Advancing the campaign to reimagine, reinvent, reaffirm, and renew LSTC
By Alisha Green
When Sandra Nelson started her role as Vice President for Advancement at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 2020, it was a time of immense change. She was the first person hired at LSTC during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the world was shifting to online work and learning. It provided an opportunity for LSTC to pivot, too, and find a model that would best serve a rapidly changing world.
That is part of why Project Starling, a new program that aims to meet seminary students where they are through asynchronous online learning, is so exciting to Nelson.
“If you think of where we were then in 2020, to where we are now launching a platform that has a vision of a very high-quality online education, we have come a long way,” Nelson said.
Project Starling is exciting many members of the LSTC community, according to Nelson and other members of the advancement team. Thanks to a generous $1.5 million gift made in the fall, Project Starling is gearing up for a June launch date. It will help ensure the seminary can provide distance learning for students.
Project Starling is one pillar of the ongoing philanthropic campaign to reimagine, reinvent, reaffirm, and renew the seminary. The campaign, which began in May 2023, has raised more than $6 million so far ahead of its May 2026 wrap-up.
Along with launching Project Starling, the campaign for LSTC is advancing scholarships for seminary students, support for LSTC faculty, interreligious centers for cooperation, and expanded leadership training through initiatives like the new Damm Chair in Leadership, which equips students with crucial abilities in strategic planning, nonprofit management, and transformational change,
The campaign pillars work together to “launch the school into the future,” said Jennifer Stone, Director of Advancement Services at LSTC.
The advancement team is working to spread that message with previous donors, new donors, and potential donors alike. Part of their communications effort has centered on explaining the exciting direction LSTC is moving in and the vision behind it.
“It is a lot of change, and it can be a little bit surprising for people,” said Ariana Strahl, Philanthropic Engagement Officer at LSTC. “We’re talking about moving forward in ways that are updated to this time we’re all living in.”
The message is clearly resonating. Some donors are in a position to make one-time gifts of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, and some are giving regular amounts monthly or making a three-year pledge. Many donors who had contributed before the campaign decided to increase their gifts.
“It really shows they are invested in what we’re doing and the direction we’re going,” Stone said. Every gift, regardless of size, makes a difference in the effort to reimagine, reinvent, reaffirm, and renew the seminary, she added.
For Stone and others on the advancement team, it is rewarding to work on the campaign for LSTC and support its mission of forming visionary leaders for the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
“We are moving in a positive direction to make the school successful and sustainable for the long-term,” Stone said.