Peter Laarman

I am a member of the First Unitarian Church in Providence. I conducted a few of the initial leadership gift asks related to our current capital campaign, and I have observed the unfolding of the overall project at fairly close range.

From the initial focus groups through the end point of Phase One (with more than half of our target amount now committed), our Klote consultant gets and deserves high marks for his work in training and coaching the volunteer campaign leaders along with church staff members. I give him extra points for making the inevitable adjustments that have to be made based on particular institutional circumstances.

As you surely know, he has the kind of engaging personality that helps a lot. He has been attending our church services and making it really clear that he’s “all in” with us.

To be clear, I say all this as a crunchy retired minister and former nonprofit executive director who tends to be wary of consultants. But our consultant and the patented JD Klote approach have convinced me that our investment with you has been well worth it.

We look forward to completing the campaign successfully in a way that renews and energizes our congregation for the road ahead.

When I held the strategic planning portfolio as a church board member, my idea was to build the congregation’s current strategic plan around the concept of making First U much more of a “church for the city.” Based in part on focus group responses, we made that aspiration a major theme in our capital campaign. Being able to offer more functional and attractive physical spaces along with a revitalized music program (which we also wrapped into our capital campaign) will go a long way toward bringing that core aspiration to glorious life.