1. Momentum February/March 2002 1
The Official Journal of the National Catholic Educational Association
February/March 2003
1904-2004
Inside!
Moreau Catholic High's
Institutional Advancement
Program

2. 2 Reprinted with permission of Momentum Magazine, official journal of the National Catholic Educational Association.
mission is the ever-increasing cost of
the education we offer.
Without planning for revenue
sources beyond tuition and fees, our
college-preparatory mission to serve
the number of students we are accus-
tomed also is threatened. Our board
of trustees is struggling with pres-
sures to keep Moreau Catholic afford-
able for the families the institution
was envisioned to serve from its in-
ception; to find ways to substantially
increase tuition assistance and capital
for program and facilities enhance-
ments to keep the school competitive.
The trustees continue to invest in
ways to craft perceived institutional
threats into growth opportunities to
serve future generations of students.
Growing
Development
Many Catholic high school admin-
istrators in the 1970s and 1980s jump-
started development programs out of
an intuitive realization that their
schools should be raising money full
time. They envisioned correctly, and
high school development programs
were born.
At a time devoid of computers and
fundraising databases, we began
supporting our school’s development
program 20 years ago. It consisted of
a director and no other professional
staff. The development officer was
expected to implement a fundraising
infrastructure to sustain annual par-
ent and alumni appeals, special
events, alumni cultivation and
(among other duties) launch a capital
campaign. We later funded a part-
time alumni director with a clerical
assistant to augment the program.
These staffing arrangements were in
effect for a few years until the alumni
director position was upgraded to
full-time and a part-time special
events position was provided.
For all too long, our development
program was perceived critically as
draining resources from other school
programs. It seemed to limp along in
the early years with little stakeholder
understanding (board, faculty, staff,
students, parents, alumni) of neither
the program nor fundraising expecta-
tions. Many assumed the program
was a quick fix for increasing reve-
nue. Looking back, we failed to edu-
cate and involve our stakeholders
about the long-term purposes and
strategies of fundraising. Our devel-
opment program in those early years
was neither mission focused nor val-
ues focused. It lacked a values-based
foundation from which to meaning-
fully inspire and expect more than
mediocre results.
Committed Board
Leadership
Raising money in the 1980s and
most of the 1990s was not a part of
the school’s institutional culture and
expectation as it has become today.
Only in recent years have we turned
negative perceptions about asking for
money and other program-paralyzing
assumptions into growth opportuni-
ties. We believe there are five reasons
for this:
• The board of trustees has come to
understand and appreciate its lead-
ership and fiduciary role in all
phases of fundraising.
Growinginto Institutional Advancement
Joseph Connell
a Development Program
2 Momentum February/March 2003
Joseph Connell, Ph.D., president of
Moreau Catholic High School, has served
as the school’s chief administrator for 25
years (joeconnell@moreaucatholic. org).
Julie Clemens, director of institutional
advancement, collaborated in this article.
M
oreau Catholic High
School provides a
college-preparatory
education within the
heritage and values of the Congrega-
tion of Holy Cross. We are an educa-
tional ministry shared with the Dio-
cese of Oakland and the Brothers of
Holy Cross. Located in Hayward,
California, Moreau Catholic High
School was founded in 1965. The
school is situated 30 miles southeast
of San Francisco. Many families asso-
ciated with Moreau Catholic are first
generation immigrants.
Our 1,100 coed students commute
to Moreau Catholic from a wide ser-
vice area that is characterized by its
urban, suburban and culturally di-
verse population. About 60 percent of
the eighth-grade students from 17
Catholic elementary students choose
our school to continue their second-
ary education. While there is no one
single ethnic majority comprising our
predominately middle-class student
body, 75 percent of them are of the
Catholic faith. Ninety-eight percent of
the senior class typically will be ad-
mitted to colleges and universities of
their choice.
The foreseeable future suggests
that providing a Catholic college-
preparatory education will remain
our mission-marketing niche. But the
greatest threat facing our school’s

3. Momentum February/March 2003 3
• The board of trustees and profes-
sional advancement staff are
focused and equally committed to
fundraising strategies based on val-
ues of stewardship, philanthropic
and program collaboration.
• By renaming the development pro-
gram to institutional advancement, we
have provided greater opportunities
for stakeholder participation in
fundraising and supporting pro-
gram infrastructures.
• Board members expect to be
coached and involved in friendrais-
ing and fundraising strategies by the
professional staff.
• The board expects to experience
reasonable short-term program re-
sults and long-term philanthropic
returns.
Advancement Team
We are fortunate to have a board of
trustees with insightful leadership to
support a large investment of resourc-
es for a viable institutional advance-
ment program. For example, Moreau
Catholic currently supports a director
of institutional advancement who
supervises a team of colleagues com-
prised of the following positions:
• Associate director of volunteers and
special events
• Associate director of alumni
• Print, Web site and communications
specialist
• Administrative support specialist
for the office of the president and
director
• Grant writing, foundations and
prospective major donors research
specialist
The school’s president is account-
able for the leadership of, and partici-
pates in, advancement team activities
for the board of trustees. The results of
investing “up front” in well-staffed
institutional advancement programs
and their infrastructure are portrayed
in the graphics on the next page.
Values
Our board of trustees governs the
use of school resources from a teach-
ing of Father Basil Moreau, founder
of the Congregation of Holy Cross. In
1861 Moreau instructed, “All things
are a part of the goods of God, and
we are the dispensers of them. We
use only what is necessary.” This
instruction on Christian stewardship
frames our board’s policies and fund-
raising strategies honoring our stake-
holders’ gifts of time, talent and trea-
sure. It further motivates us to
provide philanthropic opportunities
for our stakeholders to participate in
advancing our school’s mission.
Our mantra at Moreau Catholic is
fundraising achieved through friend-
raising. We believe it is essential that
fundraising programs and strategies
are “owned” by our stakeholders;
that they be collaboratively designed,
implemented and evaluated. We feel
strongly it is mission-inappropriate
for us to friend-raise and fundraise
without a clear focus on stewardship
and the ideals inherent in philanthro-
py. Stakeholder participation and
collaboration in strategies advancing
the school’s mission through friend-
and fundraising has been our formu-
la for success in recent years.
From Development to
Advancement
In our quest to reformulate and
advance a fundraising culture at
Moreau Catholic, we searched for all-
encompassing terminology that
would enable greater, inclusive par-
ticipation in what we called develop-
ment. We wanted to move away from
perceptions that development is just
about “getting” money. We needed to
shift the institution in new directions
Momentum February/March 2003 3
Student winners surround Principal Terry Lee (back center) during an “early bird” drawing
for student participation in their fundraiser.

4. 4 Reprinted with permission of Momentum Magazine, official journal of the National Catholic Educational Association.
that would form a new fundraising
“ethos” within the school’s existing
set of core values. Institutional ad-
vancement became the umbrella con-
cept we chose, and it proved to be a
positive one. We have discovered that
“institutional advancement” reso-
nates more with challenge, participa-
tion and achievement than the term
“development” did for us.
We assume it is in stakeholders’
personal interests to advance the
mission of Moreau Catholic. Further-
more, they have a responsibility to do
so in any way they can. This assump-
tion sparks opportunities for stake-
holders to participate directly or
indirectly in the advancement of the
institution. For example, some stake-
holders choose to participate in friend-
raising activities (community relations,
marketing and cultivation of prospec-
tive donors). Others may prefer to
participate in fundraising activities
(annual giving appeals, donor solicita-
tions and supporting special fundrais-
ing events and activities).
We have learned that providing and
acknowledging individual opportuni-
ties for advancing the interests of the
school creates a sense of ownership
and celebration among stakeholders
for advancement successes. Since we
have been encouraging friend- and
fundraising results from the perspec-
tive of participation rather than dollars
as a measure of our successes, we have
come to celebrate that everyone wins
by advancing the institution together
through a personal expression of time,
talent and treasure.
Conclusion
It is our belief that Moreau Catholic
High School is given gifts of people’s
time, talent and treasure to be used
wisely because, as Father Moreau in-
structed, “All things are a part of the
goods of God....” We believe that a
mission-focused, values-based institu-
tional advancement program, which is
rooted in principles of Christian stew-
ardship, philanthropy, collaboration
and participation, produces strategies
and positive institutional advancement
growth on all fronts. Renaming devel-
opment to institutional advancement
has enabled related values and strate-
gies to form powerful synergies that
inspire, motivate, guide and focus our
stakeholders in advancing the mission
interests of the school. Friend- and
fundraising are the starting and end-
ing points for stakeholder collabora-
tion and participation in all matters of
their time, talent and treasure. These
philosophical principles work for us.
They sustain a fundraising culture
founded on stakeholder program par-
ticipation and (incidentally) dollars
raised. I
$700,000_
$600,000_
$500,000_
$400,000_
$300,000_
$200,000_
$100,000_
$155,947
$608,780
290% Growth
1997-1998 2001-2002 Percent Growth
Major donors 14 55 292.86%
Fundraising &
Special Events $ 42,591 $ 89,439 110.00%
Gifts $113,356 $263,321 132.30%
Grants 0 $256,020
Total Institutional
Advancement Results $155,947 $608,780 290.38%
Participation
Parents 28.0% 57.0% 103.57%
Alumni 2.0% 4.6% 130.00%
Faculty & Staff 48.0% 77.0% 60.42%
Students 26.0% 59.0% 126.92%
Board of Trustees 100.0% 100.0% 0.0%
1997-1998 2001-2002