Success Stories

Bringing Focus to a Campaign

By Mac Plummer, Vice President, St. Francis Hospital Foundation

In a small office like ours at St. Francis Hospital Foundation in Columbus, Georgia, there are always competing priorities because development staff members are also involved in special events and other activities of the organization. It is easy to lose focus on the big picture of a capital campaign. However, Jerry Smith and his team have brought us that needed focus. With their help, we have exceeded our working goal of $15 million in pledges in less than half the time allocated to the total campaign.

During the campaign, it also became evident that success comes from teamwork within the walls of our organization. As a hospital system, we sought the assistance of our caregivers including physicians and clinical staff. They helped us develop a list of prospects who had both the means to support the campaign and also a positive experience at St. Francis from the care provided. In addition, we recruited a group of physician champions who have both supported our campaign through personal giving and by making calls with our staff and volunteers to prospective donors. We have found that they have the most credibility with prospects. Further, we have been the beneficiary of a great physician campaign that has made a huge impact on community leaders. Their physician friends' support of our plans makes a great impact on their willingness to support the hospital.

Our success has been so great that we have decided to double our campaign goal to $30 million. It has been a real pleasure working with Jerry Smith and his staff on our The Power of Partnership capital campaign.

St. Francis Hospital broke ground on October 24th for a new facility that will afford the hospital 330,000 additional square feet of space.

Building on Momentum at Virginia State University

by Laura Cobb, Assistant Vice President, J.F. Smith Group

Virginia State University, located in historic Petersburg, Virginia, has certainly enjoyed the fruits of its labor, successfully closing out a major capital campaign at the end of 2010 and turning its eyes to the future and campaigns to come.  On December 31, 2010, Virginia State successfully closed out its A Dream on The Hill capital campaign, raising over $36.7 million.  Over $9 million of this total was raised during Phase II of the campaign, carried out from July 1, 2010, to December 31, 2010.  Phase II was begun after the hugely successful Phase I of the campaign raised over $27.3 million since July 1, 2006.  The J.F. Smith Group had the pleasure of coming on board with Virginia State with a feasibility study in 2005 and again with Phase II of the capital campaign in the spring of 2010.  JFSG has formed a strong partnership with Virginia State over the past year, assisting with development training, cultivation visits and strategies, and donor identification and verification.

A Dream on The Hill was an ambitious undertaking by Virginia State's Board of Visitors, administration, alumni and friends to promote and sustain academic programs in line with the University's mission.  Virginia State targeted three key areas - students, faculty and the campus itself.  Student initiatives included providing increased financial assistance to offset inflation and tuition increases as well as the establishment of endowed funds to generate interest-based income for additional financial assistance.  Faculty goals included recruiting and retaining top-notch faculty, increasing the allowable time for faculty research, providing state-of-the art equipment, materials and technology, and creating scholarships and stipends for graduate assistant students.  Campus changes realized through the campaign included renovating housing and academic facilities and developing new ones, upgrading the University's website and technology infrastructure, creating SMART classrooms and new computer labs, establishing distance learning equipment, and upgrading the library with electronic databases and journals.

The successful A Dream on The Hill campaign certainly had a positive impact on the Virginia State family, but Virginia State is not stopping there.  The Office of Development is already busy preparing itself for a campaign on the horizon, which will be led by Virginia State's 13^th President, Dr. Keith T. Miller.  Already busy making cultivation calls and visits, Virginia State will be poised to capitalize on this campaign with the same success that it did on the one just completed.  This is an exciting time for Virginia State University!

AUM Breaks Ground on New Wellness Center

On February 4, 2011, Auburn University President Jay Gouge and Auburn University at Montgomery Chancellor John G. Veres gathered with the Auburn Board of Trustees, city officials, AUM administration and Student Government Association for a makeshift indoor groundbreaking ceremony. The ceremony (moved inside due to rainy conditions) announced the beginning of construction for a new 73,500-square-foot state-of-the-art Wellness Center on Auburn University at Montgomery's campus.

The AUM Student Government Association played a big role in the realization of the new facility. Over the past four years, the group rallied the student body to vote in favor of an increase in student activities fee to help finance the Wellness Center. In 2010, more than 75 percent of the student body voted in favor of increasing the fees from $10 to $170. 

The remainder of the $20.6 million bill for the Wellness Center will be footed from grants and private donors through the university's capital campaign, Imagine. Invest. Inspire:  A Campaign for Auburn University at Montgomery. Hired as consultants to lead the campaign, the J.F. Smith Group continues to work with AUM in identifying, cultivating and soliciting such private gift support. With a campaign start date of March 1, 2010 and a working goal of $10.3 million, AUM has already witnessed much early success, having raised $6.1 million in just over a year.

The Wellness Center is scheduled to open in August 2012. It will be the first building constructed on campus since 2003 and will help serve as a tool to promote student unity, fitness and physical education learning within the university. The facility will include a weight room, aerobics room, multipurpose activity room, pool/aquatic center, including a lap pool and vortex pool, the area's only rock climbing wall, indoor track and basketball courts.

Loyola College Prep Faculty/Staff Appeal Success

Loyola College Prep in Shreveport, Louisiana has witnessed much early success in their $4.1 million capital campaign, Loyola Forever. Their success has been illustrated in many ways-from successful appointment making, to cultivation visits, to major gift giving-but an early indication of success was evident through the faculty/staff appeal.

Loyola attributes the success of this very important appeal to the structure of its employee volunteer leadership and also the passion of its faculty and staff members. Loyola first identified and recruited a volunteer team that fit the organization and reached out to all faculty and staff. One chairman may work, but for Loyola, they decided on three co-chairs. One was a senior statesman who had been at the school the longest of any faculty. The second was a young woman who had influence with the young teachers and is in only her second year at the school. Loyola rounded this team out with a dynamic personality, a coach and math teacher who has been at the school for 10 years and is well respected by all the staff.

J.F. Smith Group associates and Loyola campaign leadership met with the team early and shared the story and vision. We emphasized the fact that this campaign affected all aspects of the education at Loyola. All programs and students win! We made it clear 100% participation was the goal. Donors are inspired when they see that the faculty and staff have given to the campaign. JFSG has learned that mission-based, quality academic education inspired by a committed and invested faculty and staff is the single strongest factor in motivating donors to give to your school. Before we reach out to the community, we must be able to say the board and faculty and staff our committed and invested.

On the day of the faculty/staff appeal, this team of co-chairs spoke to the audience. They were very knowledgeable of the projects and benefits, but also highly motivated to reach the goal of 100% participation regardless of the gift amount. They made a high energy appeal filled with humor and emotion.

Loyola quickly and enthusiastically reached the goal of 100% and celebrated with a plaque from JFSG. The presentation of this plaque again emphasized how academics and the support of the faculty and staff are important factors for success in Loyola's campaign, and that the faculty and staff had truly "made a difference."

The State of South Dakota

by Jerry F. Smith, CFRE, President and CEO

Have you ever been to South Dakota in January?  Well I have, and on one trip I experienced weather of 22 degrees below zero!  Now that is cold for a boy from Alabama.  But on October 20^th, it was a beautiful day in Brookings, South Dakota.  Not only was the weather a warm 75 degrees, but South Dakota State University announced its $200 million capital campaign, with $137 million already pledged.  That is quite an accomplishment for a school with 12,000 students and only 750,000 people in the state.

Let me back up and tell you how South Dakota State University got to this point. About four years ago, the J.F. Smith Group was invited by the SDSU Athletic Department to train its development officers on major gift fund-raising.  As a result of that contract, we were fortunate to win a contract to help the University launch its second capital campaign in the history of the school. The University's last campaign raised a little over $50 million. So, when we told SDSU leadership they could raise between $170 million and $190 million, they were somewhat doubtful.

The campaign started in January of 2007 after a feasibility study gathered information from 157 personal interviews, five focus groups across the country, and an online survey of over 1,900 participating.  I remember the president of the foundation asked, "Now, how do we get started?" The board was actually meeting in five days, and I suggested we solicit the foundation staff in an attempt to obtain 100% participation before that board meeting. This involvement illustrates to constituents that the fund-raising staff is in full support of the campaign. The president said, "I'll try."  Well, try he did, because the staff of 50 plus pledged over $150,000 to the campaign.  This was a great start! And throughout the campaign, SDSU has seen over 18,000 donors contribute to "IT BEGINS WITH STATE."

I am confident SDSU will reach its goal of $200 million by December 31, 2012, because the people of South Dakota are proud, committed and will not let this campaign fail. The record of fund-raising by SDSU's sister institution, University of South Dakota, was $134 million raised over eight years. SDSU has already surpassed that number in just three!

I am grateful SDSU allowed the J.F. Smith Group to be a part of their success.