40. Dr. Will Smallwood on 1000 Days Transformed Campaign

In this episode of "It's Not About the Money," Heather and Andy sit down with Dr. Will Smallwood from Cedarville University. Dr. Smallwood shares the incredible journey of Cedarville's 1000 Days Transformed campaign, which has raised over $158.7 million to date. He discusses his unexpected path to becoming a career fundraiser, the vital role of storytelling in fundraising, and the importance of intentional discipleship at Cedarville.

Dr. Smallwood also opens up about personal challenges, including his battle with cancer, and how it has shaped his perspective on faith and leadership. This episode is a compelling exploration of God's provision, the power of vision casting, and the significance of culture in advancement work.

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Transcript

Heather Winchell: 0:00

Heather, welcome to it's not about the money. A podcast in search of grounded fundraising. I'm Heather, and together with my co host Andy, we look beyond the Quick Tips and formulas. Join us as we explore the nuance and complexity of ministry fundraising. If you want to thrive in partner development, not just survive it. This is the place for you. Hey there and welcome back to it's not about the money. So most of our conversations focus on specific skills or realities that are common for support based workers. But from time to time, we also want to highlight stories of God's provision. Today, we have invited Dr will Smallwood of Cedarville University to the show to speak about cedarville's 1000 days transformed campaign and his own personal journey of seeing the Lord provide so. Andy, why don't you give us a bit more context for Dr Smallwood?

Andy Brennan: 0:57

Absolutely So. Dr will Smallwood currently serves as vice president for advancement. His primary role is advising the university president on the management and operation of the school's development, directing programs in Resource Development and Alumni Engagement. Essentially, he does support development at the organizational level, and to date, he has led Cedarville to secure, wait for it, $158.7 million toward the largest capital campaign goal in University history. And he's worked in similar capacities for Southern Seminary, Baptist University and Louisiana College. He has an MDiv, an MBA and a PhD in philosophy. So Dr Smallwood will thank you for joining us today. We would love to kick off the conversation with some insight into your role and a bit of your backstory. For example, when you were a young man, maybe finishing your bachelor's, did you know that you would end up as a career fundraiser?

Unknown: 2:03

Absolutely not. So first of all, thank you for having me on the program. I'm excited to share about what God's doing at Cedarville University. But to your question, no, I did not. In fact, I think I was pretty lost in some ways. When I what direction should I? Should I go? I always wanted to actually be a speech writer. Coming out of high school, going into college. I was fascinated by presidential speeches, and I wanted to be a presidential speech writer. I did not at all see myself in fundraising. I knew it was going to be in some type of communication. I believe that God had gifted me with a skill set and an ability to write, to communicate verbally well, but I didn't know the direction that I was going. And like I said, I studied public relations and journalism, and I went to work for a small marketing and PR firm right there in the town in Gainesville, Florida, and my first client was the Florida Dairy Farmers Association. So so a city boy who never grew up around farming was all of a sudden representing the Florida Dairy Farmers Association in some of their activities, particularly, specifically they they held a they had a program every year that named the best athlete in every high school sport in the state of Florida, and they called it the dairy farmers Sports Awards. And so I got to run that entire program and campaign and and set a lot of things like, got milk.

Andy Brennan: 3:43

Oh, okay,

Heather Winchell: 3:46

okay, so then how did you, how did you start working within the kind of advancement world, within universities?

Unknown: 3:53

Sure. So I, as I mentioned, spent a couple years working for that marketing and PR firm, and then I went to work for a Fortune 500 company in sales, a printing company. A lot of people call it Dunder Mifflin. No, it was. It was a nationwide printing company that 63 plants across the country, and anything that you can think of that that was printed, they did it, one of the famous projects that this company worked on was Pokemon cards. Okay, it was not something that I was involved in, but one of the companies within the in the in the corporation, printed Pokemon cards. So I was in sales for about four or five years, and in that time, we were very active in our local church, and I began to teach a Sunday School for for college students, and my wife and I taught that Sunday school, and then people began to just encourage me about ministry calling, and I had a little bit of that ministry calling growing up, when you grow up in a local church, and. You show any type of spiritual leadership as a as a young person, people are going to naturally start to say things to you, yeah. And all I ever heard growing up was, oh, you're going to make a great pastor and and so that scared me a little bit, because I'm like, I don't believe that that's what God's calling me to do, is to be a pastor. I love that ministry. Very thankful for the pastors that have influenced me in my life and have grown me spiritually. But I did not sense that. And so I think that's why a little bit of going into these other things after college, and why the Lord just kind of came back around on these things when I was 2820 29 so I started my master's degree at Southern Seminary, the MDiv, at 29 years old. So I was a little bit older than most students that had this career. And the first person that I met on the campus of Southern Seminary was the vice president for advancement. His name Dr Doug Walker, and we, he was an Alabama grad and I was a Florida grad. And so we started talking football naturally. And then the next thing, he asked about my how I got here, how I got to the seminary, what was my background. And he said, Have you ever thought about development? And I said, I don't even know what development is. So, so no, I haven't thought about it, because I don't even I don't tell me what, what this thing called development is. And he shared with me, and that really began to kind of strike a chord in my heart about just the fact that, wait a minute, I can do some of the things that I was doing in relationship, building and engagement with people on a regular basis, but then have this very high purpose to it, that it wasn't just about the money, so to speak, as it was in sales, but it was about Kingdom growth and kingdom activity being a part of something that was bigger than me, that really excited me, and That was my entrance into development 20 years ago.

Heather Winchell: 7:04

It really strikes me that all three of the things you've highlighted, whether it be writing political speeches or ministry, like pastoral leadership or development, I mean, really, they are a similar skill set, just applied in a different way, right? Because they're at the core, it's a skill set of the ability to cast vision and call people to action, to inspire to action. And so, yeah, I think that that thread can be seen in all of those potentials. Yeah, agreed. Okay. So thank you so much. That is really helpful context. I think as we move into our discussion about this campaign, this transformed campaign that cedar rail has had. So we know that in some ways, this kind of campaign can feel very different than personal support raising. However, there are also similarities, and either way, we can all be encouraged by God's creative and unique provision and the way he moves his people to rally behind a cause. So can you share with us a bit about the campaign and your role in it?

Unknown: 8:08

Absolutely so 1000 days transform campaign was launched quietly. We call it the quiet phase, and fundraising campaign circles quietly in 2019 okay? And then then pandemic hit, right? We'll talk a little bit about those in terms of of challenges, and probably shortly. But the campaign was launched in 2019 and then publicly launched in October of 2021 the initial launch was $125 million to cover four areas, to expand the facilities, as Cedarville continue to grow in terms of student population, to expand the facilities, offering more housing, more classrooms, more places for collaborations, faculty and more housing for students. Those are three things that we talk about a lot. How are we going to teach them? How are we going to feed them? How are we going to house them? Right? Simple, basic questions that we have to provide for our students. So expand our facilities, and we set aside of the goal of the 120 5 million. That $92.5 million of that 120 5 million would go towards facilities on our campus and and then 15 million set aside for minimizing student debt. Obviously, something that's very important, as we talk a lot in our world scholarships and then talking about giving access and affordability to our students, so we set aside 15 million what's been really cool. Not surprising that Cedarville alumni and friends have overwhelmed us in that category. We're well beyond the $15 million and that is a testament to not only their generosity, but God's goodness and faithfulness to us. Because. We want to provide every student the opportunity that desires to come to Cedarville. We want to provide them an opportunity to come and certainly to impact them through scholarships is the best way to carry out that mission. Awesome. Third, we have a mission here that is not just about excellent education, but one of the unique things about Cedarville University is that we also focus in on intentional discipleship. So from the very moment that you come to campus as a student, we are Plugging you into discipleship opportunities right away. We don't even waste any time with that. We're right there now. How can we do that? One Cedarville University is a university that requires a statement of faith on every application from every student. Okay, so we require a statement of faith. Now, the reality is we know that not every student fully understands that completely and what that looks like, but we ask them to give us some type of a statement on how they came to faith in in the Lord Jesus, and so that that means that we're not exactly starting with evangelism. And don't hear me say that evangelism is not important. We certainly spend our time clarifying and speaking the gospel to our students. I want to be very clear about that. And we have students that come to faith every year at Cedar Valley University. But not only that, then we because of that sort of foundational core, we step right into the intention of discipleship. So not only is that taking place through discipleship groups all over campus, that is taking place. We we have a daily chapel every day at 10 o'clock, we gather as a community and Chapel. And not many universities are doing that anymore, but we're one of the few, and we are very it's, it's, we call it the heartbeat of campus. And everybody stops what they're doing at 10am that's where we want to be. And then the third thing is, every student engages in a Bible minor. So if you're studying engineering or public relations or digital communication or nursing or whatever, the major that you're studying, every student will take a 15 hour Bible minor, because we want to equip every student to and every graduate once they leave, not to only be experts in their field, but also so that they can go be great church members and be on mission for God wherever they are. So those all those areas, find themselves in the third pillar, which has transformed lives in and out of the classroom, investing in the student experience. We set aside 10 million of the goal of the 120 5 million for that that's been surpassed, which has really been phenomenal. And then we we also wanted to finally provide for the future institutional sustainability. So one of the things that you're hearing in Christian higher ed world a lot is, what is the future of some of our institutions? Are they going to survive, and certainly that's very important to us. We want students to come but we also want to have the resources in the background, foundation, particularly an endowment, to be able to do that. We set aside seven and a half million dollars of the goal to do that, that's been surpassed by more than $16 million now and so again, the faithfulness of God reaching all these areas to be able to impact students and to continue the mission of Cedarville University. So my role in the campaign was the question that you asked, my role in the campaign is, I think, sort of unique. We have a campaign director, young man on my team by the name of Jonathan Lyons, outstanding, gifted individual, a Cedarville grad, served in a ministry away from campus for a couple years, and then came back to Cedarville and has has directed this campaign. So he's directing the the pieces of the campaign. So I really see my my role, and this kind of gets back to, sort of what we talked about is the vision caster, right? The I see myself as the mentor, the coach, the one who provides motivation and inspiration, but I'm also a development officer. Still, I have a portfolio of individuals that I get to work with on a on a daily basis. And then I also partner with the President on a portfolio of individuals that he gets to work with as well on a daily basis. And so we get to collaborate on those portfolios. And then finally, I would say that I'm the culture champion. That's probably one of the major roles that I serve as part of the campaign for our Advancement team. We we all know culture is very important to an organization, and we certainly have a strong culture here at Cedarville University, but we have a strong culture in advancement as well. I did not develop the culture. Culture statements. We have a set of 10 culture statements. I did not develop them. They actually were developed just prior to my arrival, and they bubbled up from the team. They were not top down. They bubbled up and then they were crafted and honed and shaped and molded to be able to produce these 10 culture statements for the entire team. We talk about these culture statements all the time in our team meetings at our retreat. They're hanging in the hallway of one of in the hallway in our offices, and we remind ourselves all the time that these are aspirational. We're not perfect at it. We haven't reached all of these culture aspirations we are constantly improving to to be able to meet the standards that we have set in advancement. And so I consider myself one of the culture champions of our team. We know that it was Peter Drucker who said that took, you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Peter Drucker, Harvard professor. And that's true. One individual in any organization can really undermine the work of the organization if their attitude is not correct, or if they're not on board, and we don't, we don't want to have individuals that are not buying into the culture. And so we work really hard to help people understand, help our team really gravitate towards these culture statements and then own them for themselves. Yeah,

Heather Winchell: 16:38

yeah, yeah. A couple of connections I want to make, just maybe contextualizing it to a lot of our audience from some things you've just said is that, you know, first of all, I'm struck by the values that you stated in this campaign, kind of the different elements that you guys were trusting the Lord to provide for is really like a personal budget for somebody that's in support based ministry right understanding what it is they're calling people into partnership with and the different areas, the different needs that the Lord might be meeting within that and so I think it's really helpful in casting vision, to understand the why, to be able to speak to why it's important that people would partner with you in that way. So that felt meaningful.

Andy Brennan: 17:21

And clearly a lot of people share the vision, yeah, yeah, based on the results, right? Absolutely, yeah. So I'm curious to know, like, who the primary donor base was? It Cedarville alum? So

Unknown: 17:34

that's, that's a very interesting question, because you would think that Cedarville alumni would be some of our larger supporters. And I want to say yes, Cedarville alumni are engaged in this campaign. I don't want to minimize that at all, but historically, at Cedarville University and really a lot of universities around the country, really small percentage of alumni actually get back to their to their institutions. Now we have strong support from our alumni, so I'm not disregarding their support, but a lot of our support has come from parents, grandparents, who are seeing what is taking place in the lives of their students. I always tell parents of freshmen, send your students to us, and don't let them come home for for a while, right? Let them get into the life of the university. Don't let them come home. I know mom and dad struggle with that a little bit, but I say trust us, because, like I said, we hit intentional discipleship right away. You cannot be involved in a Bible minor. You can't be going to chapel every day. You can't be in a discipleship group and not be transformed by those things, because we know that the the Word of God and the judge transform us, right? And so, so I always tell parents, I can't wait to you experience Thanksgiving, because the student that you dropped off in August is not the one that's coming home for Thanksgiving, yeah? And, I mean, in a good way, right? Yeah, their lives are being transformed. That's why we talk about transformation, because of this intentional discipleship that the transformation aspect is very real. So with that, our alumni do do give, but we have a lot of parents, grandparents, at Friends of the institution. Certainly our trustees, and many of them are alumni as well. And certainly churches and corporations and and foundations are also engaged in what we're doing in various aspects on the campus.

Andy Brennan: 19:42

So the takeaway that I see here for individual fundraisers might be, don't stop at your first assumption of who's going to give. So my assumption might be alumni, that people that have experienced it, that you really have to push into those connections and those the network, the web that extends from the. From that,

Unknown: 20:01

I would agree wholeheartedly, and certainly we work as a team to increase our alumni engagement with us. In fact, that's one of our strategic goals for our team this year, is, how do we increase what we call an engagement score? It's just a way have you been to have they made a campus visit. Have they come to a sporting event? Have they attended a play? We're just trying to see who's making and engaging with Cedarville, because if you're engaging with Cedarville, then you have an affinity for the institution. So we want to improve that. There are 18,000 plus alumni living in the state of Ohio, which is where Cedarville is located, more than 30,000 alumni around the world, but 18,000 of those, more than half of those live in Ohio. So we're always thinking about, how can we get them to engage, how can we build relationships with them and so that we can foster mutually beneficial opportunities, right? It's we want to serve well, and then we we obviously want them to engage with us and impact the next generation. I would also say that our alumni are stepping into a lot of roles that we want them to step in, but they're always not the highest paying roles, right? Certainly, a business majors and and engineers and those type of things. But we're also training pastors and missionaries and sure, and educators in other areas that are are more service oriented and in our society, sadly, are not always paid at the same level as those that are in these sort of professional programs that we often talk about, but they're much needed, and so we also are very mindful to provide opportunities For wherever you are in terms of financial situations, yeah,

Heather Winchell: 22:03

yeah, absolutely.

Andy Brennan: 22:05

Well, I guess my big question is, as you're in this capacity, you're coming from maybe a more corporate background into this, this educational, academic environment, spirit, kind of spirit, led and directed, and you have these, these purposes, I'm wondering, like, on a day to day basis, how much the focus was on hitting the numbers outside of

Heather Winchell: 22:28

this context or in this context, in the context of this campaign? Okay,

Unknown: 22:32

certainly there is a focus on numbers. That's my responsibility and role. But I would say we don't talk we don't talk about it. Most days, we actually talk more about the opportunity that are presented before us. So we just finished up will will dedicate a brand new 65,000 square foot business and communication center, the Schaumburg business and communication center. It's a $40 million project that is completely and fully funded to the glory of God, and amazing things that our donors came along, lots of lots of individuals that made that a reality. And so in the midst of fundraising, we're not talking about oh, $40 million that that number seems a little big to eat in one bite, right? So we talk a lot about who are the individuals that would have that have a passion for Cedarville, that have capacity, right? They have a capacity to make a gift, and who would be interested in this specific project. So that's where we spend a lot of our time. And we talk about more about individuals than we do about dollar amounts. And oftentimes that with our team is that they don't spend a lot of time saying, Hey, I'm gonna reach out to will Smallwood, and I'm gonna talk to him about a $2 million gift, right? We do have some of those conversations. But to your point, I think we want to be very sensitive to how the Spirit is leading, and to also be mindful of trying to be good listeners. And I think whether you're raising for an organization, money for an organization, or for yourself, listening to donors, is really important, because I've always believed, and this kind of even goes back to my sales background. People will tell you exactly what they want you to know, and they'll tell exactly what what they want to do, and you do that through asking questions and building relationships. And we were just having this conversation the other day. This is this is what makes fundraising so much fun, is now when you build relationships, and I've got some relationships, and there's another gentleman in my office that we were. Just sitting in a meeting, and he showed me an email, was a real quick email from a donor. And he said, Hey, by the way, I'm sending a$50,000 check next week. Thanks, by the way, which is incredible, right? Yeah. And I was like, wow, but the fact that it was not prompted, right? It was not it was relationship built. They have a relationship. They engage all the time, and the Lord just placed on this gentleman's heart that now's the time to make that gift. And what we see in whether that's for a large organization or for for individual support, is that when you build relationships, people will tell you exactly what they want to do. And I think listening is a real important key in, in in that development

Heather Winchell: 25:47

well. And I really appreciate your response. And I just think it's, it's so helpful to remember that this is actually a tension that we hold right I think that you always have to keep in the periphery that there are very real needs and and money is one of the things that is part of that. And then, on the other hand, that it's never meant to be the thing driving us in and of itself, right? And so I think that, yeah, I think that what you spoke to, and just, you know, in your role, stewarding all of that, you know, not turning away completely from, well, there are actually functional needs and goals and things like that, you know, not turning completely away from that, and also not turning completely towards that, where that's kind of absorbing the focus. It's just, it's just attention we have to hold. And we really believe that it's not about the money. But I think sometimes, I hope people don't over realize that, because what we're trying to say is we shouldn't be, you know, gazing at the money and glancing at God. It's more like gazing at God, glancing at what he's doing in terms of the money piece. But yeah, I thought that was a great way to respond to that.

Unknown: 26:56

Let me just add that one of the things that I've learned from our president, and they've been many things. Dr White says all the time, do the right thing, let God sort it out. Do the right thing, let God sort it out. And that really applies to fundraising, yeah, we do the right thing and let God sort it out. So you know, 120 5 million is daunting for an institution that has never raised that level of support previously, this is the first capital campaign, the first comprehensive campaign in the history of the institution. There have been micro campaigns for maybe a one off project in the past, but 120 $5 million is daunting, yeah. And the fact that we're surpassed 125 million and that because we surpassed it, we raised the goal to 175 million. We're 158 million towards that goal, and And by God's grace and his his favor and his generosity, because we are trying to do the right thing and let him sort it out, we're gonna surpass the 170 5 million. Praise God.

Andy Brennan: 28:02

So glancing at your your work history, I think we maybe see a lot of capital projects on your resume, but I'm wondering like, how is this one different, and how have you maybe built on what you've learned in the past?

Unknown: 28:19

So previous institutions I have been at, been able to be involved in capital projects, particularly at Oklahoma Baptist University. I was involved a major project there. We did some renovation to some facilities. The major project was a school of nursing facility, or college of nursing facility, and different level than the Schomburg business center that we have just built here at Cedarville University. And so every campaign presents itself differently. The majority of that campaign was some renovation in the new building, but a lot of it was again, student affordability, scholarships, endowment, growing the endowment there. In fact, the largest portion of the campaign was endowment at the institution, and that's probably where we're going next for Cedar Valley University, is to press press in on this idea of affordability, providing student student scholarships. So the capital projects here are different because there was a need, because of the expansion of the student body, whereas at other institutions, there was a need to renovate current facilities or existing facilities, to bring them up to speed, so to speak, for modern education, and then build a facility for a school of nursing, or college of nursing that was It was in the basement or half the basement of a building, and so they desperately needed their own space. Yeah, whereas here we are growing again by God's goodness and favor, we're growing we're slated to welcome the largest for. Class in Cedarville history this coming Friday and and so that's very exciting. And again, going back to the questions of, how do you, how do you teach them, or where do you teach them, certainly house another way, because we need world class faculty, which we do have here at Cedarville. How do you, how do you feed them? How do you house them, the two questions that Mama's asking right all the time, and we've got to do that well. And so this year, we are onboarding $75 million worth of capital projects, a $40 million new business and communication center that also houses our two time. Let me throw this in there. Two time NSA sponsored cybersecurity program. Thank you for letting me put my marketing hat on there for a minute. Nice. Two time NSA sponsored cybersecurity program, and then a $35 million 358 bed new dorm, because they're coming, and we have to house them, and we're very thankful for that. So in terms of the number of capital projects, this has been different for me from other campaigns, because the other campaigns have been renovations, and then one facility, this has been seven, six or seven facilities in this campaign, and we have one more to go in this particular campaign, a new academic center that will house a lot of our liberal arts programs. And I will say this that for for us, in terms of our donors, and this is certainly how it can apply to your listeners, is that what we have found is that student centric spaces are always very popular with donors, student centric spaces. So at the core of what we do, who are we? We're an educational institution focused on intentional discipleship under the submission to biblical authority, right? So people know that's our mission, and they want to know that we're doing student centric things, and those facilities are student centric, and there's where the support has come from, because it's student centric, we saw. And so just a little piece of that, we saw that with the business center, we had less sponsorships, so to speak, or individuals that made gifts toward faculty offices, whereas every single student space in the building went like that. Sure. People were like, Hey, you got to make some more student space, because that's what we want to support. We couldn't do that, obviously, but, and I think that's really for anybody, get to your mission, get to your mission. Get to your mission. And whether that you're doing it as an individual, what is your mission? Who you're trying to reach? What are you trying to change those kind of things, or and for us, it is excellent education and intentional discipleship,

Heather Winchell: 33:01

yeah, yeah. I I'm not surprised that people give towards the student centric spaces, because when you mentioned the dorm, I immediately thought of the fact that most people I know that came to faith in college. It happened The story centers on their dorm, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, not only is it an important space for safety and a place to sleep and all that, but but it really very much is part of it's a huge part of the college experience in a very, I don't know if sacred is the right word, but a space that lends itself towards late night conversations, more vulnerable conversations, new friendships, things like that. And

Andy Brennan: 33:42

I imagine, as you're pitching this to somebody, that's the stuff that donors respond to more than look at the paint palette that we're going to use and look at the architect that we hired. Yeah, put it all together.

Heather Winchell: 33:53

But those things are important too. You know

Unknown: 33:55

they are important. But I've never been asked about who your your your architect, maybe who your builder is. Certainly, we have great support from those partners, but donors want to care about what's taking place in the lives of students, right? And so, mission, mission, mission, yeah,

Heather Winchell: 34:16

okay, so I have a question for you. So you know, as I understand it, this hasn't been the most straightforward campaign. You alluded earlier that you guys launched this right before the world shut down, so I certainly know of that. But what obstacles would you say you guys have faced over these few years?

Unknown: 34:32

So I would point to four or five. I don't know about obstacles, challenges. You've already kind of heard me speak a little bit. I'm I'm definitely an optimist. So I would say what opportunities were presented to us. I live in that world challenges, not so much. Let's go. Let's go do it, but certainly the launch of the campaign in terms of quiet phase right before. Our as you said, the world shut down. Our development team couldn't go see people, right? We couldn't spend time with people, and therefore couldn't cast vision and share what we wanted to do or what we feel, let me better said, what we feel God was leading us to do here at Cedarville. So that was one second, as I mentioned, the campaign started before my arrival, 2019 and I arrived in 2021 and the previous Vice President for Advancement went to be the president of another university. Wonderful thing. So transitioning a new leader in the middle of a campaign, yeah, one of the one of the things that I think was helpful to me is I wasn't naive of capital campaigns. This wasn't my first rodeo, right? So I've been in capital campaigns. Had led capital campaigns before, and so knew the structure of a capital campaign and what needed to be done. So I think that that was helpful. The team also was was fantastic, and they really bought in very quickly. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of months not in the VP seat, but But working with the VP before he left to be president, and I was able to just earn the trust and the respect of the team very quickly, so that three and four months later, when we made the transition. The team was like, Yeah, let's go. There was no transition. I really appreciated their response, and I'm very thankful for the team that the Lord has given me an opportunity to lead. I think another challenge is that, in the midst of fundraising in this season, especially post again, pandemic is that the prices of goods and services have skyrocketed, right? We know that on an individual basis, you go to the grocery store all these things, right? We're all feeling that, and that's no different for the construction of facilities, right? And so one of the things the challenges has been that we said, okay, the business building, it was going to be a$32 million project, but because of inflation and other rising costs, and not only that, but the extensive amount of supply chain issues that we had to go earlier than we wanted to go on that facility, because of the requirement to get the building done at this time we were our construction management team was telling us, well, we've got to start ordering these things now, two years in advance, just so they're here on time for the construction of that building and whatever particular part, piece element that was needed. So rising cost of facilities we did not anticipate. We know that there's always inflation. We know that that's always part but the the extensive amount of inflation, like I said, a $32 million business building became a $40 million business building. And we're very thankful that the Lord moved in people, that not only did we meet the $32 million goal, but we met and surpassed the $40 million goal for that facility, again, that had nothing to do with us. We talk about this all the time, nothing to do with us, everything to do with the Lord moving in people's lives to make those gifts. So that was a challenge, I think the other challenge, and I've certainly been a part of this, and this is really a great opportunity, we wanted to seize momentum, and so when we surpassed the 120 $5 million we were in the 130 something million dollar range over a summer. And we often make big announcements around homecoming, which is the first weekend in October, our president does a State of the University Address to the entire campus. It's real hype. It's it's fantastic. I love it every year. And so we also determined to increase our goal from 125 to 170 5 million. And the opportunities there, but the challenge is, how are our constituents? How are alumni and friends of the institution going to receive this news? So how are they going to receive that we have increased cost of facilities? How do we manage that? Well, how do we how are they going to receive that? We're going to increase our goal God has provided to this point, but that seems like a real, real big stretch, and so we wanted to be very mindful of that as we made that announcement.

Heather Winchell: 39:38

Yeah, as you say that, I'm reminded of actually, a recent conversation I had with some support based workers that live in Jordan, and they were talking about how they they have a campaign that they're inviting people to contribute to, but that they have had a felt sense of man. How do we communicate? You know, this number is much bigger than our partners are used to hearing, because it's. So much more expensive to do these things. And they also shared that concern about how will, how will it be received? Will they think we're not stewarding, well, you know, some kind of bait and switch? Yes, yes. And so I think that's something that is felt across the board, that sense of navigating that things really do cost much more than they did historically. And, and if we all stop and think about it in our individual lives, you know, we can say, oh, yeah, yeah, my family is experiencing that increased cost too. So it makes sense that yours is as well. But I think that, yeah, it's just, it's an added layer that can complicate and, but I think it's, it's so good to just continue to go back to the emphasis of like, okay, well, this is the need, and we can trust the Lord with that. You know,

Unknown: 40:44

we use the term bait and switch a lot, not publicly, but internally. Just as we hash this out, thought through it, prayed through it, spent a lot of time praying through this decision. It wasn't like we got up one day and said, You know what, we ought to do, 175 million Sure, right? It. We spent a lot of time talking about this, because, one that's a tremendous amount of money, yeah, I mean, 175 million, just It still blows my mind. 120 5 million blows my mind. I mean, just what God has done and the generosity of friends of Cedarville University. But we thought a lot about, are we? Are we saying this and but we're communicating something different by our actions, right? And we wanted to it to be consistent, and that was really important to us as we, as we made that announcement. So I talked about COVID, I talked about transition of the leadership and rising cost of facilities and increased goal that certainly was, those are very real challenges, and God was faithful to meet us in those challenges and give us wisdom to be able to move forward. The fifth challenge really is more personal, and that is last December I was diagnosed with blood cancer, and I am very thankful just to be able to engage in this conversation today, because in December, I didn't think, according to the doctors, I wasn't going to be around in August. So to be able to engage engage in the conversation so and I really felt for my team, how do we carry on? How do we continue to do that when? Oh, well, I'm I'm the coach, I'm the right, all these things that are, yeah, right. And then we found out, really, God didn't need me at all. Right? So that's not exactly true, but the reality is, my team was phenomenal, and they they picked up the ball, so to speak, if we use a sports metaphor, they carried it, they continued. But it was a challenge. It was challenged for them. We know that when leadership is absent, what happens to an organization? And I wasn't absent completely. Was engaged, but certainly not at the level that I expect, or not at a level that the team expected from from me. And so God's grace to allow our team to continue the momentum and continue to work towards the goals, despite my temporary time away, and so very thankful for that, and very thankful that now I get to be back in the mix.

Andy Brennan: 43:29

So that brings up a question. Obviously, the Lord did a lot through you in this season. I'm wondering, like, what he's done in you.

Unknown: 43:39

Oh, wow, we don't have enough time for on a podcast for this brother, so I'll say that certainly the first thing that when you hear the word cancer is, is the shock, right? And but it was a more of a shock, because the doctors said to me, you have a treatable but not curable cancer. So as of today, and the Lord still is working, but as of today, there is no cure for the type of cancer that I have and and so I think going back very there was a lot of emotion and tears and things in our home and but we kept coming back to this. This question is, Is God not sovereign anymore, right? Is Is he still sovereign? Well, yes, is he still good? Yes, is he still faithful? Yes, is his steadfast love still endure? Of course, all those things are true. And we wrestled with a lot of those kind of questions. And I think it was good to wrestle with those questions for my own heart, to my own mind and my own growth in the Lord, right? We talk often about Romans, 828, working all things. Together for our good. And so we, in a modern society, especially in America, we say, Oh, good, it's just like everything's going to be so good. And yet, what is our good? So to get a little little little spiritual here, what is our good? Well, the Bible tells us right after that that our good is that we would be more conformed to the image of Jesus. And so God is not going to waste the opportunity in my life to use cancer to make me more conformed to the image of Jesus. And I'm very grateful, because it revealed some things about my own own life, idols, that I had developed ways that I had not maybe been living in obedience to Him. And God said, Okay, well, I'm going to teach you through this. And he did the other thing. I learned how to lament. Yeah, and we don't lament real well in our churches, we don't talk about lamenting a lot in our churches, because to lament seems like we're criticizing God, and that's not what lament is. If you read the Psalms, there's a by the way, there's a whole book on this called lamentations, right? God gives us the freedom to lament, but in every lament that you see in Scripture, it always is followed by but God. And so that's one of the things that I really learned in this lamenting, in the lamenting, was I can lament but God, right? And but God is even if he had determined not to sustain my life, all those things about God are still true, but God, he still has prepared a place for me, right? And so I spent a lot of time thinking and learning about lament. Now, interestingly, my wife, while I was going through that, she was not there, yet, she is more there now, but in the midst of that, she was not there, which is interesting to see how the Lord had worked in both of our lives in different ways. So, so lament. And then one of the things that we often talk here about is that every day matters. It's called The 1000 Days transform campaign. What does that come from? We believe that a student, if they attend Cedarville University, fall and spring semesters of their four years, they're here about 1000 days. Okay, not exact, but it's pretty close. It's 990 something, you know, something along those lines. It's pretty good. So, so if you have 1000 days, what are you going to do with those 1000 days? Every day matters. Psalm 9012 which is written all over our campus, teach us to number our days. Why? So that we may gain a heart of wisdom. And we know that that's two things. One, wisdom is not only something that we can develop. It develop and to think rightly and understand and all those kind of things. But wisdom is also a person. His name is Jesus, so that we might develop the heart of Jesus. And so that has been pressed upon me, because I read it everywhere on our campus. It's on banners, it's on walls. I read it all the time, that every day matters that and so that has really become something that been able to really grab a hold of and hold on to, that in the midst of this, that every day that that the Lord has given me is a day that matters. What can I do to advance his kingdom? What can I do to further the gospel message. What can I do to impact student lives who are going to take the gospel to local churches and local communities all over the country and all over the world? So those are some things that have been pressed into me. And then finally, I would say the Cedarville community has been phenomenal. Our president, our cabinet, my colleagues here in the academic area, they have been amazing to us. And I'm reminded often of Revelation Chapter Five is sort of weird to think, to think about this, why this came to mind? And so in Revelation, chapter five, right there in the it's the throne room. John's getting a picture here of of what heaven is like. It's in the throne room, the lamb is standing there in the four creatures, and the 24 elders present to the lamb in the throne room present. And to God, they present these bowls that are incense, right? And what is the incense? Incense is the prayers of the saints. And I tell you what that was such a source of hope and encouragement to me, because I got cards. Message every day, text messages every day, phone calls every day, emails every day, people saying, I prayed for you today, and all I could think about is, my name is in the bowl. My name is in the bowl, and my apologies if I get emotional here, but that people would put my name and my wife's name in the bowl and, and not just once, but multiple times. And to think about God seeing my name in the throne room, right? Jesus interceding on our behalf. And, and that that that name, my name. And when somebody prays for you, your name never goes away. Never it is always there in the throne room of God. And I am so grateful for for the Cedarville family and people all over the country who have prayed for us and placed our names in the bowl. And

Andy Brennan: 50:56

you have a new appreciation for that passage because of, oh my goodness, yes, right? Like you wouldn't, yes, draw those same conclusions.

Heather Winchell: 51:04

And I'm so struck because, you know, we often in in coaching and in working with with people and just knowing humanity, we are so we're so quick to make agreements that when hard or disruptive or difficult things come, there's an agreement that it must mean something's wrong, or we're doing something outside of what the Lord might have, or maybe we shouldn't be doing this. And it's just really what that translates to is your name never being in the bowl. Like, do we really want to live a life where our name is never in the bowl? Do we do we want to live a life kind of gliding so it's good, like, unencumbered, that we're never, like, actually dependent on the Lord, no. And you know, to what you said, we think, you know, we say it's not about the money, it is about this formational work that God is always up to in our job, in our parenting, in support based work, in capital campaigns. Like, there's just in illness and in health, like he's always about forming us into the image of Christ and and that happens by your name being in the bowl and by him actively working in your life. It reminds

Andy Brennan: 52:11

me of what Josh said in a previous pastor, Josh, God is less interested in our happiness than He is in our holiness. Yes,

Heather Winchell: 52:18

yeah, but ironically, and not to make light of these difficult things, because they there is cause for lament, you know, but ironically, our deepest joy is found truly in dependence on God, in our connection to him. Joy, yeah, not our surface kind of right, not our uninterrupted life, right? Yeah. Think

Unknown: 52:42

Paul bitches that multiple times. And second, Corinthians and Philippians, right? Where it's like the joy Philippians chapter one, no matter what I'm going through, even to the point of death, Paul says multiple times that, you know, he is my joy, and to die is gain. Yeah. Well, let

Andy Brennan: 52:59

me just start by saying, I think, for someone who's listening and is overwhelmed by the the price tag, the 170 $5 million let's just re emphasize that our God is the Lord of that number, and he's also the Lord of your$40,000 a year, right? And a lot of the stuff that that will has said, I think, has can carry over. So some of the stuff that stood out to me would be, like, empathy. That's a big one that I think maybe even started from a very young age, as you're listening to, you know, speech writers like that's one of the number one things that a speechwriter needs to hit. And maybe that's even what one not a huge fan of his, but Bill Clinton, the presidency, I feel your pain, right, right? That empathy, but I also think like recognizing that trust is so important that stood out to me as well, listening well, listening well, and that there are realities that impact your donors, right? We talked about the supply chain stuff, so don't take it personally when they don't respond right away. But also, God still works through all that stuff, right? So I'm wondering, like anything else you can say to contextualize what you've been through and experiences that you've gone through, for people who are raising personal support, are there any takeaways or skills that you think carry over,

Unknown: 54:20

whether you are raising 175 million or raising $40,000 I think it's crucial that you tell a compelling story. Tell a compelling story and tell it often. I say early and tell it often, because this is the way that you're inviting people into the life of or the work that you, that you're you're doing, or that God has called you to do. So that's one of the advantages in a capital campaign of a quiet face. And I always joke around all the time, we say it's a. Quiet phase. But what do we do in the quiet phase? We tell everybody about it. Yeah, so it's not very quiet at all, right? And so we in the quiet phase of any campaign that I've been a part of, and this is true for no matter what size dollar that you're raising, or your portfolio, or people that you're are engaged with, your ministry, that you you have been given. Lord has given you a calling. He's given you a vision for the ministry and and so you have this dream of where you want to go and what you want to do. And the earlier you start talking about those things, sometimes, even if they're not fully formulated, can be really helpful, because one people love to give feedback and people love to be a part of it, right? You know that people love to give feedback and people love to be a part of it. So you begin to tell this compelling story of why God is calling you to do this, why God is is has shaped your thoughts and allow people to provide insight into feedback. So in the quiet phase of capital campaigns, oftentimes, you go to your most trusted friends, so to speak, and you say, Okay, here's what we're thinking about. What are your thoughts and that you you you gain that information back. You you learn from them. You've listened, you learn, and that helps to shape the compelling story. I know many of times we have altered some of the campaign plans or thoughts based on that feedback. So we've begun to tell the campaign story. Somebody says, Hey, have you thought about this? Oh, wow, that's a really great idea. And we incorporate that, and it adjusts. And then we go back to them and say, Hey, we've, we've incorporated this, and we're hearing and like we have, we we're hearing some, some wonderful things on this feedback. Thank you for doing that so telling that compelling story early and often, and then finding ways to invite people into the story. So if you're an adult, it's highly unlikely that you're going to go back to there are people that do it right. We've seen the 83 year old grandmother who graduates from university, right? But it's highly unlikely that adults will pick themselves up and go back to a traditional on campus undergrad type of situation. They may go back to school, and that's fantastic. I know I did an MBA at 40 something years old, so I was so anytime we can go back to school is a wonderful thing, but it's highly unlikely. So how do we invite others into our story? And so the way that we do that is we have something called a leadership briefing, and we ask people to come spend a day and a half with us, and we expose them to everything and the life of a student, so to speak. So they attend chapel, go to classes, they'll meet with faculty, they'll have dinner with the president and his wife, and myself and my wife, and we don't even really talk about fundraising. We talk about the mission and vision and where we where we see things going. They spend time with our entire cabinet, and they see the consistency of the mission voice from each one of the eight Cabinet members and so inviting others, finding ways to invite others into the story, allowing them to experience it, feel it. We when we invite individuals to come for our leadership briefing. We we do not even approach them at all about a gift, right? We do that. We do that later. Yeah, we come back and follow up, but it's a way for them to see, feel, touch, hear all the things that are taking place at Cedarville University, and hopefully it confirms, affirms that the spirit of Lord is moving in such a way that it confirms and affirms, wow, this is something that I want to be a part of. So inviting people into the story are important things. So that's what I would say. There's several other things, obviously, you know, transparency and how you do business and communicating often with about what you're raising and what you're raising for. That's always been a big part of what what we've done here at Cedarville. But I think the the thing that really gets everybody excited is when we tell our story and invite others into the story, that's when we see God move in, in terms of of gifts to the institution,

Heather Winchell: 59:41

and I don't know, Andy, if that reminds you of a recent conversation we had with Mary valoni, actually, on the point of inviting other people to speak into the way you're communicating. You know, she said that she had kind of like a board of advisors, or like a core team, right, that would help her kind of like, speak to others. And then the other thing that hits me is another recommendation she had that I just heard echoed in what will said was that people need to try it out. People need to experience in order to really gain vision. So those are a couple of fun connections from these past couple of conversations.

Andy Brennan: 1:00:17

Well, thanks will for joining us. It's been great, yeah. And I think also, one of the things that I don't, you didn't mention this, but I've just seen it. I've just witnessed it as you've talked, was just how profusely you are thanking your donors, like it's just come up, just naturally in the course of conversation. So listener, pay attention to

Heather Winchell: 1:00:36

that. Yeah, high honor, high gratitude, again

Andy Brennan: 1:00:40

and again and again, you can't, you cannot overthink. And I

Heather Winchell: 1:00:43

think what I really love about it is there's just a very genuine heart of that, versus feeling like, well, I probably should communicate gratitude or thankfulness, but just like a a deep sense of No, really, right, grateful, yeah,

Andy Brennan: 1:00:58

we're honoring, blown away. Yeah, yeah. A generosity, yeah.

Heather Winchell: 1:01:03

So yes, I echo what Andy said, and we thank you so much for holding this conversation with us and sharing part of your story and just how God has shown up in such massive ways, so cool. And it will be very exciting to hear from your team when you hit that 175 and actually we have a very close friend that is a Cedarville grad, so she might give us that news. So, oh yeah, yeah,

Unknown: 1:01:26

you'll hear my team, if you're I think you're out out west in Colorado, I believe, I think. And we're in Ohio, right? So when we surpass 175 and complete the campaign, you will hear the cheers all the way to Colorado, from Cedarville, Ohio, rippling

Andy Brennan: 1:01:44

across the Midwest. Love it. Love it. Love it,

Heather Winchell: 1:01:48

that's for sure. Well, as we wrap up this conversation, we just want to provide you an opportunity to speak directly to our listeners. What encouragement would you want to give them as they persevere in support based ministry

Unknown: 1:01:59

we talked before about that God really cares about our holiness, right? And in to grow in holiness means to grow in faithfulness. And so one of the things that I encourage our team with these words is what you do matters. It does what you do matters. It matters to Cedarville University. It matters to our state, matters to our nation, it matters to our world. It matters for the kingdom of God. And so I would say to your listeners, what you do matters if you're making an impact for the kingdom of God. What you do matters. Keep at it. Be faithful to it. And there are, we know that there will be tough days along along the path, and and I can certainly tell you, there have been tough days along this road. But God is faithful, so we can trust him. That's something that we often talk about here. God is faithful. We can trust him. And because he is faithful. He's called us to be faithful. And so I'll just go back to that. What you do matters. Love it.

Heather Winchell: 1:03:09

Okay, so we have one final question. I

Andy Brennan: 1:03:10

think I know the answer to his question. Wait to his question to I think I know the answer to our question. Oh

Heather Winchell: 1:03:17

yeah, yeah. Okay. Well,

Andy Brennan: 1:03:18

why don't you ask it? Well, why

Heather Winchell: 1:03:19

don't you ask it and to see if they're

Andy Brennan: 1:03:20

good. Okay, so you've raised a lot of money for different institutions. I'm guessing also that you enjoy the giving side as well. So here's a here's a scenario for you. Suddenly you have $10,000 and you got to give it away as soon as possible. Who or what do you give it to?

Unknown: 1:03:39

Well, that's an easy one. And you probably do know I'm gonna be a homer on this one, right? And so I'm gonna find a worthy student at Cedarville University, right? So I will say this. I'll probably split it. I wanna find some worthy students, because $1,000$2,000 scholarship, can go a long way for a couple students. We know that that can make a difference in a student's life. But I would also say that the other half my wife and I are certainly passionate about what our what missionaries are doing all around the world to share the gospel in places that we don't even know sometimes, and so we would also support those who are doing the hard work of ministry in hard places that are trying to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Awesome.

Andy Brennan: 1:04:25

Well, thank you will. It's been a pleasure to have you on the show to learn all about this, the capital campaign and kind of the intricacies of all that goes into it. I'm sure we just got the surface actually, but thanks for your time. It's been great.

Unknown: 1:04:41

Thank you for having me. It's been a lot of fun to engage in conversation with you, and I have am aware of the podcast, and I'm thankful for it. I know that you are encouraging lots of folks, so let me just tell you two what you do matters. Thank

Heather Winchell: 1:04:59

you very much.

Andy Brennan: 1:05:03

It's not about the money is presented by provisio fundraising solutions. Provisio equips support based workers with flexible training, practical resources and one on one coaching. Find out more@provisiofundraising.com you.