Fundraising and Capital Campaigns

One of the keys to successful fundraising programs is organization. From start to finish, The Covenant Group offers a menu of services to help your organization achieve maximum success. In addition to feasibility studies, The Covenant Group also can help you by providing:

1. Philanthropic market studies / feasibility studies
2. Capital and annual campaign plan development
3. Capital campaign consulting/management services
4. Development assessments
5. Prospect pool development
6. Campaign leadership development
7. Planned giving program development
8. Phone-a-thons, direct mail, and annual giving support
9. Follow-up and cultivation
10. Programs to recharge your volunteers

Strategic Planning

Successful organizations understand the importance of having a clear sense of their mission, vision and core values to keep them on course. Without them, a company can find itself adrift in a sea of mediocrity. We help you develop and / or clarify the mission, vision and core values along with goals, strategies and action plans that collectively serve as a foundation that enables the company to weather any storm and prosper. In fact, successful organizations understand that where there is turbulence, there are opportunities.

According to Humphrey Institute planning expert John Bryson, seizing those opportunities requires a threefold response from organizations:

1. They must think and plan strategically as never before.
2. They must translate their insights into effective strategies.
3. They must develop a strong rationale and lay the necessary groundwork for the adoption and implementation of those strategies.

To assist organizations in successfully responding to the challenge, The Covenant Group will facilitate a 10 step strategic planning process:

1. Conduct an internal assessment/situation analysis.
2. Scan the environment and identify critical issues.
3. Organize a core planning committee.
4. Facilitate a team-building planning retreat.
5. Develop and / or clarify the organization's mission, vision, goals and values as well as a vehicle for stakeholder communication.
6. Communicate with stakeholders / follow-up sessions with staff.
7. Generate alternatives and develope strategies / Planning Steering Committee sessions.
8. Write the report with recommendations, finalize the plan and achieve consensus.
9. Develop systems for accountability and implementation / manage to the plan.
10. Review progress and make necessary adjustments.

Marketing

Any effective marketing program starts by listening and then responding to the needs of customers. Many organizations have been doing just that for years, but they fail to use the information, make appropriate changes and then tell people about their success.

Typically, The Covenant Group will use the results of one or more of their assessments to help you through:

1. Creating a marketing and / or sales plan
2. Marketing audits with sales and service solutions
3. End-to-end rapid web presence
4. Leadership awareness and public relations campaigns
5. Special events development and planning
6. Writing, video design and development of support materials
7. Brochure design, development and project management
8. Membership, admissions and public relations audits and strategies
9. Communications planning

Leadership Development

Leadership expert James MacGregor Burns noted that leadership is a relationship between leaders and followers. Under increased pressure, corporate executives as well as non profit professionals and volunteers find themselves more often pushing and pulling through power rather than leading through their relationships. The Covenant Group offers an eight-module leadership development program that teaches people how to lead others effectively. It is designed to engage and empower both workers and volunteers in ways that make their work rewarding and highly productive. Also, since the program is customized to fit specific organizations, it provides real solutions to practical problems. The modules are ideal for retreats or they can be spread out over a longer period of time. Topics include the following:

1. Establishing and maintaining covenants series (includes 1 overview module and 10 individual modules)
2. Building effective teams / engaging your stakeholders
3. Establishing and maintaining covenant
4. Building effective teams
5. Improving communication
6. Principles of leadership
7. Mastering leadership
8. Ethical decision making for leaders

Seminars/Retreats

We can help you by...

Do you need a facilitator or dynamic speaker for...

1. A special event?

2. A leadership seminar?

3. A retreat for your stakeholders (staff, volunteers, board members)? Many organizations seek stakeholders who are highly talented, involved and influential, yet they do little to engage them. Involved board members care about the organization's success and stay engaged in the work. Having stakeholders who are talented, involved and influential is rare because it takes work. A good way to the engagement process is through a well-conceived and well-facilitated retreat.

The Solution...

The Covenant Group provides interactive leadership seminars that are custom-designed for your organization. Topics include but are not limited to the following:

1. Understanding and motivating adults
2. Enhancing performance through coaching I & II
3. Establishing and maintaining covenant
4. Building effective teams
5. Improving communication
6. Principles of leadership
7. Mastering leadership
8. Ethical decision-making for leaders

Your organization will work with one of our professionals who has the experience and knowledge to help you achieve your objectives.

Database Analysis

Development officers and sales executives understand the key to their success is a strong prospect list. Some organizations have very large mailing lists but know little about the people on the list. One way to find out more information and identify major prospects is through data mining or what many people call conducting a database analysis or a wealth search analysis. Finding one good donor or business prospect through such a process can more than pay for its cost many times over.

You can simply send us a file of your mailing list, and we will have it screened against the best databases available on the market.

To give you an idea of the kind of information you will receive and the value of this service, we can run a free test analysis on a sample file of up to 500 randomly selected donors or customer records.

iConsult

The Covenant Group understands that leadership, marketing or fundraising questions can come up anytime. That's why we provide a subscriber service, which makes us available to you 24 hours a day. For a fee, you can e-mail us a question, and one of our iConsultants will get back to you with an answer within two business days. As a subscriber, members of your organization also will have access to participate in weekly online chats on various fundraising topics of interest.

iStudy

The Covenant Group provides a number of "do-it-yourself" products for churches and "grassroot organizations" (organizations that are just getting started and/or have limited resources and a working board) that simply need limited guidance. These products include outlines for:

1. Church campaign plans
2. Organizational campaign plans
3. Strategic plans

These products are available in standard PDF format and may be purchased by contacting our office.