In 2018, the Alpha Delta Phi chapter at the University of Washington embarked on a full capital campaign to completely rebuild their 1920s chapter house.
The chapter had re-established on campus in 2008 and needed to re-engage alumni to support the Herculean effort. Howard Strickler and the alumni board reached out to Pennington & Company based on recommendations from colleagues.
"The campaign was a total team effort by our board. And Pennington stimulated the whole thing — teaching us how to raise the money and reach out to alumni.”
Pennington conducted several in-person meetings with alumni of interest around the country, along with Strickler, to get them excited about being part of the beginning of the campaign. Another reason for the campaign’s success was the creation of an alumni newsletter. Pennington helped the chapter reconnect with alumni with a professional-looking layout and guided them on what stories to gather.
“By bragging about the chapter and what we’ve accomplished, we were able to get the attention of a lot of people. We’ll continue to do this twice a year,” Strickler noted.
Donations Go Further
Pennington also provided invaluable guidance for how to make the most of the donations coming in by showing the board through what could qualify as a 501(c)3 gift and how to design the house itself to meet the requirements, adding study space to members’ rooms and creating dual purpose social space that could be converted to a lecture hall to host speakers.
The chapter house held a celebratory open house on April 30, 2022. The alumni board is looking to engage Pennington for ideas on growing the Educational Foundation as well.
