Move Your Mindset From Fundraising to Development to Advancement
Linear Thinking is Process-Oriented; Systems Thinking is Systems-Oriented. Your school may have excellent results, but all its systems must be working toward excellence to be sustainable.
A tetrahedron is a commonly called a three-sided pyramid, even though it has four sides. When one side changes, the whole object must adjust to accommodate the change to maintain its shape.
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The Need For SchoolAdvancement
At this time in history, fatih-based schools have closed or merged due to rising costs and changing demographics. Schools simply cannot rely on traditional fiscal approaches to fund their ministries.
Conversely, some areas of the country have experienced growing populations, producing a desire for additional faith-based schools. Some of those populations do not have the financial means to pay for large construction projects, and growing communities are put in the same financial conundrum as those that are shrinking.
While school leaders grapple with the changes they're facing, a paradigm has begun to take shape. Isolated successes have been experienced in some areas of the country, while other dioceses, deaneries, parishes and their respective schools, as well as Christian and other faith-based schools, strategize to plan for the future.
Rather than continuing to “reinvent the wheel,” this site's goal is to provide guidance gleaned from schools which have experienced successes, accepting responsibility for achieving not just excellence, but sustainability. In a spirit of community, SchoolAdvancement shares "next" practices, proven strategies, failed experiments and suggestions regarding what to avoid along the path, and, interestingly, how some small "shifts" can have a significant positive impact on the future of a school. Though the curriculum of various faith-based schools may be different, the five elements of Advancement - Asset Management, Retention, Marketing, Enrollment and Development (The ARMED Framework) represent the “business" side of the mission and are essential for every school’s success.
While some school leaders and boards are beholden to the belief that “It’s all about the money,” others have said “It’s all about enrollment.” Actually, “It’s all about all of it!" Your school's customers will evaluate "the experience" of your school based on their expectations of excellence.
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Download your FREE copy of "Understanding Advancement: A Systems Thinking Framework for Today's Faith-Based School!"
Membership in SchoolAdvancement is on the Horizon!
Access to select articles, as well as podcasts (when produced) and publications
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Access to all elements of the Visitor plan, as well as specific articles about The ARMED Framework's elements.
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Recent Articles
The Old Woman and Her Pig
(Note: This is the most popular SchoolAdvancement.com article, with more views than any other article over the past 20 years. […]
Five Things Your Competitor Schools’ Administrative Teams Are Doing Now
As our calendar year rapidly comes to a close, I’ve heard from a number of schools who are lamenting the […]
December: Transition
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Once you get […]
Happy New Year!
No, I’m not a month ahead. This week’s Marketing Matter focuses on “thinking differently,” and comes from combining thoughts from […]
Backup Is a Necessity
The beginning of December is the time when goals come back into view. Did you achieve your goals for 2024? […]
You Have to Spend Money to Make Money…But Where Do You Get the Money to Spend?
About a decade or so ago, I adopted a personal motto, and in the spirit of most tag lines of […]
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Move Your Mindset From Fundraising to Development to Advancement
Linear Thinking is Process-Oriented; Systems Thinking is Systems-Oriented. Your school may have excellent results, but all its systems must be working toward excellence to be sustainable.
Podcasts
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