Client Spotlights

Amidst a leadership transition, preparing for an upcoming campaign, and challenging external conditions, Kansas University Endowment Association (KU Endowment) sought to conduct a development assessment and strategic planning process.

Under new presidential leadership, Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) began reconsidering its strategic goals and how best to fulfill its mission. OCCC used consultants to conduct a fundraising assessment and facilitate an inclusive strategic planning process.

Queens University of Charlotte converted to Slate several years ago. However, a particularly short implementation period coupled with turnover among Slate captains led to the new Advancement instance not being fully leveraged. The team was eager to gain assurance in their system setup on a foundational level, and to then move toward properly maximizing Slate’s functionalities to serve their needs. They sought external counsel in BWF to both assess their system and implement the necessary changes identified in the assessment.

As the University of Sioux Falls (USF) considered launching a capital campaign beginning in 2019, a number of issues arose that needed to be attended to in order to achieve the philanthropic goals initially established by the university. USF later partnered with BWF to conduct a campaign planning study that provided recommendations on a campaign working goal and timeline.

Summit Academy OIC leaders understood that major philanthropic support would be needed to scale up its services and programs. A campaign planning study would allow them to test the campaign vision and then go on to build the organization’s fundraising capacity.

In FY23, Mississippi State University (MSU) completed its most successful fundraising year in its history. The $259.9 million MSU raised far exceeded expectations and broke the state’s single-year fundraising record.

Furman University’s development team went in search of ways to streamline and simplify campaign reporting to improve decision making, get faster access to data, and increase efficiency.

In 2013, the University of North Dakota (UND) concluded its first comprehensive campaign, raising $324 million towards a $300 million goal. Three years later, having taken fundraising to a new level, university leadership commenced with planning for the next comprehensive campaign, again ultimately working with BWF as campaign counsel as they had done in 2013.

After implementing Salesforce, Iowa State University Foundation wanted a third-party assessment of its structure and skills to inform long-term priorities for streamlining and supporting business processes along with guidelines on kickstarting data governance initiatives.

Cleveland State University was seeking to replace its current aging technology ecosystem with a new, modern fundraising and constituent management system that would create a better user experience and position it for increased fundraising efforts in its next campaign.

In launching its first-ever comprehensive campaign, St. Petersburg College decided to retain an outside communications partner to provide the overarching strategy, core messaging, creative platforms, and timely communications counsel.

UA leaders needed to determine the feasibility of launching a comprehensive campaign that would be the largest fundraising effort in its history.

WPI wanted to understand how the pandemic and the resulting economic shifts would impact both the FY20 fundraising goal and the next few years of the campaign.

In preparation for launching an ambitious campaign and growing its database, the University of Queensland needed an operations assessment to ensure a top-notch donor experience.

In planning the scope of its next campaign, Viterbo University saw a need to further enhance its brand awareness and ensure communications efforts are more strategic and proactive prior to launching a campaign. The University decided that an outside assessment of its communications function across the enterprise was in order.

Campaign ASU 2020 raised over $2.3B and was successful by all measures. ASU sought to fully understand what worked well in this campaign and where opportunities exist to improve fundraising in the next one.

A number of strategic recommendations were implemented prior to the start of the campaign that laid a strong foundation.

While planning for the most ambitious campaign in its history, the SDSU Foundation built momentum toward being more data driven, having clearer insights into its operations, having the ability to make strategic decisions and make them faster, and having a better way to validate its strategy, thereby saving time and resources.

The year-long effort began with the formation of a Strategic Planning Steering Committee, followed by a facilitated retreat with that group.

Leadership at Utica University wanted to help gift officers better understand their role as brand ambassadors and build their communications skills in fundraising.

Wisconsin Lutheran High School wanted to position itself for long-term growth and so decided it was time to assess the current state of Mission Advancement—including the team’s structure as well as both boards’ roles in the fundraising effort—and use the findings of the assessment to clarify roles and responsibilities, identify key metrics to track, and create a better structure for the team.

The pandemic forced the cancelation of Stony Brook’s giving day and meant pivoting to fundraising for the Student Emergency Fund by using the same tactic—student-centered, video-driven content.