand how St. John’s is perceived and also what areas of future partnership might be ripe for exploration

• provided 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

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church: who are they?

St. Mary's Episcopal Church has been thriving in the Napa Valley for over 150 years. In a hurting and divided world, they seek to follow Jesus on the Way of Love. Their beliefs are formed by scripture, tradition, reason and experience.

Phase I: listening

In recent years, St. Mary’s has experienced significant identity shifts between a change in long-term leadership, the pandemic, and shifting wider cultural norms. We worked with St. Mary’s to help articulate to what makes their community unique, and explore what might be in store for the future. In our listening process, we:

• worked alongside a core team

• organized and conducting focus groups

• wrote and reviewed surveys — analyzed data and reflected back what we heard

• made recommendations for next steps

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church: who are they?

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.

Core values + strategic thinking

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 worked 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

Ascension School:

who are they?

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.

Phase I: feasibility

We worked with leadership to understand if and how, through collaborative partnerships, they could 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. Our feasibility study laid the foundation for a healthy capital campaign. In this phase of our work together, we:

• honed in on and articulated the vision for a potential capital campaign

• created 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

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

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

The feasibility study showed 100% support for a capital campaign (a first for us!) and excitement to get started immediately. 

Phase II: solicitation

This capital campaign is one of the entire diocese, as well as the community of Cove, OR. We will begin by raising funds for the pool, which will be open to the entire Cove community, and also used for camp. Kickoff for this is at Cherry Fair, a day where people come from all over the region for a "family-friendly day of old-fashioned fun, music, and food" on the grounds of Ascension School. 

We then turn to the diocese by kicking off at the convention in the fall of 2024. A series of "Come and See" events will take place where all members of the diocese are welcome to come and experience Ascension School, and the magic it offers that just can't be communicated through words. 

All in, we are working to raise funds for the pool, the endowment to care for the costs of the pool, and to build the organizational endowment for long-term sustainability. 

The solicitation phase of capital campaigns requires dozens of volunteers, dedicated staff time, and imagination. Walking alongside them we are leading the campaign through: 

• writing and designing the case statement ← check it out!

• event planning

• tracking of gifts

• training and coaching solicitors

• creation of strategy as the campaign unfolds

Episcopal Church of the Nativity

Episcopal Church of the Nativity: who are they?

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."⁠

Feasibility study

To be one body, Church of the Nativity is considering a capital campaign to make their buildings accessible to all bodies. 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

Christ Episcopal Church: who are they?

For nearly two centuries, Christ Church been a presence in downtown Little Rock. As the city has changed over that time, so has this congregation, but their commitment to love God and their neighbors has not. They gather to remember their common bond in Christ, and seek to fulfill the promises made at their baptisms to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”

Phase I: feasibility

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. 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

National City Christian Church Foundation: who are they?

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.”

Feasibility + fundraising

National City Christian Church’s neoclassical building in Washington, DC requires 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

UKirk SMU: who are they?

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.

Phase I: feasibility

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

Phase II: 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

Good Sam: who are they?

Good Sam’s close-knit community enjoys fellowship time together, highlighted by an annual outdoor worship service and parish picnic each autumn where they can truly marvel at the beauty of God’s creation all around us while we worship.

Good Sam’s parish motto is “Grow in Faith, Live in Hope, Share God’s Love,” and at Good Sam, we daily strive to meet these goals as our parish looks forward to the future together.

Phase I: listening

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

Sycamore Collaborative: who are they?

Formerly known as Schenectady Inner City Ministry or SiCM, Sycamore Collaborative is a thriving organization committed to social justice and equity.

They serve Schenectady County through the largest food pantry in the region, 2 acres of community urban farmland, the county-wide Summer Meals program, and a safe space for all.

Phase I: communications audit

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. 

In 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

Phase II: strategic plan, renaming + rebranding process

As our communications audit concluded, we entered Phase II. 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: who are they?

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.

Listening + feasibility

Together, we helped Calvary 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 Church Episcopal

Christ Church: who are they?

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.

Fundraising

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