The Prout School
The Prout Athletic Field project was a Capital Campaign the school and greater community prioritized but were having trouble completing. Donna Nardone, the Director of Finance and Facilities, reached out to Louise Dinsmore to ask for help in guiding the school and the Campaign Committee to reach their philanthropic goal. Time was of the essence and we got to work quickly raising over $135,000 in three short months. Cheryl Comai of the Partners in Philanthropy team was instrumental in securing a first-time grant from the Horace A. Kimball Foundation to support this capital project, among other donors, as part of the investments our team helped to secure. One of the larger awards came from the Rhode Island Health and Education Building Corporation (RIHEBC) for $100,000! Our team suggested RIHEBC as a campaign prospect.
The new field is named The Meghan C. Cooney Field, in memory of the 1996 graduate. Meghan died unexpectedly in 2007 while she was a third-year student at Boston College Law School. At Prout, Meghan was student council president and salutatorian of her class. She captained the soccer, basketball and softball teams and was selected first team all division in all three sports. She even served as captain of the boy’s tennis team in her junior year.
While this campaign was an investment in two of the school's field sports – lacrosse and soccer – the capital campaign process has already gone a long way to further develop a "culture of philanthropy" at Prout.
This project is another example of how a short-term fund raising consulting relationship with a client provided momentum to conclude the campaign, and offered a significant return on investment.
