GOAL
Arrupe Jesuit High School, a Denver-area Catholic college-prep school, turned to Canopy for fractional CFO support as a major capital campaign – raising $40 million for construction projects – strained its finances. For a school reliant on philanthropy and work-study revenue, the campaign exposed a deeper gap: a static budget built by backing into numbers rather than a model the leadership team could stress-test. Financial reporting showed what had happened, not what was likely to happen next, leaving leaders unsure whether the school could sustain operations and plan years ahead.
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RESULTS
LeVon Terry, a Canopy finance expert, stepped in to close that gap. Michael O’Hagan, Arrupe’s president, credits LeVon’s insightful questions with pushing the team to dig into root issues, not just symptoms. LeVon built Arrupe’s financial reporting so it told a reliable story, shifted the school from static annual budgets to rolling three-year models, and is now building a dashboard that lets leaders drill from enrollment and fundraising figures into the data behind them.
The result is a level of financial confidence Arrupe hasn’t had before – and the budget is now a living tool, not a document referenced a few times a year. LeVon also became a trusted sounding board for Michael, pressure-testing tough decisions before they reached the board. For any organization facing rapid growth or a widening gap between its numbers and decisions, that’s the real case for fractional leadership: outside judgement and steady partnership that empowers leaders to act with confidence.
“It wasn’t just about spending time with the finance department, it was about spending time with the entire organization and its leaders, so I could find the cross-organizational opportunities and figure out where the disconnects and frustrations were happening.”
– LeVon Terry, Canopy finance expert
“The ability to rely on the information and use it day in, day out in decision-making is what creates that sense of confidence… we are doing that better now than we ever have before thanks to LeVon.”
– Michael O’Hagan, President, Arrupe Jesuit High School