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Case Study

Prestonwood Christian Academy completes largest capital campaign

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.

Mission Advancement took the time to understand
Culture fit was a determining factor when choosing our counsel. Mission Advancement took the time to understand our organization and values and developed a plan unique to us
Larry Taylor
Prestonwood Christian Academy

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:

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.

$20M

Capital raised

$11.5M

Raised in 6 days

$6M

Lead gift

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