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Capital Campaign Success Stories - Steier Group

Oct 19 2022

Paulist Fathers’ focus on mission leads to successful $30 million campaign

By Steier Tips

Through the Hope for the Future campaign, the Paulist Fathers raised over $30 million, far exceeding the initial public goal of $20 million. The key? The Paulists never made their campaign about money. Instead, the campaign focused on the Paulists’ mission. “Because people have been accompanied so well by Paulists over the years, people just responded,” said the Rev. Eric Andrews, CSP, who served as president of the Paulist Fathers from 2014-22. “Obviously if you don’t feel pastorally fed, accompanied and cared for, (fundraising) is going to be a heavier lift. But clearly people have benefited from the Paulist mission…

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Jul 11 2022

Prayer, communication helped Epiphany of the Lord succeed during the pandemic

By Steier Tips

Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Community in Katy, Texas, kicked off its capital campaign in October 2019. The campaign combined the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s archdiocesan campaign with its own needs. The community faced debt from the construction of a new school plus parish improvements and supporting the expanding school. Four months into the campaign, the world came to an abrupt stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fr. Tom Lam made two critical moves during what amounted to be an 18-month campaign pause. He encouraged parishioners to sign up for periodic messages through the parish email system. Signups exceeded the parish…

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Apr 15 2022

Campaign connection brought St. Francis of Assisi community closer together

By Steier Tips

St. Francis of Assisi in Wichita, Kansas, is the founding parish of the Diocese of Wichita’s nationally renowned stewardship model. In the 1970’s, Msgr. Thomas McGread served as pastor at St. Francis of Assisi where he developed the stewardship model currently used by the Diocese of Wichita. As a result of Msgr. McGread’s groundbreaking work, families in the Diocese of Wichita today do not pay tuition for Catholic education and there is no diocesan annual appeal. Families, pastors, diocesan leadership and all the faithful are dedicated to tithing at such a level where tuition and annual appeals are not necessary….

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Oct 15 2021

Embracing stewardship helped Diocese of Hamilton in successful campaign

By Steier Tips

How can we ask for money at a time like this? That has been a common question from nonprofits since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020. For the Diocese of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada, the question arose as it was halfway through its $35 million One Heart, One Soul Campaign. After a brief pause, the diocese restarted its campaign in fall 2020, despite strict limits on Mass attendance and other COVID-related restrictions. The diocese has no regrets. “When you look at this through the lens of stewardship, through the lens of faith, it became clear that the option…

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Sep 03 2021

Newman Center at Northern Arizona University persevered through pandemic challenges

By Steier Tips

When the pandemic shutdown much of the U.S. last year, campaign leadership with the Newman Center at Northern Arizona University (NAU) did not waver. They never hesitated in their goal to continue raising the funding needed to address their capital needs. “I thought ‘God is with us. We can do this,’” said Angela Vargas, the chief operations officer for the ministry center. She served as a leader for the Together, Let Us Go Forth Capital Campaign. While most Americans viewed the restrictions and a slowed economy through unnerving eyes, Vargas remained confident. Aware that leadership with other campaigns across the…

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Jul 28 2021

Planning study feedback proved vital to St. Pius’ successful campaign

By Steier Tips

Planning studies are intended to set the stage for a successful capital campaign. The 2019 study at St. Pius Catholic Church in Urbandale, Iowa, accomplished just that. The parish took into consideration its parishioners’ feedback, adjusted its campaign goals and ultimately raised over $5 million through the Living Our Mission – Building Our Future Capital Campaign. After beginning a master planning process in 2013, parish leaders developed plans to construct a 28,000-square-foot parish center at a cost of $7.3 million. St. Pius engaged the Steier Group to conduct a planning study to gauge support for the project and prepare for…

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May 26 2021

Supporting parishioners during pandemic helped St. Anne in long run

By Steier Tips

Despite significant challenges, including the pandemic, the St. Anne Catholic Community in Houston, Texas, came together to raise more than $19.5 million to fund a complete transformation of its nearly century-old parish campus. “When we decided to move forward with our campaign, we never imagined we would be facing two hurricanes, a global pandemic, an economic shutdown and a change in parish leadership,” said Fr. David Zapalac, CSB, pastor of St. Anne. In late 2019, St. Anne engaged the Steier Group to direct the final wave of their Generations of Faith Capital Campaign. At that point, the campaign had been…

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Apr 30 2021

How JPII Newman Center overcame COVID, debt crisis to run a successful campaign

By Steier Tips

A few months into her new role as director of advancement with the St. John Paul II Newman Center, Susan Gnann knew she would soon begin preparing for a fundraising campaign. “I looked at the debt service line item and saw a deficit of $742,000 on a $1.6 million budget,” Gnann said. “I saw that nearly half of our budget was debt. I knew I couldn’t talk to a donor about mission when their money wasn’t going to support our mission or a retreat. I knew we had to run a campaign.” Faced with a $14.6 million construction debt, Gnann…

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Feb 18 2021

Holy Trinity Parish found fundraising success during pandemic

By Steier Tips

The easy out when COVID-19 hit would have been for Holy Trinity Parish to delay its capital campaign until the pandemic had passed. With that approach, the Catholic community in Eldorado Hills, California, would still be waiting to relaunch its campaign. Instead, the parish continued with its effort to reduce historic debt with a temporary redirect to shore up its offertory during the initial wave of the pandemic, said Jeremy Youngers, parish life director. “Our parish responded in amazing ways,” he said. “Our approach was intentional in every step. It came down to our pastor communicating the message.” Holy Trinity, months earlier,…

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Oct 09 2019

Building faith through stewardship

By Steier Wire

Every day, 100 workers descend on the campus of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church for construction of a larger, permanent church and a new school gym for the growing parish in Wichita, Kansas. The Rev. Dan Spexarth, pastor, said parishioners drive through the parking lot at “1 mile per hour” just so they can get a closer look at the projects taking shape. “It’s very exciting,’’ Spexarth said. The parish’s Out of Love for God campaign is funding the projects. The dynamic parish in northwest Wichita partnered with the Steier Group on that successful effort in 2018, raising more…

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