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For their first-ever capital campaign, The Children’s Home of Cincinnati engaged Smith Beers Yunker and Company as campaign counsel. This followed a pre-campaign planning phase through which SBY advised The Children’s Home that a goal of $3 to 5 million could likely be reached. After exceeding their $5 million campaign goal ahead of schedule, Vice President of Development Janet Burns and President and CEO Ellen Katz Johnson have nothing but praise for the Smith Beers Yunker team and, in particular, Becky Sittason.
“We could not have done this without Becky,” says Janet Burns. “She was very effective in keeping us on track and focused, always mindful of the next steps we needed to take toward meeting the goal. As far as I was concerned, Becky was like another staff person to us, often on-site, but always only a phone call away. It was quite valuable to have someone with years of fundraising experience to hear my concerns and give feedback on various issues. I’m going to miss her.”
One important element of the campaign was a $300,000 Kresge challenge grant which stipulated that The Children’s Home needed to raise $4.7 million by May of 2010 in order to receive the grant. “Becky was enormously helpful in preparing the Kresge proposal,” says Janet. “And, because our campaign ran so smoothly, we actually met the challenge by mid-April, going a bit beyond the goal.”
Ellen Katz Johnson echoes Janet Burns in praising the work of Becky Sittason, saying, “Becky has a knack for relating to people of different personalities and was very effective in working with our campaign chairs as well as our staff. She was also much-appreciated by our board members, many of whom share extensive experience working with numerous consultants. Becky was able to transcend that and guide an impressive group effort that resulted in a very successful campaign.”
Ellen Katz Johnson and Janet Burns agree that they “of course” would recommend the services of Smith Beers Yunker and Company to other nonprofit organizations.
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