Move Your Mindset From Fundraising to Development to Advancement
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.
Publications
Download your FREE copy of "Understanding Advancement: A Systems Thinking Framework for Today's Faith-Based School!"
Membership in SchoolAdvancement is on the Horizon!
Recent Articles
Five Ways to Reduce Your Stress
Even though the holiday and holy day season is over, there are probably still significant stressers you’re experiencing. Sad to […]
January: Families Apply for Financial Aid With Application for Admission
After reading the title of this article, you may be saying to yourself, “Nope, we don’t do that. Anybody can […]
January: It’s Time to Change Because Times (and Your Audiences) Have Changed
A new year means some new changes, and, just like last year, the article publication schedule has changed! While Development […]
Creativity and the Shared Experience
A new year means new possibilities, and new possibilities require new ideas. Fifteen years ago, headlines in USA Today (January […]
Registration vs. Application vs. Enrollment
The next few weeks of articles will touch on one aspect of advancement per week, and not come back to that […]
Why a Tetrahedron?
This article is a continuation from last week’s article about “Tetrahedronics.” It explained the systems thinking involved, since most of […]
Join the SchoolAdvancement Facebook Group
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
Share this:
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to print (Opens in new window)