The Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, Florida is currently engaged in the largest fundraising effort in the church’s history. Phase One of our capital expansion consists of a three story building of approximately 16,000 sq. ft. containing new classrooms, administrative space, and a large Parish Hall to form a quadrangle with our existing church and parish hall. This building is expected to cost $6,500,000 to complete.
Redeemer has never raised in excess of $1,000,000 previously, and felt the counsel of a professional fundraising consultant was an important addition to our capital campaign team. After extensive interviews with many such firms specializing in church campaigns, we chose to retain the full-time assistance of J. D. Klote and Associates. After completing a detailed Feasibility Study, Klote assigned a consultant to move to Sarasota and administer our campaign.
The campaign has now been underway for approximately six months, and after meeting individually with over 200 members, 150 pledges have been obtained totaling $4,500,000. This amounts to less than half the total number of pledges we expect to obtain. Obviously we are pleased with our progress so far, and we are convinced these results would have been impossible without the leadership and continuous management of our consultant and the Klote organization.
Every venture of this scale and complexity has its ups and downs, but the consultant has been consistently upbeat and manifested both an optimistic attitude and the consistency only a data driven campaign can produce. He has literally moved into this community, attends our religious services more than most working on the campaign, and is present whenever needed no matter what. He has shown himself a Godly man doing God’s work, and has been a blessing to this church in both spirit and accomplishment.
Hiring J. D. Klote was the most important decision of the campaign, one we thank God for his guidance in making, and certainly one we intend to repeat in future campaigns.
Capital Campaign Chair
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
703-399-0518 
info@jdklote.com 
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Carmel Lutheran Church kicked off its ‘Hearts Compelled To Share’ capital campaign in record style. As of January 25th just 73 families of the more than 900 in the church had already committed $3.75 million dollars. That total represents not only the best kickoff to a campaign at CLC, it also represents the best campaign in total even though only 8% of the congregation has pledged so far.
The previous best campaign was just four years ago when CLC collected a total of about $3 million in pledges from over 425 donors.
"Jim Klote, president of James D. Klote and Associates, a capital stewardship consulting firm based in Fall Church, VA, appears on the big screen during his "All Things New" presentation at this year's Annual Conference session. Klote and Associates will conduct free stewardship education workshops for churches in all 18 districts of the conference this fall.
Participants listen attentively during the church stewardship workshop at Wright's Chapel UMC.The Virginia Conference sponsored series of stewardship workshops in each district is winding down, with two more district gatherings remaining in November.
