Patrick G. Howard

I am a member of the Vestry at St. Timothy’s Anglican Church, and served as the Pattern Gifts Chair for our capital campaign. This is the first time I have been involved with the business portion of a campaign, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. (Maybe that’s a good thing.)

That said, I can’t imagine a better choice for our consultant. Here is why

He is a tireless worker. I didn’t realize how much work a campaign is, and he certainly carried much of our load. I don’t know how we would have managed without him. He is an expert. I’m sure every campaign has good moments, and some that don’t go quite as planned. (Being a project manager, that has been my experience with EVERYTHING I have managed). In my opinion, the quality of a consultant is not how he performs when things go well. Rather their quality is best measured when things don’t go according to plan. Your consultant helped us navigate through our unplanned moments with ease. There were times when he was confronted by parishioners with difficult questions and comments, and he always had the perfect answer. (Sometimes the correct answer is to redirect the question to the appropriate authority.) Whatever the response, it was always handled in a respectful, professional and courteous manner. He is also a trusted friend and advisor. His friendly demeanor enabled him to instantly become one of us. Because of that, he immediately commanded our trust. We knew from the beginning that we were in good hands, and that we would have a great campaign.

I don’t know your criteria for selecting consultants for a particular assignment, but I am glad that you assigned this consultant to us. And if I am in a position to make decisions regarding our next campaign, I will certainly lobby to have him as our consultant.