You have what it takes to build a successful Catholic campus ministry

Our assessment and professional training and consulting services can help you every step of the way.

Two students praying together outside

Growing a thriving community on your campus isn’t always easy.

Our consulting services are uniquely tailored to address your specific needs in the areas of fund development, organizational health, and marketing strategy. We would be blessed to mutually discern a partnership with you.

Your Journey to Build a Successful Catholic Campus Ministry

A Sacred Heart Consultant guides a Father Ryan Kaup through his organization's assessment results

First Step

Take our Institutional Assessment

Our Institutional Assessment is an online tool designed to engage leaders from across your organization. You’ll each assess its strengths, acknowledge shortcomings, and gain clarity to focus your future efforts.

The assessment is divided into four areas: demographic data, institutional staffing, marketing impact, and fund development.  Once your results have been compiled, a Sacred Heart consultant will meet with you to share our findings and discuss a plan to get you closer to your goals.

Patty Marmie and Brendon Pond teach at Foundations For Your Future, a 2-day training for Newman Center Leaders

2-day Training

Attend Foundations for Your Future

A dynamic and sustainable fund development program– one that engages donors and supports its mission– is attainable with a plan. This is where our two-day training, Foundations for Your Future, comes in. 

At Foundations for Your Future, your team will learn about fund development principles, teamwork, and marketing strategies from the spiritual to the practical. Combined with the new awareness gained from your Institutional Assessment results, you’ll be empowered to further identify your organization’s needs and goals, along with a broad sense of what your journey to mission success will look like.

Stephanie Werner and Nikki Konz work together on a consulting client's custom plan

Year One

Consulting: Build Your Custom Plan and Implement

Attending our training is just the beginning– you’ll only succeed to the degree that you put what you’ve learned into action

But also, we get it–  it can feel overwhelming to begin the implementation process on your own. Through ongoing consulting sessions, our team will come alongside you to serve you and your team directly, especially if you want to further develop your own custom plan for mission success created specifically for you, your team, and your situation.

Stephanie Werner supports Father Ryan Kaup with a marketing strategy for his Newman Center

Year two & Beyond

Receive Ongoing Support for Long-Term Sustainability

Once your custom plan has been rolled out over year one, your team dynamics, fund development, and marketing engagement are bolstered by monthly support  from our team to help you continue growing a thriving campus ministry for years to come! 

Monthly topics include goal setting, effective team collaboration, annual fund timeline, marketing needs, appeal refinement, and special event enhancements. With time, monthly reviews are replaced with semi-annual and annual reviews.

"Sacred Heart Consulting has been our greatest ally. We always turn to the consultants at Sacred Heart to ask, 'What do we do next? How do we do this? Show us what you already have learned!' and they've been there for us. They don't have an ego; they're just happy to help in any way they can. The whole team has been amazing for us, and we are eternally grateful-- We give our 100% endorsement."

Fr. Gale Hammerschmidt - Pastor

St. Isidore’s Catholic Student Center
Kansas State University | Manhattan, Kansas

Hear from Father Gale Hammerschmidt

Our Consulting Services Include

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Fund Development

  • We can assist you in the documentation of historical benchmarks within the areas of ministry engagement, development revenue, and operational expenses.

    We can also help you establish multi-year budgets based on historical information.

  • We can support the implementation and utilization of your development database system, focusing on database segmentation, queries and reporting, donor prospecting, communications, and fund development reports.

  • We can assist with the identification and engagement of a volunteer advisory board to strengthen your organization’s vision, ministry growth, expansion planning, fiscal oversight, and fund development program.

  • We can guide the creation of a diversified and dynamic Annual Fund Campaign, which could include personal solicitations, mail appeals, phone-a-thons, and special events, with an emphasis on sustainability.

  • We can assist in the identification, engagement, solicitation, and stewardship of major gift prospects through a donor-focused, mission-driven Major Gifts Campaign.

  • A successful Capital Campaign can assist in addressing structural needs, enhancing endowments, or capitalizing on unique opportunities.

    Pre-capital campaign services include long-term visioning, donor cultivation, project budgeting, and development preparations.

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Organizational Health

  • Defining a vision and mission statement provides a sense of direction, guides decision-making, sets expectations, helps to attract and retain talent, builds organizational culture, and provides a basis for evaluation.

  • Our Consultants will guide you in developing Vision, Mission, and Purpose statements, Core Values, and long-term and short-term ministerial and organizational health goals for the organization.

  • For an organization to remain healthy, it must put systems into place to reinforce clarity and to ensure team members’ voices are heard.

    We can help you to create clarity and alignment around vision, mission, and the business process.

  • Understanding your leadership and how individuals work within your team will help to increase productivity.

    You will learn to build more effective teams, improve hiring practices, lead better meetings, and boost morale.

  • We can help your leaders develop their underdeveloped or missing skills, which will help expand the capacity of individuals to perform leadership roles within organizations.

  • Professional coaching and leadership accountability is an investment in your most valuable resource, your people. Retain your top talent by creating and maintaining a smart and healthy organization.

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Marketing

  • In support of the shared vision, goals, and annual fund development plan, a detailed marketing assessment and marketing plan are established to include print, digital, and social media for use throughout the year.

  • We can assist in writing and designing donor-focused solicitation letters that tell the story of your ministry’s successes and empower donors to be the hero through their support of your organization.

  • We can assist in the creation of newsletters with tailored themes and designs. Includes personalized, donor-focused articles to inform your supporters of ongoing events and ministry success stories.

  • Invite your donors to a special event or simply say “Merry Christmas!” Custom-designed postcards are an inexpensive way to connect with donors and keep them thinking about you!

  • We can provide your event with a polished “flair” by designing your event invitations, programs, sponsorship and donor promotions, multimedia presentations, and attendee signage for your next event.

  • Build donor engagement and community interest through social media platforms to highlight ministry successes, upcoming events, important feast days and promoting giving opportunities.

    Data tracking, research-based hashtags, and SEO included.

  • A look inside the beautiful Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on the UNL campus

    We have been more unified as a team, more intentional in our meetings and work, and have increased the impact we are making on the people we serve!

    “Sacred Heart Consulting worked with our Newman Center and provided crucial external guidance to help our staff be centered on our mission. Since they provided their services, we have been more unified as a team, more intentional in our meetings and work, and have increased the impact we are making on the people we serve!”

    — Kobe Eischeid, FOCUS team director, Newman Catholic Student Center, University of Iowa

“We love because he first loved us.” 

— 1 John 4:19

The eight members of the Sacred Heart Consulting Team

We have been through the same challenges you are facing right now.

Sacred Heart Consulting began in response to the need for development training at Newman Centers across the country so they can sustain funding for their vital campus ministries.

Our vision is that by supporting your team with the collective knowledge and experience of our consultants, we might strengthen your Catholic campus ministry and help you achieve your mission to save souls by enabling students to grow their relationship with Jesus Christ.

CFRE, Certified Fund Raising Executive certification badge
Working Genius Certification Badge

FAQs

  • Sacred Heart Consulting’s three pillars (fund development, organizational health, and marketing) are designed to work together to achieve the highest level of success. However, yes– we are able to create a customized plan to fit your needs.

  • Sacred Heart Consulting can assist in creating a major gifts campaign program, which can often lead to early fundraising success. However, the entirety of the Sacred Heart Consulting development plan is designed to assist you in building a broad, robust, and sustainable fund development plan.

  • The initial on-boarding process can take 1-3 months, during which time clients are preparing the database, accounting, and budgetary foundation necessary to build your development plan. The building phase of your plan is typically a 12-month implementation, followed by 24-months of refinement and support.

  • Sacred Heart Consulting will assign you to a lead Development Consultant but you will be supported by our entire team of professionals who are experts in their own fields whether it is fund development, organizational health, or marketing.

  • The fund development process that Sacred Heart Consulting creates is best implemented with at least one full-time fund development officer on staff. However, Sacred Heart Consulting is able to assist when a part-time development officer has been hired, though this makes full plan implementation more challenging.

  • Sacred Heart Consulting will help guide you in creating an overall strategic plan to include sustainable fund development, organizational health, and dynamic marketing that will help you build a thriving campus ministry.

  • One of our three pillars, organizational health, is designed to help you make sure your team operates efficiently and effectively to achieve your goals. When necessary, this means we can also assist with interviewing, hiring, and training new development staff.

  • We know that sometimes the cost of running a campus ministry program can seem overwhelming, but focusing on creating a sustainable development plan and dynamic marketing strategy, to be implemented by a well-coached team, is an essential investment to help you succeed.

  • Celebrating the impact of your campus ministries with a broad and engaged social media following helps your supporters be continually reminded of the value of their donations, which is the success of your mission—to bring students into a relationship with Christ.

  • Sacred Heart Consulting has you covered! We provide numerous workshops and professional coaching opportunities that can be tailored to your specific needs. We want you to succeed, and in order to be successful, you need to have a well-functioning team.

  • A diverse marketing strategy that employs print, digital, and social media will ensure that you are reaching your donor base where they are and in a way that is comfortable and easy. It is important to build a relationship with your donors by making them feel like they are a part of your ministry. Inviting them to special events, taking time for a phone call, and saying “thank you” are also important.

  • Sacred Heart Consulting has a detailed plan to help guide you in creating your own path to success. First you will take the Institutional Assessment so that we know exactly where you are and what your next steps should be. The next best step is the Foundations for Your Future Training. At the training you will learn what you need to know to get started on developing your plan. Short answer, you need the willingness to work hard, and an expert guide to help you on your way!

  • A successful capital campaign could help you with the cost of remodeling or building an all-new facility. Sacred Heart Consulting can help you prepare for that, but first you need a strong fund development program that will support everyday operational costs during the capital campaign. Organizations that attempt capital campaigns prematurely can find the process frustrating and unsuccessful.

Help your organization achieve its true potential.

Our Institutional Assessment will help you pinpoint areas of strength to achieve greater success as well as identify areas where growth and improvement would benefit you. Many chaplains and their teams discover areas for organizational growth that weren't on their radars.

We pray the assessment below will help you begin a new journey toward success.