Geneva College, located outside of Pittsburgh, PA, is deeply committed to Christ and His word. This four-year institution currently enrolls over 1,200 students and focuses on equipping students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor.
Geneva College had a rich 175-year history, strong visionary leadership, and lots of energy for the future. But the college needed guidance on the financial support it would need to propel it into the next season. Its last successful campaign was over 15 years prior, and it discovered that its existing strategic plan was not able to guide it into the future. To further complicate matters, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about many disruptions and financial challenges.
The FOCUS Group (TFG) was initially engaged to help Geneva conduct a feasibility study and capital campaign. Through listening to stakeholders during the feasibility study, we uncovered a need to refresh the college’s strategic plan, and its board engaged TFG to lead them through the DISCERNⓇ process. This unconventional path turned out to be a unifying experience and served to build unity for a new vision for the future. After this strong foundation was laid, and through more thoughtful discernment and listening, they were able to proceed with the capital campaign as planned, engaging TFG to provide campaign counsel.
“I can tell you we’ll never do any significant fundraising without a feasibility study because of what we learned from that process, not only in terms of what people are willing to commit financially, but to better understand missionally what they are willing to invest in. I can’t explain how hugely helpful that was.”
The engagement with TFG led Geneva College to greater clarity of vision and the funding needed to carry it out. The campaign launched with a goal of $21 million. To date, Geneva has exceeded this target significantly, raising over $20 million in endowment and legacy gifts, plus over $14.7 million for capital projects. Despite capital construction costs escalating by approximately 40% post-COVID, Geneva found a path to completion, including securing a $1 million challenge grant.
Finding out in the feasibility study that donors were not enthusiastic about the existing strategic priorities was not what they hoped to hear. But leadership showed tremendous courage in responding to this feedback by embarking on the DISCERN strategic planning process with TFG. Through this work, they developed a new, robust long-term vision to anchor this next phase of the college.
“I really appreciate that The FOCUS Group team was able to customize their approach for us and help us develop exactly what was needed for this moment. They facilitated the entire strategic planning process virtually during the pandemic. We ended with both a renewed vision for where we were going and a clear 3-year roadmap to begin the journey.”
Armed with this new vision, they set out to undertake the hard work of relaunching a feasibility study and then a capital campaign. By embracing TFG’s principles of relational fundraising, they saw relationships with donors deepen throughout the process.
“The work with The FOCUS Group helped us achieve unprecedented giving,” shared Dr. Troup. “The campaign was an opportunity to develop long-term relationships, not just secure one-time gifts. As a result, donors have grown closer to our institution and really view themselves as partners.”
Perhaps most importantly, Geneva is now seeing strong leading indicators in enrollment growth. Its leadership also senses eagerness among donors who participated in the current campaign to be involved in what’s coming next. After seeing the college accomplish what it said it would, many donors plan to increase their giving levels in future campaigns. The work done during the campaign has helped build the foundation for their institutional advancement work for years to come.
Dr. Troup expressed his gratitude: “We’re incredibly, incredibly thankful for The FOCUS Group and for the team that has worked with us so diligently. And we’re so grateful for the Lord’s generosity and for moving in people’s hearts.”
