CASE STUDY
St. David’s Episcopal Church
Parishioners and leadership at St. David's were seeing their beloved church deteriorate around them. Committed to its restoration, they successfully raised the necessary funds to save their sacred space.
The Vestry of St. David’s found itself with several important deferred maintenance projects on its hands, and a dwindling and aging congregation.
As it approached its 75th Anniversary, Rector Robin Dodge and the Vestry asked The Sheridan Group to attract philanthropic support for repairs and small new construction projects. Our report recommended that the parish was in position to conduct a successful campaign, but would likely not be able to raise the funds necessary for its full scope of capital projects.
Based on the recommendations in the feasibility study, we guided St. David’s through The Cornerstone Campaign in order to address the most pressing needs, notably work on the bell tower, the drainage/flooding issues and stained-glass windows. In April of 2016 at the 75th Anniversary celebration, Father Robin Dodge publicly announced to a crowd of more than 150 parishioners that the campaign had exceeded its goal of $480,000 and that construction work was soon to follow.
St. David’s was at a bit of a crossroads when we were first introduced to The Sheridan Group. It is a truly beautiful church, but years of deferred maintenance and ongoing issues with flooding were causing damage throughout the structure. The gorgeous bell tower and roof were both in need of repair; the stained glass windows – a point of pride for the parish – were buckling and in need of restoration; and the flooding in the undercroft hampered our ability to fully serve our community. On the other hand, we had a Vestry that was committed to fixing those issues, and a pending 75th Anniversary celebrating how long the church had been at that location. Dave and Jeff worked with us every step of the way – from engaging the parish in the Feasibility Study, to helping recruit leadership for the Campaign; from managing leadership gift cultivation and solicitation, to assisting with plans for the campaign’s kick-off and celebration events – The Sheridan Group worked with us through everything and made sure that our campaign was a success.
Fr. Robin Dodge
Former Rector
St. David’s Episcopal Church
