Katie Moore is the UMFS Major Gifts and Campaign Manager at UMFS. She’s been with the organization for nearly nine years and currently is leading the Be a Champion Capital Campaign, which is helping fund a new residential treatment building in Richmond, as well as improvements to Charterhouse School and the UMFS campus. Follow along in the coming weeks as we share news and information about the Be a Champion campaign.
Katie, can you please talk a little about what a Capital Campaign is, specifically? What are those funds being used for?
Absolutely. So a little background – UMFS has been around for 120 years and specifically our facilities are about 70 years old- built right after WWII. Because of that, they are not conducive now to the type of child and the type of services we are providing – specifically our mental health facility here in Richmond. Our Capital Campaign is funding a new building space for those in our intensive mental health treatment care – so those donations are directly funding that effort. We are working very hard to make it a beautiful, peaceful, zen-like space for kids to feel like they have a home away from home. These kids have been through so much, they are trying to heal, and they deserve a beautiful space to be in while they receive their care.
With the new facility space we will also be able to house and treat more patients than we are able to now. The building will have five different wings that all focus on different levels and types of therapeutic work, and at any given time we can serve 50 children there. One really exciting piece of this new building too will be the meeting spaces – so those additional spaces we are really lacking that will lend for the families to join for family therapy, space for larger meetings and group work with the kids, etc. It’s really, really important and essential to have the families involved and be able to do the work with the kids while they are going through therapy to equip them with the tools to help.
In the current stage of the campaign, we are about 70% to our goal – around the 5.4 million mark of the 8 million. The community’s donations will be going towards the beautification efforts of the facilities – furnishings, art, outside landscaping, courtyards and some other campus improvements – so sort of that last, but really important and essential piece of the puzzle.
How is the UMFS Capital Campaign different from UMFS’ ongoing fundraising efforts, and what’s its significance to the future of the organization?
This project is a very, very special one for UMFS – also the largest. We’re viewing this Capital Campaign as a marker for the future. The reason, in my opinion, that UMFS has lasted the past 120 years is because we strive to adapt as much as possible to the community needs around us – taking the time to reimagine, innovate and shift our programs and services to match those needs. This is the future – and a huge step in the right direction for how we can deliver mental health services to kids and families in our community for the next 120 years.
Can you please talk about different levels of support and the importance of donors’ collective efforts?
At this stage in the campaign, any amount at all is so incredibly helpful. It may seem cliché to say, but it’s true that every dollar counts right now and makes a huge difference in us reaching our goal. We have a campaign website where people can donate any amount. One awesome way to think about a way to stay involved more long-term with the process is through our monthly gifting option – so $10 a month ends up being $120 for the year and that’s just a really special way to honor our 120 year history here at UMFS.
We do have some different, larger sponsorship and major gift options – so those being $25,000 and above gifts – and with those, there are some opportunities for you can be honored through having a courtyard or meeting space/room named for you, etc.
But honestly, from $1 to $100,000 dollars right now, it’s all an important contribution and we have such gratitude for anyone who is able to support the campaign in any little or large way.
UMFS Volunteer Brittany Heare conducted this interview. Brittany is the Director of Client Services at ethnographic research firm Feedback in Richmond. In both her career and personal life, Brittany is passionate about working with people and cultivating meaningful relationships. She enjoys volunteering, hanging with her husband, 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, and sometimes she escapes to the Outer Banks for some downtime at the beach.