FUNDRAISING PLANNING STUDY REPORT Presented To ST. LAWRENCE CATHOLIC CHURCH CARROLL, IOWA Walsh & Associates Church Fundraising and Stewardship Specialists February 17, 2009 Fr. Timothy R. Schott St. Lawrence Church 1607 N. West St. Carroll, IA 51401 Dear Father Schott: I am pleased to submit this report of our fundraising planning and feasibility analysis for St. Lawrence Church. The study indicates the potential to raise a minimum of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 over a three-year period for your proposed fundraising campaign. The study results, together with our conclusions and recommendations, are found on the following pages. This report would not be complete without a word of thanks to you and your church leadership for inviting our firm to conduct this study, which we believe is an important, if not critical, first step to a successful capital campaign. Our special thanks to Sue Seidl for providing helpful background information needed and coordinating our interviews. We look forward to working with you as you implement a successful campaign. Respectfully submitted, Michael A. Walsh President
SUMMARY OF ALL RESPONSES In all, four hundred (400) survey responses were received and tabulated. A total of 31 individual interviews were conducted, involving 50 individuals. In addition, 369 in-pew surveys were returned and are included in our analysis and report. When couples (e.g., husbands and wives) were interviewed or completed surveys together, individual responses were encouraged and many times received. Sometimes too, two answers were given by an individual to a single question. For example, some may have responded that they felt acceptance for a campaign would be "fair" to "good." In this and similar instances, two answers were recorded. In addition, there were times when a person was not able to answer or, if not appropriate or applicable, was not asked certain questions. This explains why the total number of responses does not always equal the total number of individuals interviewed or responses received. 1. How satisfied are you with St. Lawrence Catholic Church and the programs and services the church provides? Very Satisfied 108 26% Satisfied 257 62% Somewhat Dissatisfied 047 11.5% Dissatisfied 002 00.5% 2. How well informed would you say that you ve been about the church s needs and plans to construct a new Parish Hall and Family/Meeting Room, add a Narthex/Gathering Space, and make other enhancements to our church property? Well Informed 198 48% Have General Knowledge 192 47% Know Very Little 018 04% Uninformed 005 01% 3. Overall, how important do you think it is to address these needs? Very Important 108 26% Important 163 40% Nice To Do 100 24% Not Needed 043 10% 4. Individually, how would you rate addressing each of these needs and the proposed project s major parts in terms of importance? Very Important Important Nice To Have/Do Not Important 1. Construction of a Parish Hall 114/30% 133/34% 96/25% 42/11% 2. Construction of a Family/Meeting Room 3. Addition of a Narthex/ Gathering Space 4. Additional outdoor spaces (prayer garden, social courtyard, covered walkway) 109/29% 137/36% 89/24% 43/11% 101/27% 123/33% 104/28% 43/12% 54/15% 69/19% 137/37% 107/29%
5. Were you aware that the church was considering a major fundraising campaign to address these needs? Yes 355 88.5% No 047 11.5% 6. In your opinion, what would be the acceptance level among members for a fundraising campaign that would address these needs? Excellent 021 05% Good 168 43% Fair 151 39% Poor 051 13% 7. The cost of the project is estimated to be in the $2.6-3 million range. How much money do you think can realistically be raised from all members and select others in pledges payable over a minimum of three years? $3,000,000 or More 12 05% $2,500,000 - $2,999,999 24 09% $2,000,000 - $2,499,999 34 13% $1,500,000 - $1,999,999 64 24% $1,000,000 - $1,499,999 48 18% $500,000 - $999,999 41 15% Less Than $500,000 40 15% 8. In your opinion, who would be the three to five best people to lead a fundraising campaign for St. Lawrence Catholic Church if we could get them? (Names provided under separate cover.) 9. In your opinion, who are the three to five members who might be capable of making the largest gifts if they were so inclined? (Names provided under separate cover.) 10. In your opinion, what individuals and institutions outside of the church community (e.g., former members, businesses and organizations, etc.) might have the potential and willingness to make significant gifts? (Names provided under separate cover.) 11. If a campaign is conducted, do you think you might consider or accept a campaign leadership position if asked? Yes 013 03% Maybe 048 12% No 330 85% 12. If not a leadership position, would you work on the campaign in some other capacity? Yes 060 15% Maybe 140 35% No 196 50%
13. If a campaign is conducted, do you think you might make a gift? Yes 180 49% Maybe 146 40% No 041 11% 14. If you were to make a gift, what range gift do you think you might consider over a three-year time period? Of the 326 individuals, couples or institutions who said they would make or would consider making gifts, 206 mentioned specific amounts or a gift range they might consider. The highest gift or range gift that any one individual, couple or institution said they would make or consider was in the $50,000 range. Two individuals, couples or institutions said they would make or consider such a gift. The total of specified gifts that people said they would or might consider ranged from a low total of $627,840 to a high total of $936,280. 15. Are you aware of any other campaigns that are in progress or being planned that might conflict with a campaign for St. Lawrence Catholic Church? No 325 89% Yes 039 11% Potential conflicts mentioned more than once included the Kuemper Ball, the Kuemper School Foundation and the New Hope campaign that is just ending and campaigns for the hospital and the new library building. 16. Do you have any other comments or suggestions that you think might be important or helpful to this study or in planning a campaign? There were 314 responses to this question. CONCLUSIONS A. SATISFACTION WITH THE PARISH The level of satisfaction with St. Lawrence is very high at the present time. In fact, ninety-eight percent (98%) of those individually interviewed and eighty-seven percent of (87%) of survey respondents overall said that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the church and the programs and services that you currently provide. This is obviously very conducive to a successful campaign. In addition, there were no nagging or consistently mentioned sources of discontent, which is also very positive and, again, will serve you well in your planned campaign. B. PROJECT AWARENESS AND ACCEPTANCE Ninety-five percent (95%) of survey respondents felt that they were either well informed or had a general knowledge of your needs and plans. Consequently, we view the level of awareness for your project to be very high at the present time. Acceptance for the proposed project overall was more moderate at the present time. Seventy-one percent (71%) of those personally interviewed and sixty-six percent (66%) of survey respondents overall felt that addressing your needs as expressed was either important or very important. This fairly moderate level of acceptance for the proposed project is probably more of a reflection of people s perception and their often mentioned concern about the state of the economy than it is about your stated needs. There was also some concern expressed about the overall cost and affordability of the project not only initially, but also on an ongoing basis due to inevitable increased operating expenses. During the conduct of our study, we also assessed acceptance for all of the proposed project s major parts and found that all but one received majority acceptance among survey respondents. Rated the highest priority among survey respondents was your expressed need and proposed plan to add a new family/meeting room within your proposed new parish hall. Sixty-five percent (65%) of
survey respondents overall and seventy-four percent (74%) of those personally interviewed rated this as important or very important to do. Rated the second highest priority among survey respondents was your expressed need and proposed plan to construct a new parish center/hall. Sixty-four percent (64%) of all survey respondents and seventy-one percent (71%) of those personally interviewed rated this part of the proposed project as something that is important or very important to do. Rated the third highest priority among survey respondents overall was your expressed need and proposed plan to expand your existing narthex and add a gathering space onto what you currently have. And while sixty percent (60%) of all survey respondents rated this as important or very important to do, it is important to note that seventy-eight percent (78%) of those personally interviewed see this part of your plan as the most important thing to do. The only part of your plan that did not receive majority acceptance at this time were the proposed new outdoor spaces with the exception of the covered walkway, which many people felt was needed and a good idea. Only thirty-five percent (35%) of survey respondents and forty-five percent (45%) of those personally interviewed felt that the proposed outdoor work that you have planned (social courtyard and prayer garden) is important or very important to do at this time. Additionally, there were a number of people who felt that the church itself needed work, including painting, re-carpeting and redecorating. Overall, however, the positive perception of your proposed project and the majority of its parts will be quite conducive to the success of your planned campaign. C. CAMPAIGN AWARENESS AND ACCEPTANCE Awareness of a fundraising effort designed to address your expressed needs is very high at the present time with eighty-eight and a half percent (88.5%) of survey participants overall and ninety-eight percent (98%) of those personally interviewed saying that they knew a campaign was being considered or planned. Acceptance for such an effort, however, is a bit more moderate at the present time. Most survey respondents (43%) felt that acceptance for such an effort would at least be good while a majority (82%) felt that acceptance for a campaign at the present time would be only fair to good. The main reason for this evaluation was the current state of the national and local economies, which many feel are in bad shape. There were a number of others, though, that see this as a fairly good time to pursue a campaign and project of this kind saying that the farm economy is still fairly good, that the city of Carroll just gave people salary and wage increases, that contractors are fairly hungry and that construction rates and interest rates would be more favorable now than in the future. Some even said that a project like this could actually stimulate the local economy and that waiting would only increase the overall expense of the project over time. Keep in mind, too, that your campaign would continue over a three year period of time and that the economy is somewhat cyclical, so if some people are unable to participate at the current time to the extent they otherwise might, that s not to say that they will not be able to participate or participate at an increased rate during better economic times. It s also important to note that eighty-nine percent (89%) of all study participants said that they would either make or consider gifts, which is both very encouraging and somewhat contrary to people s concern about the timing of the planned effort and their current concerns about the economy. D. COMPETITION FOR FUNDS Competition for philanthropic funds does not seem to be a major issue for you at this time. In fact, a high percentage (89%) of survey respondents said that they did not know of any other potentially conflicting projects or campaigns that were in progress or planned that might adversely affect your campaign plans. Of those that were mentioned, support of the Kuemper Ball and the Kuemper School Foundation are the only efforts that could adversely affect some people s willingness and/or ability to support your proposed parish campaign effort to the extent they otherwise might. But in our experience and based upon what we know about them, we do not believe that these will have a very significant, long lasting or widespread detrimental effect. In summary, now would seem to be a relatively ideal time to launch and run a campaign from a competitive perspective.
E. VOLUNTEER AND VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL Campaigns of this nature are not only volunteer intensive, they re volunteer dependent. Consequently, it is essential to have ample, able and willingly available volunteers and volunteer leadership for a successful campaign. Ideally, you should have one volunteer for every five or six members or contributing households or prospective donors. In your case, with roughly 1,000 registered and 776 contributing households, this translates into a need for between 130 and 165 volunteers, ideally. Approximately 20% of these, or 26 to 33 people and preferably couples, would be needed to serve in key leadership roles enlisting, soliciting and supervising other volunteers and volunteer leaders in the campaign. And, as a general rule of thumb, you should have at least two candidates for every volunteer (leadership) position that needs to be filled. For your church, this means that you should have a pool of at least 52 to 66 key leadership candidates. During the course of this study, 45 different individuals or couples were named among the best possible leaders for a campaign. This approximates the ideal pool of quality candidates that we would need, which indicates that you should be able to attain the quality and quantity of volunteers and volunteer leaders that we would ideally need and like to see for your campaign. Willingness to work on the campaign, especially in a leadership role, is also critical to your success and something that we also assessed. And the study shows that thirty-eight percent (38%) of those personally interviewed (who are presumably some of the most active and generous people to your church now) indicated a willingness to consider leadership positions in the campaign if offered or asked. This is slightly higher than the typical one-out-of-three willingness-to-lead response that we typically and ideally would like to see. On an increasingly encouraging note, is the fact that willingness to get involved in key leadership roles actually increased among those recommended most to us as the best possible leaders for your campaign. In fact, of the 23 individuals or couples that were mentioned to us multiple times as being among the best to lead your campaign, we interviewed 12 of the 23, and found that 8 of the 12, or sixtyseven percent (67%), said they would or might accept campaign leadership roles if asked. Furthermore, of the 16 individuals or couples that were recommended to us three or more times as being the most capable to lead your campaign, we interviewed 10 of these, and 7 of the 10, or seventy percent (70%), said they would or might accept campaign leadership roles if asked. And finally, of the 7 individuals or couples that were suggested five or more times as being the best to lead your campaign, we interviewed 6 of them, and 5 of the 6 or eighty-three percent (83%) said that they, too, would or might accept a leadership role in your campaign if it was offered to them. This increased willingness to get involved as key leaders among those mentioned most as the best to lead your campaign is significant in that campaigns of this nature tend to have somewhat of bandwagon effect with most people waiting to get involved until those they know and respect most already have. Additionally, it was also encouraging to note that forty-eight percent (48%) of all survey respondents said that they would or might work on the campaign in some capacity if asked, which is approximates the one-out-of-two willingness to work response that we typically and ideally like to see. So, in summary, your prospects for getting both the quality and quantity of volunteers and volunteer leaders that you would need for a successful campaign looks to be pretty promising at the present time. F. FINANCIAL POTENTIAL A number of considerations are used to determine financial potential. All of the previously discussed criteria satisfaction with the parish, acceptance of the proposed project and campaign, competition for funds, and leadership potential are all major considerations. Another important criterion in estimating financial potential is the opinion of the church members themselves, since experience, for the most part, shows that people tend to perform at the level they think they are capable of, and rarely above. And, the study shows that a majority of those interviewed (51%) believe that at least $1,500,000 can realistically be raised over a three-year pledge period for your proposed campaign. We also look at prospects for pacesetting gifts in evaluating a church s financial potential. To reach your capability in a fundraising effort of any significance, you would normally need and ideally receive at least one gift equal to 10% or more of your goal. Furthermore, you should have at least three prospective contributors rated as capable of making the top gift that you need. In your case, with a $2.6 - $3 million project, that means you would need at least three prospective donors consistently rated as
capable of contributing at least $260,000 or more to your planned campaign. During the course of our interviews, there were no individuals or couples who were consistently rated as capable of making such a gift. The average rated gift potential of the three top prospects for gifts amounted to approximately $320,000. This would indicate a potential for raising at least $3,200,000 under this financial formula. We also looked at the top gifts that your people expressed a willingness to consider or make in evaluating your financial potential. And during the course of our study, there were three people who said that they would make or consider gifts of at least $30,000 to $50,000 and three additional people who said they would make or consider gifts of at least $25,000 to the campaign. If the top three gifts were combined they would amount to the equivalent of a lead gift in the $90,000 to $150,000 range, which would indicate a potential for raising at least $900,000 under the financial formula previously mentioned. Finally, one of the best barometers of financial potential is current giving. Normally, a parish should be able to raise at least two and one half times its annual offerings in a well run and received campaign. And according to information provided to us, approximately $1,100,000 in such income was received over the past 12 months. This would indicate a potential for raising at least $2,750,000 in your campaign. The average of the aforementioned indicators amounts to $2,087,500. Consequently, we believe that you have the potential to raise a minimum of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 over a three-year period in your planned campaign in addition to other funds that you may already or eventually have available for this project and campaign. RECOMMENDATIONS 1. That you consider completing the project and/or the fundraising for it in up to two phases, if needed, based on what people want, will support and to what extent, as well as what seems to make the most practical sense. You could, for example, choose to complete the entire project all at once and then, if needed, do another campaign three years from now to retire whatever debt remains. Or you could choose to defer certain parts of the project (e.g., the social courtyard and prayer garden) to a second or separate campaign or until a specified level of funding exists. 2. That you consider building into this or a subsequent campaign, if needed, the expense of re-painting, re-decorating and re-carpeting your church. 3. That you begin the planning and organizational work for your capital campaign relatively immediately, either right away or as late as mid-april after Easter. This will allow you to complete the major gift gathering activities and phases of your campaign by as early as the end of June or alternatively, if the following recommendation is heeded, by early to mid-november. 4. That you consider having us break out, organize and conduct a special and separate Pacesetting Gifts Phase for your campaign, which would provide extra time for developing more significant lead gifts that will help to assure your optimal campaign results and ultimate success. This special phase could be conducted first and apart from the more traditional Advance and Community Gifts phases of a church campaign in which these more significant gifts are typically solicited. During this phase we would focus on soliciting and securing approximately 10 to 15 gifts that would provide up to 40% or more of your overall goal. These types of substantial lead gifts do, in fact, exist in your parish, but the willingness to give them currently doesn t. Consequently, we believe that you could benefit from having additional time for cultivating and closing these types of gifts that are so critical to realizing your financial potential. In fact, in other parishes where we have recommended and conducted this special phase, it has resulted in raising, on average, an additional one times the parish s annual income. So even though adding a Pacesetting Gifts phase would add slightly to the campaign s overall cost, it also has the potential to significantly enhance your campaign results well beyond this additional expense. It would also help to avoid having to conduct some of the more significant parts of the campaign (i.e., Commitment Weekend) over the summertime, which in a farming community can be somewhat problematic but would be otherwise unavoidable (without compromising campaign results) even if you were to start the campaign immediately. Doing a Pacesetting Gifts phase, on the other hand, would allow the campaign to unfold more gradually so that there is ample time for proper preparation, volunteer recruitment and gift solicitation. It will allow the summertime to be used even more productively and would allow the
campaign to culminate when the harvest is in, when most people are here and maybe even when the economy has had a chance to slightly improve/change. In short, we believe it would be a smart move and a wise investment on the parish s part. 5. That you establish a minimum goal of $2 million for the (initial phase of the) campaign, which is in line with what we believe you can realistically expect to minimally raise. We also suggest that an additional challenge or ultimate goal be set equal to the proposed project s total cost which, if met, will enable you to complete more of the project and/or to complete it without having to conduct another campaign or incur any interim debt. 6. That you begin to develop responses to some of the other most commonly raised questions, concerns and suggestions that surfaced as a part of this study, which will then need to be incorporated into the final case statement, campaign literature and a question and answer sheet that should be used prior to and as part of the formal conduct of your campaign. 7. That you build into your case the newly announced Diocesan plans to consolidate some smaller, surrounding parishes into St. Lawrence, which intensifies your need for improved and expanded space. 8. That you initiate and implement within three to nine months after the campaign ends, a more formal, holistic and professionally run stewardship program at your church with our assistance. Such a program should have at its core a strong initial and ongoing educational component emphasizing what it means to be a Christian steward in every sense; it should be led by a sound and well-rounded, standing stewardship committee that will assure that the program is ongoing and holistic in nature; it should have a strong volunteer stewardship component that seeks to get more deeply involved in the life of your church; and it should have a strong financial stewardship component that seeks not only to expand regular weekly giving, but also special and substantial short and long-term gifts to your church, which may help you to support any interim debt and increased operating expense that you may incur as a result of this project and/or may enable you to finish your proposed project sooner than might otherwise be possible without it.