Welcome to SchoolAdvancement!
Welcome to SchoolAdvancement!
Systems Thinking to Help Schools Form a Firm Financial Foundation
Questions about Advancement, Systems Thinking, or the ARMED Framework for your school?
Questions about Advancement, Systems Thinking, or the ARMED Framework for your school?
Email SchoolAdvancement
Connect with the School Advancement Group on Facebook
Connect with the School Advancement Group on Facebook
If you're affiliated with a faith-based school, tap/click "Request to join the Group" below!

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 DREAM," which was the weekly eNewsletter, was sunsetted at the end of June 2021, but may be coming back via a new site email address and a new editing tool. Subscription will require a "name-specific" email address, such as [email protected] "Position-specific" email addresses, such as [email protected], will be rejected. Due to changes in the way email permissions and spam filters have changed over the years, as well as GDPR compliance regarding privacy concerns, these policies are now required to maintain a vibrant online community. Thank you for your understanding and consideration.
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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.

Download your FREE copy of "Understanding Advancement: A Systems Thinking Framework for Today's Faith-Based School!"

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Recent Articles

DOUBLE Your School’s Enrollment

This week’s article spotlighting enrollment rounds out another quintet of the five aspects of advancement.  Even though many schools have […]

March: Collect Your School’s Tuition and Fee Revenue on One Platform

I like looking up quotations on the Internet, just to see to whom they’re attributed.  Both Benjamin Franklin and Charles […]

It’s Not Even “Who Knows You”

Last year, I posted a Marketing Matter that stated “It’s not who you know, but who knows you.”  Sales guru […]

The 5 M’s of Development Success

Development is a long-term approach to sustainable revenues brought about by the effective engagement of individuals in the mission of […]

March: Build Cohorts

After reading the title of this article, you may be thinking, “What’s a cohort?” According to Wikipedia, “In statistics and […]

March: Everybody Fundraises – If You Want to Be Distinctive, You Must Advance Toward Development

Last month’s article described the differences between fundraising and development. While fundraising (candy sales, car washes, sales of products, etc.) […]

Podcasts: Coming to SchoolAdvancement This Summer!

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.

Join the SchoolAdvancement Facebook Group

Visit this link to join!  You’ll receive newly-published article previews there and can comment on them in the Group rather than on the site!