Challenge
San Clemente Presbyterian Church (SCPC), a 90+ year spiritual anchor in the community, faced a critical financial crossroads. Years earlier, the church secured multiple loans to build out its iconic campus, leaving a remaining multimillion dollar debt balance due in two years. Without intervention, interest would begin accruing again, placing pressure on an already constrained budget and limiting resources for ministry, outreach, and staff stability.
The church entered this moment while also navigating:
- Over a decade of pastoral turnover
- Declining attendance
- Aging donor base
SCPC recognized that a clear strategy, strong leadership, and a unifying vision for the future would be necessary for the congregation to rally behind another campaign.
A solution was necessary to:
- Prepare the church for a major fundraising effort
- Assess donor capacity and willingness
- Stabilize church leadership ahead of the campaign launch
Solution
SCPC engaged Covenant Philanthropic Solutions to conduct a comprehensive pre-campaign planningstudy to determine feasibility and readiness for a major debt-reduction campaign. Covenant’s work included:
1. Comprehensive Assessment & Data Review
- Reviewed giving trends, donor levels, annual revenue history, and attendance patterns
- Analyzed Planning Center data and historical campaign outcomes
- Identified critical gaps in donor giving culture, leadership visibility, and internal communications
2. Constituency Engagement
Covenant conducted:
- 10 strategic conversations with key leaders and long-term members
- A pew survey with 303 participants
- Conversations with five staff and volunteers central to church operations
These efforts captured attitudes toward debt reduction, leadership stability, future ministry priorities, and giving capacity.
3. Evaluation Using Covenant’s Five Core Principles
Key insights included:
- Strong desire for stable pastoral leadership, particularly strong support for the interim pastor as a permanent leader
- A uniquely multi-generational congregation that deeply values belonging and inclusivity
- Widespread concern about capacity to raise $5M despite general support for the campaign’s purpose
- Need to strengthen giving culture and improve transparency in communications
4. Campaign Recommendations & Preliminary Plan
Covenant developed a full campaign roadmap, including the following:
- 18-month campaign timeline
- Lead gift strategy, including 15–20 pre-campaign solicitations
- Gift chart, stewardship plan, and gift acceptance guidelines
- Overarching communications and engagement framework (recommendation of a sermon series, branded website and collateral, strategic outreach, etc.)
Building on this roadmap, SCPC created and executed key campaign deliverables, including:
- Four- to five-week sermon series to anchor the campaign spiritually
- Tailored outreach to preschool families
- Campaign branding, messaging, and collateral development
- Communications strategy across newsletters, Sunday pulpit moments, digital tools, and video storytelling
The study culminated in a detailed, actionable campaign plan designed to restore confidence, unify the congregation, and position SCPC for long-term sustainability.
Impact
Through the pre-campaign study and implementation of early recommendations, SCPC began building strong momentum, already raising 40% to date toward the total goal of debt elimination,
Additional impacts include:
1. Strengthened Leadership Vision
- Clear alignment on pastoral leadership needs with the hiring of two lead co-pastors.
- Increased visibility and engagement from elders and key influencers
- Improved transparency and communication within the congregation
2. Strategic Readiness for Campaign Launch
- A fully developed campaign roadmap
- Messaging that reflects SCPC’s identity and values
- Infrastructure in place for pledge tracking, stewardship, and donor communications
- Targeted strategies for preschool families and major prospective donors
Through a disciplined, thoughtful, and community-centered approach, Covenant helped SCPC gain clarity, rebuild confidence, and mobilize early support for a major campaign.
