St. Thomas More (STM) High School

St. Thomas More High School is a Catholic, coeducational high school in Milwaukee committed to forming “men and women for all seasons” through faith, service, and academic excellence.

Following a 2022 strategic planning retreat, STM faculty and staff identified fine arts as an important area for growth. The school subsequently examined course enrollment, benchmarked programs at peer schools, and developed a vision for expanding curriculum, modernizing an aging theater, and providing sustained leadership for fine arts.

PGS worked with STM leadership to help translate that school-led vision into a focused philanthropic initiative: Arts. For All Seasons.

The campaign centered on three priorities established by STM:

1. Expanding and enriching fine arts curriculum,
2. Modernizing the school’s theater, and
3. Creating dedicated leadership to sustain the program’s long-term development.

PGS supported the campaign from planning through implementation. The work included developing the campaign strategy and structure, assessing and prioritizing prospective donors, creating individualized cultivation and solicitation strategies, and preparing school leaders for donor engagement.

PGS also helped shape the campaign’s case and messaging, develop donor-facing materials, coordinate outreach and follow-up, and establish the processes needed to track relationships and maintain momentum throughout the campaign.

Our approach was intended to build on something already present at STM: a committed school community, engaged alumni and families, strong institutional leadership, and a clear vision of the opportunities philanthropy could create for students.

The St. Thomas More community responded.

Alumni, families, foundations, corporations, volunteers, and friends of the school contributed to Arts. For All Seasons., and in August 2025 STM announced that more than 100 supporters had helped the campaign reach its $1 million goal. It was the school’s first significant capital campaign in nearly a decade.

The funds raised allowed STM to turn its vision for fine arts into action. STM now has expanded fine arts coursework and partnerships while preparing for the modernization of its performance space and investing in sustained program leadership.

St. Thomas More established the vision and priorities for Arts. For All Seasons., and its community provided the generosity that made the campaign successful. PGS helped translate that vision into action through campaign planning, donor prioritization, cultivation and solicitation strategy, case and message development, and leadership preparation.

Building on the success of Arts. For All Seasons., STM and PGS expanded their partnership to prepare the school for a comprehensive campaign.

PGS began by conducting individual interviews with every member of STM’s Advancement team to understand their responsibilities, strengths, workloads, and perspectives on the department’s needs. Drawing on those conversations, PGS helped STM redefine roles, clarify ownership across key fundraising functions, and restructure the team to create greater focus, accountability, and capacity.

The resulting structure better aligned responsibilities with each team member’s strengths, strengthened support for annual giving, stewardship, communications, and fundraising operations, and enabled STM’s senior leaders to dedicate more time to major donor relationships and campaign leadership.

With a stronger advancement structure in place, PGS then worked with STM to translate the priorities in its institutional strategic plan into a comprehensive fundraising campaign. This included organizing the school’s priorities into clear opportunities for investment and beginning to build the campaign strategy, case, donor pipeline, and leadership structure needed to move those priorities forward.

At STM’s request, PGS also brought in fractional specialists to provide focused support for annual giving and database management. This additional capacity is helping STM strengthen donor engagement, improve fundraising operations and data practices, and maintain progress while the school continues building its long-term Advancement program.

PGS remains actively engaged with STM as this work advances, providing ongoing counsel and implementation support as the school prepares for its comprehensive campaign.