Chicago, IL
FEASIBILITY STUDY AND CAMPAIGN
The Need
St. Laurence High School, founded in 1961, is a Catholic school rich with tradition, striving to help its students gain a strong sense of spirituality and purpose. In the face of declining enrollment and mergers of other Catholic high schools in the area, St. Laurence needed to stay strong. New leadership, curriculum, and programming demanded additional resources. The board and leadership team identified priorities for student aid, faculty support, and technology/facilities upgrades to meet its academic and enrollment goals, and needed to know if it could engage with alumni to raise the funds.
How We Helped
Rubin & Associates conducted a campaign feasibility study to:
- Write a persuasive case for support and test donor reactions
- Determine how much could be raised
- Discover lead gift prospects
- Integrate annual support into a campaign
- Identify the strongest volunteer leaders for a campaign
- Assess readiness of staff, board and organizational systems
Our team worked side-by-side with campaign leadership through the $5 million initiative:
- Creating collateral materials
- Staffing and training the Campaign Cabinet
- Researching, developing profiles, and scripting major gift solicitations
- Developing donor engagement events
- Setting a rational goal for the campaign
The Outcome
Consultants Susan Loiacano and Michael Rubin worked closely with key staff and an alumni task force, interviewing 35 alumni leaders to get their input and gauge generosity. Through analysis and thoughtful recommendations, we recommended moving ahead with a $5 million campaign. Knowing which donors could commit lead gifts and which alumni were inspiring leaders helped propel the Defend the Glory campaign to a flying start. With support from Rubin & Associates, St. Laurence exceeded its campaign goal.
FROM THE CLIENT
“Michael and Susan provided a great framework and years of experience to help us make data-driven decisions about our campaign. The Feasibility Study gave us confidence we had the right project, the right goal amount and the right leadership to be successful.”— Joe Martinez, President