Foster Greater Financial Strength and Stability

Saint Joseph’s seeks to advance its mission by steadily strengthening our financial capacity. This will be accomplished by continuous refinement of the financial model to help ensure we enhance our core programs while investing in strategic priorities. At the same time, we will launch a new comprehensive campaign, which will both increase and expand donor support. We plan on increasing the endowment through a combination of donor-directed support and performance-based investment. Additionally, we will expand and diversify revenue streams. All of this will occur with the goal of ensuring that we remain cost-competitive and accessible to students and families.

Implement a strategic financial model, through efficient utilization of resources, and promote a culture of innovation and accountability.

Rationale

Guided by our strategic priorities, we will grow and diversify revenues while also reducing costs. We will rapidly respond to market opportunities and pressures, as well as remain sensitive to the cost of an SJU education and issues around access and affordability. Optimizing our use of and return on real estate, infrastructure and capital assets, while aligning our human capital, physical plant and facilities, we will support our mission and strategic vision.

Highlights

• Establish a strategic financial model that will enable the achievement of annual net operating income goals while ensuring funding for strategic priorities.
• Regularly review resource allocation to ensure alignment with strategic priorities.
• Institutionalize financial benchmarking and assessment processes to enhance accountability and excellence; establish and track measurable goals and indicators of achievement.
• Support a heightened focus on improving administrative efficiencies across all divisions.
• Develop pricing and financial aid strategies that support desired student profile goals and year-over-year growth in net tuition revenue.
• Further develop competitive compensation and benefits programs to attract and retain a talented and diverse faculty and staff.
• Enhance faculty, staff and administrator development; provide leadership development opportunities; and ensure succession planning.
• Develop strategies to use human resource planning to drive innovation, excellence and collaboration.
• Expand the use of technology to promote administrative excellence and efficiency; streamline and modernize systems/processes to lower costs.

Significantly increase and expand donor support through a comprehensive campaign.

Rationale

Realizing our ambitions is reliant upon private gift support. Philanthropy becomes even more essential as we seek to constrain tuition increases and to contain costs throughout the University. Accordingly, in June 2017, Saint Joseph’s launched the quiet phase of a new comprehensive campaign, the largest such enterprise in its history, that draws its funding priorities from this strategic plan. Although a working goal has not yet been established, the intent is to double the current level of private support on an annual basis. A well-executed campaign will not only serve to fund strategic priorities, but also foster a new generation of major donors and leadership volunteers propelling SJU into the future.

Highlights

• Launch and complete a comprehensive campaign that seeks the most support in the University’s history and sets us apart from peers.
• Double the amount of annual fundraising during the life of the campaign.
• Increase annual alumni participation rates to a level that exceeds peers.
• While mindful of the need for current-use and capital gifts, emphasize and seek ever-greater endowment gifts and double the endowment through the combination of gifts, institutional investment and investment gains.
• Complete analytical and organizational assessment to provide the high-level architecture for the campaign.
• Create fundraising priorities that map to the strategic needs of the institution.

Diversify and expand revenue streams through the implementation of leading practices.

Rationale

Saint Joseph’s must leverage new opportunities for generating revenue by maximizing all of its resources, fully utilizing its campus for both academic and non-academic programming year-round. Key to this success will be fully transforming the University from a nine or 10-month operation to a 12-month enterprise and implementing new business practices to create new revenue streams.

Highlights

• Create a first-rate conference service department focusing on marketing, selling and managing space to internally sponsored activities and external customers.
• Engage SJU faculty in residential summer conferences and certificate programs.
• Develop a market-based assessment of what planned growth will look like while always focusing on improving quality.

Provide competitive and comprehensive campus facilities.

Rationale

While the SJU campus infrastructure has witnessed new construction, expansion and refurbishment in recent years, facilities must be allowed to grow and evolve as necessary to support the University’s core mission. SJU will pursue state-of-the-art facilities — classrooms, labs, residence halls and student recreation facilities — that meet and exceed student and parent expectations. Decisions regarding facilities and the physical environment must address multiple factors and interests in order to effectively steward the University’s resources and fulfill the commitment to sustainability and reducing ecological impact.

Highlights

• Update Campus Master Plan.
• Develop and implement a student housing strategy.
• Invest in STEM resources and lab spaces, including an immediate redress of current deficiencies.
• Improve and add community gathering spaces to encourage and enhance collaboration and relationship-building.
• Build the structures to support and sustain consistent academic and intellectual integrity in library and other information literacy resources.
• Establish sustainability goals and seek avenues to reduce waste and energy consumption, while preserving natural resources and maximizing new technologies.
• Invest in and support a comprehensive infrastructure and resource allocation plan.