Mission Elevation Success Stories: Hope Cupit and SERCAP
Prior to joining Mission Elevation, Hope Cupit, CEO of Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, Inc. (SERCAP), realized that her organization needed a major departmental reorganization. To help her drive the transformational change her organization needed, she decided to join VCDC’s Mission Elevation program with SERCAP’s Loan Fund Director, Beth Pusha. She knew that Mission Elevation was a sustainability program and believed it could help SERCAP tackle several performance challenges: getting new loan products, faster automation, faster services, and improving marketing initiatives.
We asked Hope to reflect on her experience, where she shared that she achieved more than she could have expected from the program.
SERCAP has been a vital organization addressing community needs since the 1960’s, with a mission to improve the quality of life for low-income individuals by promoting affordable water and wastewater facilities, community development and economic self-sufficiency. The organization was founded in the Roanoke area in 1969. Now, SERCAP serves states on the East Coast from Delaware to Florida.
Over the years, SERCAP has become involved in providing more than just water services.
“We also have lending, housing, housing counseling,” Hope said. “We do educational development, training, workforce development. So, we’ve kind of morphed into a technical assistance provider among all sectors of mainly infrastructure items.”
Mission Elevation gave SERCAP the tools, skills, and resources they needed to compete with other loan-providing organizations.
According to Hope, their dedicated coach in the program, Roger Lewis, was instrumental in SERCAP’s success with the program. While he challenged them, she appreciated his check-ins and making sure they were staying on top of their tasks and goals. Roger was not just a great coach for professional purposes, but he helped Hope in ways that went beyond her typical challenges.
“He also became a friend to us,” Hope said. “He spoke to me specifically about taking some focus time and I needed to stop running or burning the candle at both ends and look at my calendar and really put in some focus time.”
While Mission Elevation is a challenge-focused program that emphasizes each participating organization’s internal issues, it also presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend quality time with like-minded individuals and leaders from other community development organizations.
Hope attributed this aspect of the program as one of the most beneficial and enriching takeaways.
“The one thing I truly loved was the times that we spent together,” Hope said. “They were really trying to build a bond with everyone. When we went to our retreat in March at the beach, that was probably the most beneficial, relaxing, educational experience for us. We cooked dinner together, we spoke together. We really felt a part of something.”
Hope and Beth are still seeing the benefits from Mission Elevation at SERCAP. Following the program, they used the tools from a seminar on governance and management to help their board become more engaged in the organization, they’ve increased their lending capacity from $2 million to $4 million, they’ve been able to train new staff on tracking project work in a more efficient way, and recently received an $80,000 grant award for small business lenders. Simply put, Hope says that having the knowledge and tools to build their capacity sustainably has influenced every level of SERCAP’s operations.
Hope also emphasized the impact that Mission Elevation had on SERCAP’s marketing initiatives. Before going through the program, SERCAP was doing marketing the “old way” -- putting ads and promotions on water and electric bills. Hope learned how to target specific audiences in a more up to date manner through digital marketing, and since they made the switch, SERCAP has seen an increase in loan applications from 2-3 a month to 27-30 a month.
The most significant impact Hope has seen from the tools and resources she gained from Mission Elevation revolves around the communities SERCAP serves.
“We’re reaching more people,” Hope said. “We’re able to get the money out and get our loans down without having to ask for a no cost extension from our funders. We serve states from Delaware to Florida, and we’ve seen an uptick in not only Virginia but all the states.”
For community development organizations based in Virginia and surrounding areas, Hope wants potential applicants to know what Mission Elevation can do for you as a nonprofit leader.
“This is a great way to really analyze and assess your operations," Hope said. “It’s a great way to make sure that you are leading the organization on the right tasks. As leaders, it helps us to look at the organization at a strategic and higher level. So, if you want success, and you want great success, you need to join and be a part of Mission Elevation.” Hope says she would sign up for program again in a heartbeat.
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