What Our Clients Say

Reed Sumida of ISPG was, and is, an invaluable resource to our school. It is reasonable to say that if we had not hired him, our school would not be in existence right now.

Our school was in its 7th year. It had outgrown its space and had already attempted to move away from its formative space. It went poorly. We had come back to that space, but had to leave within the year. We investigated leasing, but it was prohibitively expensive, risky, and had no long term sustainability. We investigated buying, but we had no idea how to raise the capital needed.

In the midst of all this, we discovered Reed. He explained what he could do for us and it sounded great. We consulted his references who had amazing things to say about him. He did a video interview with our school in which he candidly and good-naturedly answered many of our questions. We decided to hire him for the initial consultation and capital planning process. He came out and met with our families. He understood our very unconventional model pretty much immediately which is no small feat. The families very much felt he listened to them and he assessed them as having the capacity to do a capital purchase of the size that we needed.

We paused before executing the capital campaign. There was one last prospect of a possible leasing situation that we wanted to pursue. It was a property we had looked at that a developer had purchased before we could do so.

Reed worked with us closely in pushing the deal as far as we could in our favor. With his help, we made tremendous progress in achieving improvements to the deal, but, in the end, leasing just did not make sense. We appreciated very much Reed’s patience and guidance through that even though he knew, in the end, it would not work out.

When I stepped into the position of Director of Advancement at a private church-affiliated school in Hawaii the President of the School engaged ISPG to jump-start our development efforts.

Reed Sumida and his staff from ISPG set out a blueprint for the next 9 months that developed a strategy to increase the amount of money raised and the number of individuals contributing to our fundraising efforts. Members of our Advancement Office needed to increase focus and understanding of their responsibilities. Procedures and timelines for various events needed to be written and archived to give direction for future events. Finally, an achievable budget was developed in collaboration with the entire Advancement staff to ensure each of us took responsibility for achieving our goals and living within our budget.

ISPG delivered on every promise. We increased the response from our annual appeal from 6% to 14% and actual donations were up more than 50% from each of the past 7 years.

ISPG provided more time and training than was stated in our consulting contract. Reed was available by telephone every day. I must say I called him a lot during the first months and then our team started performing and I needed less of his expertise. Reed delivered more than was expected. When Reed completed the consulting contract our team’s morale was high and we felt good about the work we had accomplished and confident we would improve in the coming year.

Reed and his staff are good people and can be trusted to do what they promise. I am available to speak with others who are considering ISPG.
Ron Hochuli – Director of Advancement, 150-year-old 6th – 12th-grade school.

And this is something we appreciated very much with working with Reed. He always took our suggestions and directions seriously. He would lead us through what a scenario might look like. He would detail the risks and help us to explore as far down the path of that direction as we chose. In the end, his warnings would be validated, but it was important for us to see that as well. His patience and understanding in this process were never exhausted.

We did hire him to execute the full capital campaign. He came back out again and set the stage for our families to find a path they were comfortable with. It took a couple of months of meetings and committees, but we finally executed on the capital plan and building purchase.

Reed helped to assemble a team of professionals, but, more importantly, he instructed us on how to use them effectively. He pointed out many potential traps in what the professionals may or may not do and helped us navigate that successfully.

Reed often warned us that it would be a roller coaster ride and he was right. His experience, skills, and confidence were absolutely critical to our eventual success.

But even beyond all that, what I valued most was simply his good nature and respectful gentleness. He treated everyone we dealt with in a very pleasant manner. We felt extremely comfortable with him talking on our behalf to others particularly as he also was amazingly accurate in his description of our school.

Reed helped us, and our whole community, come into our own strength. It is very much like the old story of stone soup except we had a master chef available in the form of Reed. We brought the resources, but he helped us understand that we had those resources and how to use them.

In the end, we bought the building we wanted and kept our tuition low. All the wondrous years to come is, in very large part, due to Reed and his steadfast guidance. None of us can imagine having done what we did without him and we know that if we ever need him, he is but a phone call away to offer great insight and advice.
James Taylor - Arts & Ideas Sudbury School

King’s College School hired Reed Sumida just over a year ago to help us with our marketing in order to increase our enrollment. The whole process of working with Reed has been delightful from start to finish – and hasn’t finished yet! Even though our formal contract was finished months ago, Reed is still an invaluable member of our team, continually advising us as we work to put into practice what Reed advised and helping us when sticky situations arise.

Reed is the consummate professional. He helped us identify what was working and what was not working, while still maintaining and respecting who we are, what we had created so far, and our philosophy of education. Reed’s work did not change who we are, but rather helped us identify our strengths and our essence and express ourselves more clearly and consistently in all our actions. Reed helped rally all of us – faculty, staff, parents, and students – around our school community and helped us to understand and celebrate who we are.

Since Reed worked with us, our retention rate has increased substantially and our recruitment of new students has doubled. We now have a new Director of Admissions, chosen and trained by Reed, who follows up on every call and is able to clearly, competently, and compassionately discuss our school with prospective parents to help all concerned decide if we are the right school for them and their children.

We are very grateful to Reed for what he has brought to King’s College School, and for his continued support, encouragement, and guidance. I most highly recommend Reed Sumida and would be happy to answer any questions that prospective clients of Reed’s may have.
Barb, Principal Grade 3-12 school

Mr. Sumida presented as always, a professional appearance and was clear and concise in his presentations to parents. The parent body was overwhelmingly positive and Urban Academy has since purchased a beautiful heritage building that we will move into in 2007.
Laura D. Board Chair, Fine Arts JK-11th, enrolment 125

After renting a school vacated by the local school district, our parent board decided to purchase the building as it came up for sale. Great idea, but how to do that with $50,000 only. Enter Reed Sumida, who led the Board and parent group through the purchase of the school. I heartily recommend Reed Sumida to you as a person knowledgeable and experienced in such large undertakings involving financial institutions and the commitments involved there. Reed has remained an advisor to our school over the years. Retaining him as an advisor is the key to ensuring your purchase and operating venture remains viable, as Board changes over the years somehow causes a loss of vision, in the short run and the long run, and thus a school could easily run into trouble. So, I recommend hiring Reed Sumida, and I strongly urge your Board to not only consider but ensure long term involvement, for your success.
Bonnie W. Principal, Montessori School

Advancement/Development

Reed Sumida’s integrated approach built the project team, designed and delivered presentation and proposal materials, developed new financial relationships for the school and managed the whole process with on-time delivery. Mr. Sumida’s professionalism was evident in all phases of the project. It was particularly highlighted in the company’s understanding of the school’s culture, ability to motivate a disparate volunteer and community group and by providing opportunities for participation in the process. This was all achieved by dedicated attention to communication, which ensured broad-based acceptance and facilitation of the program.
Gail G. Past Board Chair – University Preparatory School, JK-12, enrollment 750

I would again like to emphasize the gratitude of all of the families involved in the purchase of the school.
Without your help, we would no longer have a school for our children.

Randy L. Board Chair – Montessori School, Preschool – 8th, enrollment 100