The Curtis Group Consultants, providers of non-profit management and fundraising services, share stories of client capital and endowment campaign successes achieved with their expert assistance.
The Curtis Group Consultants, providers of non-profit management and fundraising services, share stories of client capital and endowment campaign successes achieved with their expert assistance.
The Curtis Group Consultants, providers of non-profit management and fundraising services, share stories of client capital and endowment campaign successes achieved with their expert assistance. The Curtis Group Consultants, providers of non-profit management and fundraising services, share stories of client capital and endowment campaign successes achieved with their expert assistance.
The Curtis Group Consultants, providers of non-profit management and fundraising services, share stories of client capital and endowment campaign successes achieved with their expert assistance.

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Virginia Beach, Virginia 23454

© 2008 Curtis Group Consultants

How a Sugar Plum Vision Came to Life

The year was 1999. The place was Atlas Diner in Virginia Beach. Sugar Plum board president Charlie Malbon, past board president Joyce Schmidt, future board president Thad Nowak, and board member Tim Rivas were deep in conversation. Their concern? Finding a way for Sugar Plum Bakery to construct a new building without losing a lot of business.

The group's mission was to create a nonprofit training center where individuals with disabilities could learn job skills that would help them become productive citizens.

After 16 years of training and employing people with disabilities, Sugar Plum had reached a pivotal point. Housed in a small, outdated, 60-year-old structure, the two-story building wasn't even handicapped-accessible. Kitchen workers were practically on top of each other. There wasn't an inch of room to expand programs and services to help the growing number of people in need.

"I remember going into the building one day during a rainstorm," Thad Nowak says, "and water was gushing through the wall where an old dishwasher had been removed. We tried to figure out how to fix it, but we finally realized it was unfixable."

Before the Atlas Diner meeting, the Sugar Plum board had been considering two options: relocating the bakery or constructing a new building on the bakery's existing Laskin Road site. Moving the bakery would require selling the land it was on in order to buy a new site, which would mean Sugar Plum would have to close for nine months to a year. That's why Charlie Malbon felt strongly about finding a way for the board to pursue the second option.

Like everyone who gets involved with Sugar Plum, Charlie had come to care deeply for the organization in a short time. It had been only three years since Joyce Schmidt had approached him about Sugar Plum.

"One day at Wareing's Gym," she remembers, "I went up to Charlie and asked him if he had served on any boards. I hardly knew him and thought he'd probably turn me down, but instead he said he might be interested. Then he brought Thad to the board, and Thad brought Tim and we really got cookin'.

At Atlas Diner, Thad told his three colleagues that he had worked on another successful Capital Campaign in Virginia Beach, which involved the fundraising consultants of The Curtis Group. He suggested that the Sugar Plum board contact The Curtis Group about conducting a feasibility study to see if the community would help fund the bakery's new building. The board agreed.

Community jumps on bakery bandwagon
Results of the feasibility study indicated that Sugar Plum could in fact raise the $900,000 needed to fund a new building on the current site. Architects were also consulted; they reported that there was enough room for a new building to be constructed behind the existing one. That meant the bakery would have to close only for six weeks during the transition, rather than the nine to 12 months required if it relocated. "That was far better than having to shut it down for a long time," Charlie explains.

And so the Sugar Plum Capital Campaign was launched, with a goal of $900,000. "We knew we had to have a commitment from the whole board," Joyce says. And the board quickly stepped up and set the tone for the Campaign by giving a total of $130,750.

The next step was approaching key community leaders for major gifts. The first one came from Tom Lyons of Tidewater Hotels and Resorts, whose gift provided a big boost to the Campaign. Soon afterward, the Campaign received generous major gifts from Joyce and John Fain, Maureen and Tim Miller and family, and The Patricia and Douglas Perry Foundation.

Another key moment in the process was when Patricia Rakes Clark became Sugar Plum's executive director on May 8 of 2001. "Getting Trish was critical," Thad says. "We knew we had to have someone very well-qualified to run the operation, especially after it moves into the new building."

As the Campaign gifts and contributions poured in, the board began to realize that a one-story building wouldn't allow the Sugar Plum organization to expand its programs and services to the extent needed. Could they raise the goal of the Capital Campaign and construct a two-story building instead?

The rapid success of the Capital Campaign told them the answer was yes. In spring 2002, a new design for a two-story building was approved and the Campaign goal was raised to $1.2 million.

"With a two-story design," Tim Rivas says, "we'll have a facility for the future. The larger building will enable the bakery's kitchen operations to be streamlined and more efficient," Tim explains, "by allowing ingredients to flow in one side and product to flow out the other."

And so on June 6, 2002, ground was broken for the brand-new Sugar Plum Bakery. With Thad serving as emcee at the groundbreaking ceremony, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf confessed to a Sugar Plum sweet tooth, and director Patricia Rakes Clark fought back tears as she expressed her gratitude to the hardworking Sugar Plum employees and volunteers.

Since then, donations to Sugar Plum's Capital Campaign and the Brick Tribute Campaign have continued streaming in. To date, over $1.5 million has been raised from cash, pledges and in-kind gifts. The additional gifts allowed Sugar Plum to add new programs and create a small endowment.

The Bakery held their grand re-opening in August 2003. How do board members feel now that the new building is open? "We're very proud, number one, and relieved," Thad says. "But we know our work doesn't stop there."