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 articles will be published on the first Tuesday, Enrollment articles on the second Wednesday, and Asset Management articles on the third Thursday, Tetrahedronics articles will be published every Friday! That changed actually happened a couple of weeks ago.

Articles planned for topics mentioned last year (consolidate, visioning and dreamcasting) have evolved into steps in my planning processes, and the articles took on a life of their own in a new Web site and blog that will be launched for the for-profit world.

As for those planning process, they will be part of the premium membership of SchoolAdvancement when that launches, allowing the Facebook group to become a discussion group associated with it. The free membership will see a new weekly eNewsletter with a new title and a new tool that creates it.

Why all this “newness?” Precisely because of change, and changes that are occurring in our online world. As you may know, the mailing list of SchoolAdvancement is requiring an email address that it “name specific,” rather than being “position specific.” IT department of some organizations have become frustrated with the amount of staff and leadership turnover that they’re no longer creating “name specific” emails and opting for email addresses like “[email protected]” for school employees. The problem with that is that if the principal signs up to be part of subscription, and then leaves, the new principal may mark the communication they receive as spam since they didn’t expressly sign up for it. That flags the sender as one who disseminates spam communication, and through the magic of the Internet, emails aren’t going through to legitimate subscribers.

Also, starting in February, there will be more and more organizations that will be using multi-factor authentication, requiring a “double” opt-in process, and email addresses will not be permitted to simply be added to a mailing list by the organization that keeps the list. What does that mean? If content providers decide to change to a new marketing solution, lists just can’t be transferred unless the recipient permits it to happen. For the user, a username and password or passphrase will need to be accompanied by an email, text or authenticator app, which would more than likely require the use of a mobile phone or tablet for verification.

All this is being done to balance information security and data compliance with customer convenience in an ever-increasing technology-laden world.

As we celebrate Catholic schools later this month, and Catholic and Christian schools begin their enrollment processes for the coming school year, let’s take a look at how things used to be, and how adhering to “The way we’ve always done it” doesn’t cut it anymore. In fact, as we have witnessed through the pandemic, that phrase is now officially dead, since everything is different today!

For the longest time, Catholic schools survived on the sacrifices of female religious women and the members of the parish, since, at one point, the directive of every parish created in the United States was to first build a school before building a worship space (which is why so many Catholic churches in this nation look like school buildings). Every parish had their own school – and book fees may have been the only cost associated with attending.

As the reforms of the Second Vatican Council began to take hold, it became clear that it was the job of every baptized Catholic to be fully alive in the modern world. The work of the Church was no longer relegated to religious men and women, but ALL the baptized were to be the “living stones” of the Church, spreading the Good News. One of the unintended consequences of this movement of the Holy Spirit is that the number of religious women decreased, which required teachers to be hired, causing costs to escalate, causing tuition to be charged, causing families to consider their economic circumstances before enrolling their children.

When tuition became insufficient to operate schools, fundraising began to fill the gap to support the activities of the school, but became a more and more prevalent line-item in a schools’ budget. What was once a means to “make ends meet” now has a target budget amount that needs to be met every year to make for a solid financial base for the school.

Today, parents are “hitting the wall” when it comes to not only paying tuition that keeps rising every year, but being responsible for raising more and more money through sales of anything and everything from cookie dough to wrapping paper, as well as a myriad of “-a-thon” events.

In light of additional economic pressures, school have moved toward Development models, which “Seek Outside Sources For Funds.” Alumni, businesses, community members, parishioners, philanthropic organizations, foundations and friends must first become “engaged” with (that is, “deeply care about”) the school, and then, through encouragement and a continually deepening relationship, must be asked to support it with dollars through Annual Appeals, Major Gifts, Grantwriting, Events, Capital Campaigns and Planned Giving opportunities.

While fundraising activities and events are still necessary during the transition from fundraising to Development, they should have parent coordinators to track activities, as well as provide goals and reports of how far off target fundraisers were to determine if they are worth keeping and strengthening or capitalizing upon as a “signature” event. For instance, if your school sells hoagies (grinders, subs, – whatever you call them in your neck of the woods), you should present a monthly chart of your progress toward your goal for the year to the parent/teacher group, rather than just saying “We sold 50 hoagies last month, so we’ll have to do better next month.” People want to know their efforts will have an effect, and what their results need to be.

“Doesn’t the board of the school need to hear that too?” you may ask. Not really. Fundraising is a function of the parent/teacher organization, as it strengthens and solidifies the parent community. If there are no Development activities taking place at your school, then the board of the school really isn’t doing its job.

A functional, appealing, interactive, responsive and up-to-date Web site is integral to this process, too. A school’s Web site is of critical importance today, as it performs three main functions:

To market the school to prospective parents;
To showcase the achievements of the children and the school to encourage relationship development and deepening toward engagement, and allow for monetary gifts to be made conveniently and securely; and
As a resource gateway for current parents to access information about the school and their children’s progress through its student information system, and make payments and apply for financial aid through its financial assessment, capture and tracking system. Some schools are moving toward creating a second site – a membership site, that can be accessed via an app – specifically for the members of the school community…which is where your school needs to move today! Parents not only want to be treated as individuals, but as an individual group. The Web site is for people interested in the school. Your school’s current parent community is already engaged with your school, and they want their “own” place that’s accessible on their mobile devices.

Indeed, times have changed. And if you’re one of those folks who say, “We don’t have the time nor the budget for things like that,” then there’s probably some very bad news ahead for your school’s future.

Those who are in a position to provide financial gifts to organizations they care about support successful organizations…not necessarily because the students in the school are “our” kids (as one parent was known to say several years ago, which is a fundraising mentality), but because students, teachers and administrators are doing great things to bring honor to the school, serve the community it belongs to, and spotlight where today’s successful individuals had their start. Keeping these thoughts top of mind makes a school an asset to the community, rather than a liability of the church, churches, parish or parishes the school is affiliated with.

Discovering additional sources of revenue through relationship development is the goal of Development. As fundraising becomes more difficult, decried in today’s media (since they “Turn children into sales people, requiring them to go door-to-door in what may prove to now be a dangerous exercise,” according to a comment published a number of years ago), and may even be considered to generate taxable income for parents, getting the community which surrounds the school to support it becomes an important part of your school’s activities. The difficulty is that most school educators are experienced with the “school” side of the school (signified by a school’s Faith Identity (for a faith-based school) or Founder’s Heritage (for a private school), Activities, Curriculum, Technology, and Surroundings…where the first letters of each of those words create an acronym which speaks to what the school does) and little attention is usually paid to what needs to be done to be able to carry out the school’s mission and move the school toward its vision (namely, Asset Management, Retention, Marketing, Enrollment and Development). The first letters of those elements form a five-letter acronym which conveys the fact that the school must be prepared to face the challenges it will encounter.

These articles on the SchoolAdvancement.com site will assist you in forming an advancement mindset to move from fundraising to fund raising (note the space between the words) through Development and on to Advancement, Growth and finally, Sustainability. The importance of systems thinking will also be highlighted, offering weekly Tetrahedronics articles. And, as has been mentioned, SchoolAdvancement will soon become a membership site. After almost 20 years of providing information and tools for free, it’s time to put some parameters around the material presented here, especially since Web sites have become targets for cybercriminals looking to mine and sell personal information. EVERYTHING on the site needs to be protected with today’s privacy rules, and, with the advent and advances of artificial intelligence, the coding that’s the “backend” of the site can be “scraped” and then used to create content without one’s consent.

Next month: Detailing the Difference between Fundraising and Fund Raising

PS: If you’ve read this article before, please share it with other schools that you know are struggling. As schools, particularly elementary schools, enter budget creation for the 2024-2025 school year, may now be necessary to budget for an Advancement Director as well as add a line item for financial aid. In fact, consider adding a second employee rather than just an Advancement Director. If you’d like to know why and what type of employee to add, send an email to [email protected] with the words “2 more employees” in the subject line.

If your school is struggling, and its budgets have been created without these essential elements, especially in today’s elementary schools, that’s symptomatic of a short-term mindset. It conveys the message to parents of potential students that the school will be around…for another year or two. That’s NOT what parents want to hear when choosing an educational environment for their child. They want to be in it for the long-term, and a “we’ll see what happens” mindset will not encourage them to enroll their children in your school.

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