Today, it can be easy to fall into the trap of wanting to move along at lightspeed. We hold an entire world of knowledge in the palm of our hands, so patience can be a lost art. Even in fundraising, donations arrive faster now with text-to-give and online giving portals. Gone are the days of a donor only having the option of giving cash or writing a check. At the Steier Group, we occasionally hear from a church, diocese or school eager to begin a capital campaign that they would rather not take the time to complete a feasibility study.…
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Launched in February 2022, Twelve Wicker Baskets, the Steier Group’s podcast, broadly explores all the many ways God meets the spiritual and temporal needs of parishes, Catholic schools, dioceses and beyond. The idea for the podcast arose when firm management began to reflect on 25 years of service and how to engage the depth and breadth of knowledge that has accumulated over many different capital campaigns for Catholic dioceses, churches, schools and organizations. “We wanted to connect the work of the development professional and the pastoral leader with the deep roots of stewardship in the Catholic tradition, and it’s become…
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Team Catholic. It is a simple idea. Every member of the community working in unity to support the Catholic Church. But, in the Steier Group’s work across North America, we’ve found that’s often not the case. You may recognize some of these issues: A pastor unwilling to participate in a diocesan campaign. A development director focused on the bishop’s annual appeal but not parish offertory. A school principal ignoring the value of its supportive parish. Some of this is human nature. We focus on what’s right in front of us. Seeing the bigger picture isn’t always possible. But working together…
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Strong parishes, strong diocese. This mantra, from the Most Reverend Douglas Crosby, Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton, during its capital campaign, sums up the benefit of a diocesan-wide capital campaign. When the Catholic faithful of a diocese comes together to support one another and the Church as a whole, a rising tide truly lifts all boats. Never was this truer than during the pandemic. In addition to the usual challenges of a diocesan campaign, dioceses faced navigating the rough waters of lockdowns, virtual Mass, social distancing and economic hardship. By following capital campaign best practices and adjusting to pandemic…
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In addition to our diocesan partners, the Steier Group helped churches, schools, Newman Centers and Catholic Charities across North America weather the pandemic storm. Many of these organizations stayed the course even as lockdowns occurred. Thanks to nimble adjustments, changes in strategy and tailoring fundraising goals to the new state of the world, each found fundraising success. Here are a few campaigns that were successful in 2020: ST. ANNE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN HOUSTON 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…
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In March 2021, after more than six years of experience managing campaigns for a variety of Catholic high schools, parishes and dioceses, the Steier Group promoted Christopher Beaudet to President of Diocesan Services. Chiefly responsible for engaging diocesan leaders across the United States and Canada, Christopher gains familiarity with the unique pastoral context of each diocese, assists in identifying and defining their funding needs, and then orchestrates the Steier Group’s design and implementation of planning studies and capital campaigns to address them. He serves in a leadership capacity for all Steier Group diocesan campaigns. Before joining the Steier Group, Christopher…
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The COVID-19 pandemic changed the landscape of life as we know it. And had a big impact on fundraising. But, despite economic hardships and social changes, fundraising performed well in 2020 with a bright future on the horizon. In this issue of Steier Wire, we’ve explored the ins and outs of successful campaigns for our clients. Now we can look at the bigger picture. According to Blackbaud’s Charitable Giving Report, giving grew by 2% in 2020. Which is good news, considering the financial upheaval that came with the pandemic. Also, Blackbaud found that online giving grew by 20.7% compared to…
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To say that the events of 2020 flipped fundraising (and the world as a whole) on its head would be an understatement: millions sick, hundreds of thousands dead, cities and states locked down, churches and schools closed, economic struggles, millions more out of work. Some Catholic communities are suffering too. Mass attendance is down as parishes grapple with local restrictions and safety concerns. Offertory income is declining. In some extreme cases, operational shortfalls are causing Catholic schools to shut their doors permanently. All the while, pastors wonder if parishioners will ultimately return in the same numbers they did before the…
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The pandemic has created new challenges and changed the way Catholic organizations operate and raise money. At the Steier Group, we have seen the silver linings of this “new normal” and are helping our clients not merely survive this crisis but thrive through it. While the fundamentals of a capital campaign remain unchanged, the following are some of the positive developments we’ve experienced while working through the pandemic. RELATIONSHIPS Relationships are the heart of a healthy organization and the lifeblood of fundraising. Stay-at-home orders and physical distancing have forced us all to reimagine how to sustain relationships and how to…
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The global pandemic has brought uncertainly to every aspect of life. For Catholic parishes, concerns over the virus have negatively impacted Mass attendance, ministry participation and ultimately, the operating budget. But the decline in revenue doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a decline in affinity. In fact, many donors are more motivated than ever to help. Major donors repeatedly tell the Steier Group they are continuing to support the organizations that matter most to them. “You need to ask,” said Paul B. Bolus, a philanthropist in Alabama, during the Steier Group’s Donor Diagnosis live web forum. “You need to do it in…
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