Who We Serve

Catholic Schools

It’s no secret that Catholic schools across the United States face various challenges. Increased competition, decreased resources, aging infrastructure, funding challenges in a changing economy — all put a strain on many schools. Many still try to do business the same way they’ve always done it and yet wonder why they struggle.

Through our 35+ year history, ISPD has helped hundreds of schools face these challenges head on and provided proven processes that meaningfully engage people in the school’s mission and vision. We encourage our clients to move “Beyond Mediocrity,” and we help guide our clients to excel and adapt to change.

How we serve Catholic Schools

ISPD provides a variety of processes to engage and grow your school community.

  • Strategic Growth Planning
  • Financial Feasibility Studies
  • Capital Campaign Management
  • Advancement/Development Assessments
  • Enrollment Management
  • Annual Fund including Giving Days
  • Major Gift Portfolios
  • Alumni Relations
  • Advancement/Development Office/Team Organization

Catholic Parishes

ISPD works with many Catholic parishes that have elementary schools, and often these consults are collaborative with both the school and the parish involved in the consultation. On the other hand, ISPD has worked with numerous parishes with no schools, where the emphasis is on Pastoral Planning or setting up a vibrant Total Stewardship effort or organizing and implementing a capital campaign.

At the heart of every parish, the process is focused on engaging people. ISPD has long shared the Gallup Poll and PEW Research results in regards to people engagement in today’s parishes where 30% of the people are involved; 30% are uninvolved; and, 40% are actively disengaged.

Because of the challenges that Catholic parishes face in today’s world, every ISPD process is focused on making one thought come alive with everything we do: “Belonging Leads to Believing.”

How we serve Catholic Parishes

  • Total Stewardship Process
  • Long-Range Pastoral Planning
  • Development/Stewardship Assessment
  • AWE Process (Affirming, Welcoming and Engaging People)
  • Feasibilty Studies
  • Capital Campaign Process
By Nheyob - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

(Arch)Dioceses

Through the years, ISPD has had the opportunity to work with a number of (arch)dioceses–mainly in the areas of strategic planning and in helping Offices of Catholic Schools set up formats, processes and structures for Development/Advancement, Marketing, and Enrollment Management to be successful in schools throughout the diocese. Much of the work begins with (arch)bishops, superintendents, associate superintendents, OCS staff, principals, and pastors — making sure that the foundation and principles are understood. Representative Steering Committees are formed; collaborative plans are created, and all processes are built around the themes of communication and people engagement.

ISPD has worked with a number of dioceses in facilitating a Strategic Growth Plan for all Catholic schools in a diocese.  In the Diocese of Charleston, SC, the Diocesan Strategic Growth Plan is built around the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools.

Mission and Catholic Identity, Governance and Leadership, Academic Excellence, and Operational Vitality are the four main Planning Areas that are used to create the Strategic Growth Plan for all Catholic schools in a diocese.

The process begins with the formation of a representative Steering Committee and the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data. The next step is to form individual Core Teams for each Planning Area with members coming from representative schools and parishes throughout the diocese. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are identified in all four Planning Areas; Challenges are formed based upon the data and the discussions, and Strategic Solutions are created for each Challenge in each Planning Area. The process culminates with a diocesan-wide Congress. Shortly thereafter, the Final Plan is written and submitted to the (Arch)Bishop, the superintendent, and diocesan leaders for approval, and the implementation immediately begins.

Beginning with the (Arch)Bishop, the Superintendent, Associate Superintendents, and involving the principals, the pastors, the Steering Committee, the Core Teams, and the Congress, this ISPD-led process involves hundreds of people in building a unified and collaborative Strategic Growth Plan for the future of Catholic education.

Working with the Superintendent and Associate Superintendents, ISPD facilitates an internal planning process that helps organize and focus the personnel in the Office of Catholic Schools. Beginning with a one-day retreat, this process creates and affirms the Mission and Core Values of the OCS, the specific positions and titles, the main roles and responsibilities of each position, and the main priorities for the Office of Catholic Schools for a specific school year. The process ends with the creation of the Top 10 Selling Points that every member of the OCS team should be promoting throughout the diocese within every Catholic school.

Based upon this work, a booklet is published, printed, and distributed to all Catholic school leaders in the diocese clearly articulating all of the above areas.

ISPD works with the Superintendent and others in the Office of Catholic Schools to create processes and templates for all Catholic schools in the diocese to use in implementing Development/Advancement and Enrollment Management processes.

The processes and templates that are created are for use with all Catholic schools in the diocese. Some are listed here:

  • Creating, organizing and implementing the Annual Fund;
  • Hosting a successful Open House in your Catholic school;
  • Setting up and implementing an engaging alumni process;
  • Creating a Strategic Plan for Development/Advancement;
  • Establishing a vibrant marketing plan for your Catholic school;
  • How to write press releases;
  • How to create promotional materials for your Catholic school;
  • How to search, hire and train a development director for your Catholic school.

While ISPD does not conduct diocesan-wide capital campaigns involving all parishes and all schools in a diocese, we do work with a (arch)diocese in conducting a capital campaign to build a new diocesan-owned Catholic school. We also work with a diocese when they want to build a new Catholic church in order to establish a new parish in the (arch)diocese.

Beginning with the demographic study and continuing with the Financial Feasibility Study, ISPD works with a Steering Committee of representative Catholic leaders in order to organize and implement the Campaign.

ISPD’s most recent success was in working with the Archdiocese of Mobile and guiding the Feasibility and Campaign processes to raise the money to build a new Catholic high school in Baldwin County. St. Michael Catholic High School opened in the 2016 – 2017 school year.