Background
Prestonwood Christian Academy (PCA) is a private Christian school serving more than 1,600 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade across three campuses in North Texas.
Challenge
In 2016, PCA launched a capital campaign to raise $20 million to build a new middle school. Prior capital campaigns at the school had never yielded more than $4 million total, so this campaign presented a challenge for the school and its constituency. Even more daunting, given the limited number of principal gift prospects, the campaign needed to secure a $6 million lead gift.
Solution
PCA knew early on that they wanted to engage professional fundraising counsel. After an extensive evaluation of 12 firms, Mission Advancement was chosen as the strategic partner due to its broad experience with church-affiliated schools, prioritization of a prayerful process built on biblical stewardship, and a deep understanding of the school’s culture.
As campaign counsel, Mission Advancement worked with PCA’s leadership on a phased approach that included:
- Conducting a comprehensive Campaign Planning and Advancement Study that evaluated the strengths and opportunities of the current development operation, marketing and communications, and admissions;
- Crafting a case for support that conveyed the compelling need for the new middle school building and its connection to the school’s mission;
- Developing memorable donor experiences that would deeply resonate with each individual prospect and bring the urgency of the case to life.
Results
The donor experiences gave the prospects time to truly understand the need and connect more deeply to the school’s mission. The lead prospect was invited to be a middle school student for a day and then invited back for a virtual tour of the envisioned building. After an individualized ask by the Head of School, he ultimately became the lead donor for the campaign with a 7-figure gift. Once the lead gift was secured, four other principal gifts came through within the week, which led to a total of $11.5 million raised in just 6 days. The school achieved its $20 million goal and held an opening ceremony for the new building in 2020.
