ADVANCEMENTALITY(SM)

United We Stand

2012-02-26T14:18:00.000-08:00

When I worked for a Diocesan Office for Catholic Schools, we developed a slogan that was our first attempt at internal marketing (as opposed to a slogan/tag line for external constituents) - "Together, We Move Forward." We have to move forward - after all, it's called "Advancement." Going back to the way we did things before is regression, and it's the first step toward closure.

So let's talk about the first step toward growth. The first step to grow your school's enrollment is to keep the enrollment you already have - so let's focus on retention this time around.

Communication is key, in all aspects of advancement. It's almost like marketing is the center of the other four "domains" of advancement. Communication with donors and potential donors (Development) is different than communication with current parents (retention), which is different than communication with prospective parents (enrollment), which is still different than communication with internal constituents, such as church councils, pastors, parishioners and boards (asset management). Communication with current parents must be increased at this time of year as they begin to make decisions about next year.

A strategy to building audience in radio states that the best way to build audience is to keep the audience you have. That's why radio stations announce three or four songs or artists that are coming up. Chances are, if you're listening to that station, that you'll like at least one of those enough to keep listening. There are too many natural reasons for tune out (such as reaching your destination if you're listening in the car, or a phone call if you're at home) that maximizing "Time Spent Listening" is of utmost importance.

Similarly, it's important to keep the families you currently have in order to keep building your overall enrollment. This is the time of year when families say they'll have to seriously weigh their options about returning next year, because economic times are very difficult now, even though they love the school. Most of the times, administrators say, "I understand," and then worry what will happen if they leave.

Here's the challenge - tell a family, "I understand completely, but please understand that if you leave, it makes it all the more difficult to continue the work of the school. Costs will go higher to make up for the loss of your children. However, if you stay, and perhaps several of your friends to come to the school, there is a good chance that the overall tuition could be lowered for the coming year." By doing this, you've retained a family, and created a good marketing resource for your school.

Why will the parent consider staying? Because people fear change. Today's parents long to be a part of a community, but, because of their upbringing, don't know what community is. We are social beings. We want to be part of a community - and, would much rather remain part of a community we know than change communities (that's why moving is so traumatic). If others in their neighborhood are telling them about how good their public school is, they know that their neighbors will also be part of their new community at the public school. That could make the decision to leave an easier one to make. Your school must prepare and be prepared to do the same.

What's really difficult for a parent is leaving the Catholic school community for a public school system that may not be academically excellent, have conflicting "clique"-ish communities, and - well - you can't even speak of a faith-based approach to education there.

If you'd like to find out more about why building community with your school's families is key to retaining students, check out my book, "Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment" at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/14713269

It's Asset Management Time!

2012-02-19T11:19:00.000-08:00

I think people get depressed in February for three reasons. Even though Valentine's Day makes us feel warm and loved halfway through the month, the cold, snowy winter has something to do with it. Even though this year has been exceptionally mild, there's been some significant

But February has two more activities that make us very uncomfortable - tax return preparations for the calendar year that just ended (and if you have kids in college, you have to do it now so you can fill out the FAFSA form to apply for financial aid), and budget preparations for the school/fiscal year that begins in a little over 4 months. And in this economy, such things can be even more depressing.

This is where it's more important than ever to have a financial aid assessment service since even more parents are expected to apply for financial aid this year than last year. It's also important to have a tuition management service that recommends direct debit for tuition collection, since more parents are opting for a payment plan rather than paying the entire tuition before the school year begins.

The time for in-house preparing, printing, posting and mailing invoices to parents (invoices that they can choose to ignore) is over because it's one of the main reasons why schools end the year with unpaid tuition balances. The time for making purely subjective decisions regarding the amount of financial aid a family receives is over too. Besides, if your school's financial committee is asking for tax returns to they can verify a family's financial need, I'll bet parents are wondering what you're doing with those tax returns since their social security numbers are on them.

FACTS provides both of these services to your school to:
- Help make your life easier;
- Store data securely;
- Allow you to be good stewards of your assets;
- Increase up-front payments;
- Improve cash flow; and
- Turn slow-paying families into on-time payers.

FACTS is the nation's largest provider of tuition management services AND need assessment services. Automated payments and state-of-the-art technology allows your school to stop chasing families to pay their tuition, and start chasing new families to come to your school. Remember, the first step to grow enrollment is to keep the students you have - so we'll focus on retention next week.

Learn more about how FACTS can help your school by visiting http://www.factsmgt.com.

Hang it Up!

2012-02-12T19:59:00.001-08:00

Since it's time to start the "cycle" of the elements of Advancement once again, let's start with Marketing. Here's an idea from SchoolAdvancement's "Marketing Matters" - Click http://www.schooladvancement.com/new-page-10.htm to check it out.

Everything in Moderation

2012-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Now that the first round of all five aspects of Advancement have been covered, let's review before beginning the next round.

In a previous post, I suggested taking "one day at a time" to develop a framework where each element of Advancement could be worked on per day. For example:

Monday - Marketing
Tuesday - Development
Wednesday - Enrollment
Thursday - Asset Management
Friday - Retention

But some folks have commented that this doesn't work, since they always seem to still be putting out fires, and they can never follow through with their plan. Others have said that everything has to be done every day, and that's overwhelming.

Truth be told, every job is overwhelming. You have talents with which you've been blessed. Prioritization is the key. If you're putting out fires, and there's no other way around it, then that is what must be done. However, there are some strategies to planned prioritization.

One recommendation is to use a strategy from the card game, Bridge (Remember Bridge? Folks used to get together for their daily dose of the game.). Lead with your strong suit. Start with what you're good at - it will get that task out of the way first, let you feel a sense of accomplishment, and energize you to do the next thing that has to be done.

The other is to find what must be done everyday. Usually, that's development work - so do your development work every morning. Then, use Monday afternoon for Marketing, Tuesday afternoon for Enrollment, Wednesday afternoon for Retention, Thursday afternoon for Asset Management, and Friday afternoon for whatever hasn't been resolved (or the occasional leave at lunchtime if you've worked every evening that week).

Another possibility is to work an hour and a half a day on each item. Five elements at an hour and a half each give you a 7.5 hour day.

You might have to experiment a little, but when you find what works best for you, then you can work it. "Plan your work and work your plan" has been a phrase that's been around for a very long time, but you need to be flexible enough for adjustments, and to fight the fires which will inevitably erupt.

The point is that you have to be three things: a cheerleader, a juggler, and indefatigable. To be those things, you have to take time to rest to re-energize, and have something else that you're passionate about to help you retain your creative "edge."

And - this is very important - you must "schedule" time for yourself - for planning, for traveling, for phone calls, for "stuff." If you have a meeting at 3 PM, and just have that meeting on your schedule rather than travel time to that meeting and prep time for that meeting, you may not be well-prepared for that meeting.

Don't forget - schedule time to exercise, and perhaps, most importantly, to pray. Remember that prayer is conversation. Don't just petition. You talk first, but then allow God time to talk to you.

All the elements of Advancement must be addressed; you can't just "do" one thing at a time. If you do, you're setting your school up for failure.

Developing a Development Mindset

2012-01-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

As we move forward through the second half of the school year, a new thought regarding one of the 5 elements of Advancement will be posted each week. This week, let's focus on Development.

A simple way to determine the difference between Development and Fundraising is this: If someone has to buy something or do something in order to raise funds (like buy a candy bar, or go work at a bingo or concession stand), that's fundraising. If someone gives you funds because they want the good work you've done to continue, that's Development. It is my contention that both are necessary for an organization, but not for the reasons you may think. Fundraising is a Retention strategy, and has no place in Development - even though they both raise money. More about that in a future posting.

Just as DREAM stands for Development, Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing, Development has its own acronym - CHANGE:

Communication - with at least four types of constituencies - internal engaged, external engaged, internal disengaged, and external disengaged. Those will be described a future entry too, since it's commonly thought to be the place where marketing and development overlap. Marketing also speaks to these four constituencies, but its focus is different. It's a topic that merits its own discussion space.

Happenings - events to involve the greater community - not just the parents in your school.

Appeals - an Annual Appeal is at the heart of every development effort. If you have only three major events and no annual appeal, you have a dynamic fundraising program - not a Development program.

Networking - while this can be confused with communication, networking involves the personal connections you make with other development professionals, companies that currently may have no interest in your school (but all of a sudden someone's grandchild is enrolled), or alumni. If an annual appeal is the heart of a development program, growing relationships through networking is the blood.

Gifts and Grants - grantwriting, major gifts, planned giving...all those actions that bring $$ to the table based on the successes of the organization and the desire to make it better. Note that while most people think development is all about raising money, there are only 2.5 items here that concern themselves with income (the .5 is happenings, since the other half is about building the team that puts the event together and bringing people in from outside the school to hear good things about it. If you have an event, and don't involve the children from your school in some way, you've missed the boat).

Energize, Enrich and Educate - this one's for you! The average life expectancy of a Development Director is - are you ready? - 18 MONTHS! That's because it's so intense and demanding. Burnout is high, and high-powered development directors are the cheerleaders of the organization. It takes some significant stamina to be so engaged with your organization that you can take on all the naysayers (which are sometimes those you work for) and still remain positive. To be totally blunt, as a Development person, you don't work for your supervisor; you work for the entity. I've also come to believe that this burnout rate is because those who are in higher administration positions don't realize that it takes time to build relationships and want financial results fast. It doesn't happen that way. Development takes time. You want quick returns - stick with fundraising...but you'll NEVER raise consistent and SUSTAINABLE (the new Advancement buzzword) revenues. Personally, YOU must take time to refuel your tank by sharing good news and successes, discovering new ways of putting different ideas together (which is what creativity is all about), and educating yourself through reading and seminars as to what are best practices, motivational strategies, and, of course, prayer, since, "With God, all things are possible."

No matter what type of development situation you find yourself in (non-profit, secular or sacred), if you don't have a personal faith life, and you don't pray, you haven't got a prayer. The job of the development director is to serve the organization and advance it toward its vision. There are no great rewards for it. Prayer is the power that pulls all things together for good, and keeps priorities in perspective, since Development is also an act of service! It is a ministry to those that have been blessed with gifts to encourage them to share their gifts with those who can use them.

Notice there are only 6 elements to CHANGE - we could make it CHANGES - the 7th one - the S - could be for Service - or could be for Sabbath. Remember to keep it holy, and rest. You'll need your energy for the week ahead.

Catholic Schools Week

2012-01-24T13:34:00.000-08:00

Next Sunday begins the 2012 celebration of Catholic Schools Week. When it comes to marketing, Catholic Schools Week is seen as a "pinnacle" event, rife with open houses, community activities, "Thank You" lunches, Good Neighbor breakfasts, Grandparent days and pulpit talks at Mass extolling the virtues of the Catholic school's ability to educate the whole child - mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

While it might have been a good idea when it first began in 1974, our society has radically changed since then, and I propose that calling it "Catholic Schools Week" might be hurting Catholic schools at this point in history. Since there's at least always three forces at work, here are three reasons why:

1) Our headline/soundbite society. Today's marketing professionals like to use double entendres or homonymic devices in the slogans or tag lines they develop. For instance, a ski resort in Western Pennsylvania created a billboard with the word "Uplifting" in bold print, placed at the bottom of a picture of four sets of legs adorned in boots and suspended in mid-air over mountain, as if they were riding up a ski lift.

Similarly, think of the headlines we hear - "Obama Wins," "Shuttle Explodes," "Earthquake Rocks Haiti," - now read "Catholic Schools Week," and at either a conscious double entendre or a subliminal brain function level, it can resonate in the mind as "Catholic Schools Weak." Sounds the same, but the intended message is completely different. When we look at overall enrollments over the past 30+ years, it would seem that the latter message has taken hold in the minds of our parents in many parts of our country.

2) Marketing principles. Simply celebrating a Catholic school's education one week out of the year isn't enough. The activities that are crammed into one week sap the strength and energy out of the staff of the school, and, many times, especially in the Northeast and the Northern tier of our nation, activities are cancelled due to inclement weather. When that happens, morale nosedives since "activities can't be rescheduled because it's not Catholic Schools Week anymore." So no community dinner, no open house, etc. A "Catholic Schools Month" would give the opportunity for a month-long celebration, while taking the detrimentally homonymic "Week" out of the mix.

3) Educational principles. One open house in the year isn't enough. One "Good Neighbor Dinner" in the year isn't enough. One time is never enough when it comes to marketing. Think of the classroom setting - does every student understand long division after presenting the topic only once? Or division of fractions? Or the rules of grammar? No. We require constant spaced repetition and practice in order for a concept presented in the classroom to be understood, and marketers creatively bombard us with strategically spaced repetition of the messages they develop for the products and services they promote. We need to "Celebrate Catholic Schools" all the time, communicating that message with our parents, parishes, communities, benefactors, donors and alumni.

Marketing communication is the center of the other four aspects of advancement too. Not only Catholic schools, but all schools, can benefit from the lessons learned here. And remember - the week that we Celebrate Catholic Schools is the best time for increasing....

Retention! If you said "Enrollment," the first step to growing your enrollment is keeping the students you currently have. When you celebrate something important to you, you invite those people with whom you have a relationship! Enrollment efforts to attract new students should have started back in September, and if they have, and you've kept in contact with those folks, then by all means, deepen that relationship by inviting them to your celebration events. If, however, you've been using Catholic Schools Week as the time to kickoff your enrollment efforts for the coming school year, it's no wonder why increasing enrollment has been difficult for your school.

Speaking of Retention, my book, Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment, is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/14416878.

Retaining Students - The First Step to Increasing Enrollment

2012-01-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

From the title of this post, you may think it strange as to why I separate enrollment and retention. When I tell schools that these are two different things, they look at me like I have three heads. What most people do is lump enrollment of new students together with retention of old students and call it all "enrollment." However, increasing "enrollment" involves two different strategies. To paraphrase the words of President Obama, we must look beneath the surface and see what the underlying reasons are, and only then can we come to an understanding. So let's look...

Enrollment is the action of bringing new students in to your school. Marketing is tied to enrollment since marketing piques the interest of the new parent, prompting them to visit the Web site, make the phone call, and step inside the door. Then, the "sales" process begins - marketing is education; enrollment is sales.

Retention is not a function of marketing, although it's a measuring stick. Retention is a function of "experience." In other words, what type of experience is the child having at school? What type of experience are the parents having in their interactions with teachers, administration, and other parents? Does the experience prove the marketing? Do we, as schools, "walk the talk?"

And will parents "pay" for the experience? ABSOLUTELY! School administrators cringe when they hear that parents can't pay for tuition, yet will pay for the Disney vacation, the cruise, or the big game tickets (and being a Pittsburgh native, let me tell you - we understand our football and hockey teams...although we're still trying to figure out the baseball team). Parents today are "all about 'the experience.'"

As Catholic Schools Week approaches (which will be the topic of next week's post), think about the experience your current parents and students are enjoying at your school. If they are "thrilled" (which is a very important word) about the experience, their "Word of Mouth Marketing" will be more valuable than any slick ad campaign you can imagine. And you get a double-bonus...you not only retain them in your school, but they become ambassadors for your marketing efforts.

If current parents and students are not enjoying the experience of being educated at your school, then you have some homework to do.

How do you know if parents are having an exemplary experience? Ask them! Just two questions...first, on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your satisfaction with your experience here at this school. Second, if the answer is not 10, what needs to happen to make it a 10? Shared experience is an excellent, if not harsh, teacher.

I can hear the naysayers already..."That's not the point! People come to our school because of our faith tradition - not because of the experience they're having." You know what? You're absolutely right - they come to your school because of it...but why do they STAY in your school? Do they feel that they're a part of your school's community? Or are their children there for an education...an education that may not be reinforced at home. Actually, since parents are the primary teachers of their children, the school's role is actually a supporting one.

If that's difficult to comprehend, recall that every faith tradition has aspects that are difficult to comprehend...yet we believe them to be true. The key role that retention plays in your school's growth is no different.

Ask yourself and your staff: "Do we have a tightly-knit community of families in the school that support one another when one loses their job, has a medical hardship, or finds themselves in experiencing difficult times?"

If the answer is "No," you have some homework to do. Let me suggest a text you can use...my book -"Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment.". You can order it by visiting http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/14416878. It's available at a special price until the end of this month. See http://www.schooladvancement.com/ for details!

Registration vs. Application

2012-01-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

For the first part of 2012, my plan is to touch on one aspect of advancement per week, and not come back to that aspect until all other aspects have been covered. Last week, we took a look at asset management relative to budget creation. This week, a look at enrollment. To follow the pattern, next week's entry will either be on retention, marketing or development. Once the pattern is established, the five will rotate on through the cycle - but not in any particular order. For the second half of 2012, my plan is to have all five aspects listed, then comment on one thing for each of them. Keep in mind, however, that plans can change :).

This week, I'm hearing about many schools beginning their "registration" process for the coming 12-13 school year. It would be helpful, in our society that likes to run to the attorney when something isn't going their way, to take a lesson from the Greeks, and really say what we mean when we talk about the enrollment process for our schools.

The term "registration" implies that "all will be accepted." For faith-based schools, many times have we seen signs outside of places of worship that say "All Are Welcome!" Indeed, they are welcome - but, as a school, welcoming all means you have to make the decision that you will accommodate all.

In the simplest of terms, let's suppose you have a school that encompasses two floors with two flights of stairs at each end of the school. Since you could be a faith-based school, you may contend that your current building does not have to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and cannot install an elevator due to the astronomical cost.

You begin to "register" students through the winter, spring and summer, and, on the first day of school, a student shows up in a wheelchair. Since you have a "registration" process that implies that all will be accepted, you are now in the position to make reasonable accommodation for this child. How will you do that? Can you a afford to make those accommodations?

I'm strongly suggesting you consider an "application" process that includes the opportunity to provide disclosure for any considerations that your school may not be able to handle. Such a practice may be prudent in these times when economic considerations are top of mind.

Budget Creation is Just Around the Corner

2012-01-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

If you haven't started working on your school's budget for the 12-13 school year, you will very soon. Last year, at this time, some schools experienced higher enrollments than the previous year, even though some experts predicted that last year would be successful if schools experienced only a 10% decline in enrollment. The interesting thing is that this year, many schools are experiencing increased growth in their Kindergarten applications and acceptances. How can this be, because schools continue to lament the fact that their overall enrollment is declining?

If you haven't started analyzing your school's enrollment data from year to year yet, you need to do it, and do it before you start your budget planning. Many schools simply look at their year to year overall enrollment, and try to guess where they're going to end up when 12-13 starts. Other schools look at grade by grade enrollment, but do so to say, "We had 12 children in third grade last year and 10 this year, so maybe we'll have to consider combining third and fourth grade." The planning is done with the teacher in mind.

What school administrators need to do is examine the "cohort-drop" from year to year. In other words, examine your 5th grade enrollment this year, and compare it to 4th grade last year, 3rd grade the year previous, 2nd grade the year before that, etc. One of the unresearched trends that I've seen is that K-8 schools see about a 50% drop in the "cohort" of the grade by the time Kindergarteners reach 8th grade. The interesting thing is that I entered 1st grade in 1966 (before there was a Kindergarten in the local Catholic school), and that statistic still held true some 45 years ago...even when the Dominican Sisters filled more than half of the teaching positions.

If you'd like a tool to effectively plan for your enrollment next year, drop an email to me at mikez@schooladvancement.com and use the phrase "enrollment estimator" in the subject line.

For those schools that are already using this planning strategy, this is the year to learn from last year's lessons. This will be yet another year of unprecedented change for many private and faith-based schools, so why not consider making an even greater change - a new year's resolution, if you will - resolve to plan not only for next year, but for five years down the road.

Many successful non-profit organizations raise their operating revenues in the year before they use it. Catholic as well as other faith-based schools seem to raise funds from development, fundraising and tuition during the year they're using it. Failure of families to pay tuition then results in a deficit situation, which can lead down the path to closure. If you read the newspapers, those decisions are being made as you read this.

So let's be bold and look five years down the road. If you'd like to raise the funds your school will operate on the year before you actually use them, it can take five years to raise a year's worth of operating revenue. Increasing your school's operational income for the next year by 20%, as well as the revenues of the next four years of operation income by 20% can accomplish that goal. Put the excess 20% in a fund that you don't touch until 5 years down the road. At that time, you'll have a year's worth of operating income, and can then raise funds during that year as the following year's operating income.

Since you've been raising 20% more of what you need for the previous five years, the best thing to do would be to do the same for the next five years, so that you have two years of operating income in reserve. However, rather than using that second five years of increases for operating income, use it for the basis of your school's educational foundation. Doubling that amount through a concerted development effort will generate 10% of your operating budget in years moving forward from that point.

Is this easy? No. Will some folks think it's impossible? Yes. But why not take a look just to see the potential. If you simply raise tuition, it may be outrageous. But, if you increase enrollment AND increase development revenue, it might be something that can be planned for.

But let's just focus on next year for now. What does that look like in terms of real numbers?

Say your school's budget this year is $500,000. 200 students in your school and a tuition of $2500 per student. If you have a 10% decrease in enrollment, you'll have 180 students. If you want to increase your school's operational income for strategic planning purposes as described above, your budget will be $600,000. Say you increase your budget for operating cost increases by 5%, giving you a total income budget of $630,000. Your cost per pupil will go from $2500 to $3500...an increase of $1000 per student, or a 40% increase in tuition.

Perhaps your school is receiving subsidy from your parish at this time. This would be a good time to rethink that practice as well. Rather than using it for subsidy to reduce the amount of tuition across the board, use it as a financial aid pool to help families afford the full cost of education.

You'll also have to educate your parents as to why this change is necessary at this time, presenting this scenario as well as a best case scenario (an enrollment increase in a cost-based tuition structure with additional development revenue ) which could make the tuition actually decrease for some students, especially those that have financial need.

If you're afraid of confronting these facts, and confronting your families with this information, remember the first words of the papacy of John Paul II - "Be not afraid." Schools need charismatic and visionary leadership - not people to "turn out the lights." Corporations are doing that. At this time in history, we must offer people hope.

As for enrollment planning five years down the road, if you'd like a preview of a tool I've put together to help you plan that far ahead, please send me an email at mikez@schooladvancement.com. Use the phrase "five years down the road" in the subject line.

A "Happy New Year" to you and yours, and may it be a peace-filled one for all of us!

The Half-Way Point

2011-12-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Rather than waiting until next week to wish you and yours a peace-filled and prosperous new year, I'm taking the opportunity to "Do It Now." A "Strike while the iron is hot" mindset is a concept that must be understood and implemented to have a successful advancement mindset.

There are two others (since there are always at least three forces at work in any situation) that contribute to an "Advancementality": Success Begets Success, and REST!

As for the first, a couple of years ago, my wife and I met with a leader of a local organization so we could get a program off the ground to improve a particular aspect of the members of the organization. We met on a Sunday night at 8 PM around our kitchen table. At that meeting, more ideas came forth, and a "next steps" plan of action with individual responsibilities were established.

This meeting embodied all three of the listed aspects. We met on a Sunday night since we're approaching an end-of-the-year deadline. To put it off could mean donors would not be able to contribute before the end of the year. More ideas came out of the meeting, demonstrating how successes generate more successes. We talked about possibilities rather than pitfalls, and then who was going to take responsibility for each of those "next steps."

So what about "Rest?" After all, isn't Sunday supposed to be a day of rest? Actually, "Observing the Sabbath" means to keep it as a special time. We saw this as a special time to do something good, allowing the rest of the week to be reserved for "rest" when it came to the Christmas break.

Take some time to rest this week between Christmas and your New Year celebration. Since it's full throttle when school resumes, you must take some time to re-energize, to renew your creativity, and be able to once again take up the challenges that face you on a day-to-day basis.

As you already know, those challenges are going to become more and more difficult - such as:

* What do you tell parents when they say they're afraid of what's going to happen with the economy, so they're disenrolling their children - even if they're not been currently affected by economic distress?

* What type of financial aid is your school going to need to offer parents in order to retain the students you have, and how do you really know what parents need? Are you prepared to include a financial aid line item in your budget (which means that parents paying the full cost of tuition are helping to provide financial assistance for others in your school)?

* How do we deal with board members that do not contribute to the school's annual appeal?

The first entry of the new year next week will speak to leadership and vision, since advancement deals primarily with management - vis a vis, ways to reach that vision. Enjoy this time to consider the 5 "R"s - rest, reconnect, reflect refresh and re-evaluate.

Energize!

2011-12-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

For those of you that were (or still are) fans of "Star Trek," you know where that word was spoken - in the transporter room. Wouldn't it be cool to have that kind of technology available today? We have the flip "communicators" already - we just call them Smartphones.

As Christmas approaches, we may think that getting somewhere faster could really be a help to our preparations. And during this time, we aren't really in need of more information about Advancement. Many of us are preoccupied with making internal and external preparations for the great event that's just a few days away. Yes, there are times when we need to slow down in order that we can rev ourselves back up again (just like the economy needs to do every now and then), and this is one of those times.

This week, let's remember the words of Thomas Merton: "There are times when in order to keep ourselves in existence at all we simply have to sit back for a while and do nothing."

Be still. He comes to us in silence.

Now is the Acceptable Time

2011-12-11T08:19:00.000-08:00

Last week I promised to show how marketing, enrollment, retention and asset management and development become especially important as schools begin to think about preparing for the coming school year.

All five aspects of advancement can have an effect on enrollment at this time of the year. Not the enrollment for this year...but this is where parents start thinking about next year, if they haven't already.

Open houses are being scheduled. Entrance tests are happening for high schools. In Catholic Schools, planning for Catholic schools week is underway. So...Marketing - what kind of messages are you putting out there about your school? Are you planning to be at every Christmas Day Mass distributing information about your school? If you answered, "No," you're missing out on reaching a ton of people with a ton of kids that only come to Mass one time per year. It's the golden opportunity to reach as many people as you can at one shot.

Retention - who's coming back? One school I'm familiar with has pictures of every student in the school on one wall in the hall. On the wall on the other side of the hall, there's lettering that says, "I'm in!!" And when the student is registered to return, their picture is moved to the "I'm in" side of the hallway. Oh - and parents see this at the Christmas program they're invited to.

Asset Management - Tuition management services allow schools to practice good stewardship. And you've just said, "Yeah, right!" Indeed, absolutely right. Stewardship is using time, talent and treasure wisely for the glory of God. Lets examine each one. Time - tuition management allows office staff to stop "chasing" unpaid tuition, and make better use of that time to follow up with parents interested in enrolling their children in the school. Talent - staff that are great at marketing and development can better use their time for these needed tasks than running to the bank everyday with a deposit. This doesn't even touch upon the security offered through electronic funds transfer. There's even a company out there now that registers checking account numbers. Their slogan - "Register your checking account before someone else does." Checks are quickly becoming an outmoded manner of payment...especially when I can pick up my iPhone, go to an app, and pay someone with an electronic funds transfer right there...no ATM debit card needed. Treasure - the enrollment of a student in a faith-based school carries with it the responsibility for the parent to pay the tuition to be a part of that "privileged environment" that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops speaks of.

Development - The more year-end gifts a school receives, the more it can work to keep its tuition costs in check for the following year during budget preparation. And remember, the last week of the year is when most individual charitable contributions are made.

I know - you're also saying, "This is a lot of work. And besides, we're living in difficult economic times!" Why should we bother with development now? EVERYONE is stretched and no one's going to give us anything."

To me, that's called "Despair." Last time I checked, "Despair" was not one of the three things that last. But one of those things is "Hope." So here's something to make you hopeful -

Now is the acceptable time - to start a development program, and develop a development mindset.

Why?

Because doing so takes time. It's long term. If you DON'T take the time, you WON'T have the talent nor the treasure to keep your school open for the long term. In fact, this is a GREAT time to start a development program. Since it takes time, you can "build the machine," so to speak, while the economy is in the situation it's in right now. As time goes on, and the economy builds, your development program will build. Both are working in parallel, so when the economy is cooking at full steam again, your program will be at full steam to reap the benefits. If you start a development program in a good economy, it may take you some time to "build the machine" again, but when it's ready to reap the benefits, the good times in the economy may have come to an end. Such an experience is much more difficult to overcome - as we're seeing now!!

This is a time of change - and it IS the acceptable time.

The Old Woman and Her Pig

2011-12-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

Today, an Old English tale to explain the concept of "Systemicity" (what I like to call Systems Thinking) as it is associated with Advancement -

An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. “What,” said she, “shall I do with this little sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig.”

As she was coming home, she came to a stile: but the piggy wouldn’t go over the stile.

She went a little further, and she met a dog. So she said to the dog: "Dog! bite pig; piggy won’t go over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the dog wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a stick. So she said: “Stick! stick! beat dog! dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the stick wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a fire. So she said: “Fire! fire! burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the fire wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met some water. So she said: "Water, water! quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the water wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met an ox. So she said: “Ox! ox! drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the ox wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a butcher. So she said: "Butcher! butcher! kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the butcher wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a rope. So she said: “Rope! rope! hang butcher; butcher won’t kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the rope wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a rat. So she said: “Rat! rat! gnaw rope; rope won’t hang butcher; butcher won’t kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the rat wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a cat. So she said: “Cat! cat! kill rat; rat won’t gnaw rope; rope won’t hang butcher; butcher won’t kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the cat said to her, “If you will go to yonder cow, and fetch me a saucer of milk, I will kill the rat.” So away went the old woman to the cow.

But the cow said to her: “If you will go to yonder hay-stack, and fetch me a handful of hay, I’ll give you the milk.” So away went the old woman to the haystack and she brought the hay to the cow. As soon as the cow had eaten the hay, she gave the old woman the milk; and away she went with it in a saucer to the cat.

As soon as the cat had lapped up the milk, the cat began to kill the rat; the rat began to gnaw the rope; the rope began to hang the butcher; the butcher began to kill the ox; the ox began to drink the water; the water began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn the stick; the stick began to beat the dog; the dog began to bite the pig; the little pig in a fright jumped over the stile, and so the old woman got home that night.

The moral - well, there are several:

1) Note that it doesn't say what time the woman got home that night;

2) The simplest task isn't easy after all;

3) Many effective solutions are long-term processes;

4) Teamwork is necessary, and everyone needs some type of remuneration;

5) Chain reactions which solve previously thought-to-be unsolvable problems are sometimes begun with something relatively simple and inexpensive.

6) The desired end result requires a LOT of set up work. You may not see a Return on Investment for sometime, but as long as the processes are in place, you have to keep setting up the dominoes. At some point, the there will be a breakthrough, and then everything falls into place.

7) This is also a lesson in marketing. Today, in turbulent economic times, the instinctive thought is to cut back - but when you cut back, especially in marketing, you run the risk of people not knowing you're there anymore. An entity that may have been very visible in the community suddenly decides to protect its "core" processes and eliminate the "fluff" of marketing. While it seems to be the easy decision to make, the net result is that the community believes it is no longer there. What started out as a way to ride out a recession becomes a path to closure. Increasing exposure is actually the way to have to help the business survive difficult times.

Need another example? Look at the stock market. When the market falls, the thought is to cut back investing additional capital in stocks because they're not performing. Yet, funds should still be invested when stocks are low - because when the cycle reverses itself, additional shares of ownership will be worth more.

Cut back? Perhaps a little, to prune away some dead branches. But eliminate? No way! Get more people involved? Yes!! Think differently and more strategically? Absolutely!!

As Christmas approaches, next week we'll look at how marketing, enrollment, retention and asset management and development become especially important as schools begin to think about preparing for the coming school year. Some may be thinking this is a good time to discuss a year-end gift for development potential. However, if you're just starting to think about such a thing right now, you're probably too late. That thought process should have started when the school year began. To succeed in Advancement, you need to shift your timetable to one that allows for sufficient planning for obstacles such as those the old woman encountered in today's fable.

With that in mind, perhaps you're able to see what we're moving towards - which is what advancement is all about.

HOW Do I Do the Things I Need to Do?

2011-11-27T12:51:00.000-08:00

As promised, this week's installment speaks to another aspect of the "how" to handle advancement. While last week spoke to a methodology relative to advancement (taking the five aspects one day at a time until a comfort level has been established to be able to juggle all five with reprioritizing as necessary), I've heard from some folks that it's not that particular aspect of the "how" they need help with.

For instance, a development director might be engaged with an annual appeal, grant writing, planning a special event (like a dinner/auction), and working with alumni to coordinate reunions or a golf outing. Their focus is on generating income; it's not on working with prospective parents to ensure they enroll their child for the coming school year. In fact, they have no desire to do that.

My response - as long as there is someone else to handle enrollment (the admissions director), retention (the principal), asset management (the business manager) and marketing (the communications director), then everyone can focus on their individual responsibilities, perhaps meeting weekly to review successes, challenges, potential difficulties and all-out threats, keeping an eye to yearly pre-established goals.

If, however, everything advancement falls to the development director, then the development director must decide - either learn how to do those things, and how they fit into the greater scheme of advancement, or find another situation where only development responsibilities will be necessary for success.

Remember last year? Economists said we were out of the woods regarding the recession (insert nervous laughter here). States were looking to cut budgets for the 2011 year, and bail-out funds dried up. Governments were looking to cut costs, and many elected officials were ousted in the May elections. Banks are still tight on credit, companies are still holding on to cash, and unemployment is still in the double-digit range. What's driving the stock market today? Threats of a European debt crisis. It's not only the actions of our nation's leaders that drives the economy, the actions of every other world leader impacts the ability of our economy to recover. As we move deeper into economic murkiness, as is common in the life cycle of any organization, flexibility is the key to survival.

The analogy of the tree is so fitting to what we are experiencing. The African proverb states, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now." Let's continue the analogy - deep roots make it easier for the tree to find nourishment in the dry season; pruning is necessary for growth; rigidity ("standing one's ground") will cause the tree to snap, as it must be "strong enough to bend" in order to confront harsh winds; and it must drop its seeds so that more trees can be grown to continue the growth process. I'm sure you can think of more comparisons.

As for development, "now" might be the third-best time to grow development. While the first-best time was 20 years ago, the second-best time is during times of prosperity, when you really don't need to be out there, day-in and day-out, raising significant dollars. After all, if you do that, then the goal for the following year will be to raise even more dollars, right? Unfortunately, and all too often today, too many individuals think that in times of prosperity, everything goes along great, and we "don't have to work too hard to meet our goals."

The problem is that that is exactly the problem. The non-profit world not just fears, but dreads having a surplus, lest some watchdog group trumps up charges that they're "making too much money." In times of economic prosperity, non-profits need to exceed their goals so that in times of need, they will have enough to meet the needs of their constituents. Those who don't realize this have, what I like to call, "Short-term Syndrome." Most schools I've visited with have no long-term vision, no five-year plan. They're just trying to survive from year to year. Such a mindset does not inspire those that are considering enrolling their children in a faith-based school. That's the real danger of short-term planning.

As for budgeting, year-to-year budgeting is necessary; but what's even more necessary is tracking current year against the budgeted amount, as well as where the organization was in the previous year. It provides a measuring stick to see where the organization is headed. Even though it's necessary, that's still considered within the realm of a "short-term" mindset

Development, on the other hand, requires a "long-term" outlook, with at least a five-year historical perspective as well as a five-year projection into the future.

In a time when everyone is telling you to cut back, you need to prepare yourself to do more. Or, do it differently. More about that next week.

One Day at a Time

2011-11-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

Since this is November, one of the things that I'm thankful for is that I have a background in teaching. Even though the main function of my current position is as a sales representative, not only is much of what I do comparable to the process of education, but my background helps provide a common ground with teachers and school administrators. Just like a teacher trying to reach so many students with so many preferred learning styles and multiple intelligences, the message I bring needs to reach many different school staff members who can respond differently, according to their own learning styles and intelligences.

This entry is geared to those folks who have the responsibility of "doing it all," and do not work for a school where there is a Development Director, a Marketing Director, an Admissions Director, a Business Manager and a Principal (who is the de facto Retention Director). It may be kind of difficult to follow, so this entry may require several readings before it is understood (just like a good reading assignment).

In the spirit of "Start with WHY," you know why you have to do thes things - because the future of your school depends on them. But the next question is "HOW" to do it, such as, "How do you do this 'advancement' thing if you have to do everything?"

Here are five potential pathways:

1) Marketing as the origin - Start here...but only if you're collecting all your tuition and students in your school stay in your school from one school year to the next;

2) Put the system in place - Start all five aspects of advancement and adjust as necessary. This is the preferred method, but you have to have a good grasp of what it means to work systemically rather than working linearly;

3) Work backwards (the least effective, and will take a very long time to see results) - Start with Development and work toward Marketing. This is for you linear thinkers that are having a difficult time putting the whole system in place and thinking systemically. Choosing this path means that a significant amount of time - possibly 10 years - will be required before you see any significant fruit from your work. Why? Development is a long-term strategy which will take 3 to 5 years to get rolling. If you start to focus on Enrollment (another long-term strategy) only after Development has begun to bear some fruit, it will take another 3 to 5 years to bear significant fruit. Even if you start both of these processes simultaneously, it will take 3 to 5 years to germinate any signs of success. Also know that along the way, you'll have to put Marketing and Retention strategies in place. With linear thinking, Marketing and Retention are usually grouped into Enrollment. Additionally, the last element to be implemented may be Asset Management. Why? Development and Enrollment processes are related, and are usually school-driven functions, as are Marketing and Retention. Asset management, on the other hand, is oftentimes the responsibility of a business manager rather than the Development/Advancement Director, or may be a function of a parish or church business manger or offsite bookkeeper. In these cases, the responsibility is delegated to a person not directly associated with the school, and, unfortunately, results in Asset Management strategies which are removed from the system created by Development, Marketing, Retention and Enrollment. Many schools today have principals that are trying to improve these four elements of their school, and are successful in doing so; however, the school still finishes the year in financial arrears to the tune of five figures. Why? Because a business manager still manages tuition receivable the same way they did it 20 years ago, or believe that Asset Management has nothing to do with Development, Marketing, Retention and Enrollment. It is, in fact, the "glue" that holds the system together.

4) Start with Asset Management and Retention - These are effective short-term strategies, followed by Marketing (a 1 to 3 year strategy) and then Enrollment and Development(3 to 5 year strategies); and

5) One Day at a Time - If you look at a finance department of a major organization, they'll cut checks once a week. So, plan your schedule to work on each of the five aspects of advancement on one day per week. Just don't make Mondays or Fridays your day to "work" on Development. Development means meeting with people, and Mondays and Fridays are the worst days for that. Schedule that on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Schedule your Retention work (letters or phone calls to current parents, etc.) on Fridays. With that in mind, here's a suggested week:

Monday - Marketing
Tuesday - Development
Wednesday - Enrollment
Thursday - Asset Management
Friday - Retention

If you're still asking, "But HOW do I do these things during those days," we'll talk about that next week.

Your School's Web Site

2011-11-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

Blogging once a week about Advancement and "how it works," I'm finding the mindset is a difficult one to build. We're so focused on doing what we need to do in chunks that we fail to see the whole picture. It's how our schools have trained us...first Religion class, then English class, then Math class, then History class, etc.

Similarly, schools that are still "Fundraising" go from the candy sale, to the flower sale, to the fruit sale, to the wrapping paper sale, to the cookie dough sale, to the pie sale, to the - you get the idea - while hoagies (or subs or grinders) are sold every month along with Market Day and other tasks where we keep asking the same people to buy the same stuff month after month.

But now, in these economic times, what do you think will be the first thing to go when people are cutting back on their expenses? Certainly fundraising will suffer since people don't have the extra money to buy cookie dough. When a school takes a look at its budget, Marketing (since it, as one school told me, "Really doesn't raise any money for us") and Development (since Development takes too long to get to the money part, and "We need money now!").

Development is the practice of building long term relationships rather than just focusing on short term sales. As those relationships deepen, people become engaged with the mission of your school and will commit their time, talent and treasure to seeing it succeed. And just like another long term vehicle, the stock market, there can be some setbacks on the road to success.

Remember, if Catholic school families had practiced planned giving 50 years ago, we'd be one of the most well-funded institutions in the nation. But that was 1961, and we had the Sisters teaching in our schools. Of course, we couldn't imagine life without them back then. Today, we don't have to imagine.

So let's say we make the commitment to move forward with Development. That's when you start to realize that you have to communicate with people (Marketing), and while you're communicating why it's important to support the school, you have to also communicate with prospective parents so they will enroll their children in the school. Then you have to try to retain those students, because they become alumni only if they graduate, and the alumni are the ones who have the potential of giving back your school through your Development efforts.

Now you've graduated from "just doing Development" to "Advancement." In order to advance toward your institution's vision, all these things have to happen...and that's where I get into a battle regarding the difference between "Mission" and "Vision." "Mission" is a "Development" "thing" - people must become engaged with your schools' "mission." But really, even though there are companies out there that say you can "advance your mission," what does that mean? It means that you must always move forward so that you can continue to fulfill your school's mission.

While moving forward is good, it's directional - linear, if you will. Moving forward implies that you cannot move up, down, or from one side to another...and sometimes, you have to zig before you can zag.

All these paths still allow you to "Advance toward your vision." Although it implies direction, your vision may not be "somewhere down the road." I liken it to the Kingdom of God. Yes, we talk about the heavenly Kingdom, but the Kingdom of God is very much "right now" too. The goal of advancement is growth. Think of it as three-dimensional. You're at a particular starting point - and rather than moving from here to there, the starting point expands in all directions...like a small golf ball that becomes the size of a basketball...and continues to grow. The model is further concretized when you consider the term "Spheres of Influence."

To make this happen, three things are required - a compelling vision, leadership, and proper tools to do the job.

Two examples to prove the point. First, recall the 2008 presidential election. Let's forget about experience vs. inexperience, potential racial barriers, right vs. left, etc. Here's the one thing that I heard NO ONE talk about - old vs. new (Gasp - you can't talk about that...that's age discrimination). No - I didn't say "old vs. young," I said "old vs. new." "We bought a new house," the proud homeowner exclaims. "How old is it," the friend replies. "Oh, it's about 13 years old, but it's in really great shape." You've all heard that conversation - people buy "new." The conversation is a little different when a family purchases a house that was built in the 1960's. It goes like this: "We bought a house. Yeah, it's a fixer-upper, but we got it at a great price." The image was that John McCain, an older (and certainly more experienced) man represented the Republican leadership of this country (even though Congress had a democratic majority). The image that Barack Obama projected was as a confident advocate of change, presenting a new compelling vision.

Second, recall 2008's systemic collapse of the American economy. If America is government "For the people, by the people, and of the people," then who is the Federal Government? It's you and me. "We, the people." And perhaps we've finally realized that we are the ones who bailed out the banks and the auto industry in the failed hope of a fast recovery. The short-term solution has saddled our nation with the largest debt in its history. A long-term solution would have brought about progress over time, but we needed to see some kind of action to reverse the recession, and needed it NOW.

So how does this relate to the title of today's article, and your Web site for your school? Well, "You need it NOW." If you've been putting it off because it's too expensive to rework it, or it will take too much time, you will not only lose potential students because parents think they won't be able to afford the tuition, or it will take them too much time and energy to find information about your school if you don't put it at their fingertips.

But just as fundraising has advanced to development which has advanced to, well, advancement, it's now no longer just enough to have a "nice" Web site. Companies like SchoolWires.com, FinalSite.com and YourMembership.com build some of the most high-end, great looking sites out there, but they're expanding their services to include forms creation, teacher pages, video vaults, and other solutions which schools will need to serve this and the next generation of parents - like mobile Web sites! Do you like "Flash" presentations? Remember, they won't work on iPads and iPhones. eChalk.com and SchoolWorld.com are some others you should check out to provide these services to your school.

In times of economic hardship, one of the first things companies cut back on is advertising since it's the easiest place to look at to cut spending. But, the risk is that they will be out of the public eye, and their downfall will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By cutting marketing efforts, institutions rationalize their decision by saying, "Oh, people know enough about us already."

Can we say that about our schools? If we can't, then it's time to INVEST in a Web site...a professionally-made one.

Why is this so important today? Because the next generation of parents (which will have school-aged children within the next 3 to 5 years) are today's college students that are communicating with Facebook and Smartphones. If you don't have the vision and leadership necessary to create a robust and interactive Web presence for your school, you may not need a Web site...but you may need a padlock for your school's front door and boards for the windows since you won't be in business.

"Systemicity"

2011-11-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

I like when synchronicity happens.

Sometimes, it means less work, as it does in the case of this week's post. Since this blog is all about how "advancement" works as a system, I just found a great concrete example I can use to describe it. I was installing one of those under-the-cabinet radios in our kitchen recently. I emptied the bottom shelf, got the template, taped it in, drilled the holes, and then fed the screws in from the top. While I balanced the radio with one hand under the cabinet, I attached each screws just a little so that all five of them would support the radio.

My wife looked at what I was doing and said, "I hope that's not going to hang down like that." I said of course not, since all the screws had to be tightened. Then I started tightening - first one for a couple of turns, then another, then another, going around to each screw several times. My wife said, "That's taking a long time - can't you just tighten one screw first? Then it hit me - sure I could, but I'd have to hold the radio in place. If I let it hang, then tightening one screw would make the other ones jam up.

And isn't it the same with our schools? If they're being supported well, and everything's in place, then we can tweak our marketing, or re-examine our development strategies. But more often than not, our schools are just "hanging" out there, beset by the latest financial crisis, hoping families don't leave, and, if they stay, that they pay their tuition.

The only way to lift the radio quickly is to have five hands, each with a screwdriver, all turning at the same rate. Similarly, if we want fast action in our schools, then we have to hire an enrollment/admissions director, a development director, a marketing director and a business manager (the principal can play the role of the retention manager) to make sure all those processes are in place.

But it wouldn't be enough to say to several secretaries that this is the job that they are going to do - their learning curve would be too steep. And hiring seasoned professionals that can do the job is outside the budgetary constraints of many schools. Interestingly, I just saw one of the most complete job postings for a "Development Specialist" at a local school. The qualifications required certification, and the responsibilities were spelled out, and seemed to go on forever. It was thorough; however, I would lay dollars do donuts that the salary being offered is significantly lower that what a qualified individual would expect as compensation.

Then how do we "lift" our schools up? A little at a time. But we have to start - and lifting our schools requires even more than just advancement strategies. First, you have to have a good product.

When I was the program director of the local public radio station, the general manager said that we have to market ourselves since nobody knows about us. I said that we first have to make sure we're putting out a quality product, since if we do great marketing, and people tune in to hear poor programming, mispronunciations or operational miscues, they'll tune out and tell all their friends how bad we are.

Similarly, the "left side" of your "boat," (more about that later), consists of five elements:

faith identity or founder's heritage
activities
curriculum
technology
surroundings

These play a large part in making your school a successful school since you must be a quality school first. Remember, EVERYTHING works together! If you can recall MisterRogers from public television, he used to sing, "Everything grows together, because you're all one piece." If certain aspects of the "right side" of your "boat" are growing more than the other aspects are (for example, more successful development than enrollment), you're going to have even more difficulties than you do now!

Now, what's this about a "boat?" Perhaps you've seen one of my presentations, titled "Row, Row, Row Your Boat: [Your School's] Life is But a DREAM." Those who have attended said it gave a great example of how the left side of the boat (the concrete items listed above) need to balance with the right side of the boat (the abstract items as set forth in the DREAM framework). It's systems thinking in action...and systems thinking is one of the five disciplines of a learning organization.

It's interesting...Peter M. Senge made this comment in 1990 in his book, "The Fifth Discipline." The book is almost 22 years old; yet, it's exactly what we need to know to help our schools do what they need to do today.

Spending Money to Make Money...But Where Do You Get The Money to Spend?

2011-10-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, I've adopted a personal motto, and in the spirit of most mottos, as best as I can, I've translated it into Latin: Nihil est facile; nihil est gratuitum. It means, "Nothing is easy; nothing is free."

What most schools want to do is simply increase revenues, since most have cut their budgets to the bone. They don't want to spend money on a Development or Advancement Director, and, if they do, then they expect that person to raise funds with no budget.

As can be expected, frustration sets in, and it's decided that doing nothing is more fiscally prudent. It's one of the reasons why the average "life expectancy" of a Development or Advancement Director is 18 MONTHS, while it takes at least 3 to 5 YEARS to get the development ball rolling into somewhat of a juggernaut.

Unfortunately, more of the same happens, and the downward spiral continues. And in critical economic times, there are more and more opportunities for systemic "glitches" to occur.

In light of all that is changing around us, this may be the time to make some incredibly unprecedented changes as well, bringing another well-known phrase mind: "Drastic times means drastic measures."

One avenue you might consider is to employ a tuition management company, such as FACTS, to manage your tuition capture process. If families want to pay on a monthly basis, the payment is taken from the responsible payer's savings or checking account. Such action stops slow pay families and results in a more predictable cash flow for your school.

If families choose not to participate in this type of monthly program, then they can pay their tuition in full, up-front, before the school year begins. And many do! Upfront tuition collection increases, which allows interest to be earned on those funds. That's interest that was never garnered before, and can provide some funds to begin your advancement program (since development is only a part of advancement). Once you automate the tuition revenue capture, you then have time to work on calling those families that have expressed an interest in enrolling their students for the following year...and more students in the school means the more families to help share the financial burdens, making things easier for everyone.

I'm the local FACTS representative for West Virginia, Upstate New York and all of Pennsylvania (except for Philadelphia) and Ohio, but if you're in other areas of the country, I can put you in contact with your local representative. Or, simply click http://www.factsmgt.com for more information. We even have tools to help your Development efforts raise even MORE revenues for your school through online giving, and our program is affordable. How affordable? Can you carve $500 out of your budget, or ask a donor to make an investment gift of $500 for the first year of service? Indeed, nothing is easy and nothing is free, but FACTS Donor Services is as close as you're going to get to both of those two utopias.

In the meantime, I've adopted another motto: "Stop chasing tuition, and start chasing enrollment." If anyone can translate to Latin for me, please drop an email to me at mziemski@factsmgt.com.

By the way...remember last week's column about the event that saw every type of weather condition within the course of a day? The organization opted to pass on that event every time it was their "turn" to host it...except for this year. The organization hosted the event last night...and guess what happened? It snowed! Parents came to remove snow from the stadium field, and the event was delayed for two hours. As the temperatures dropped, the moisture still on the field froze, so the competition was moved to the practice field...where there was effectively no seating for parents. Then, as the night progressed, temperatures dropped, and fog rolled in. With all the planning that went into this event, it's safe to say that it will lose money for the organization due to the added maintenance expenses.

Events - Are They Really Worth It?

2011-10-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

Change takes time and energy. So does developing "Advancementality" (a mindset that realizes advancement as a living system of Development, Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing).

Events can be considered fundraisers - but are they really "development" activities? Are they worth it? I've seen both ends of the spectrum.

One organization I've worked with planned a concert with a local popular band, but made it into a two-day affair. The evening before had a dinner at a very nice restaurant for a limited number of people (who could all be seated at the same table) with members of the band. Diners paid a fee to have the privilege of attending the event, and the restaurant donated the room and the food. The servers were compensated for their attentiveness that evening. The concert was open to the community and held at a local popular theatrical venue. There was a silent auction, and the band got to sell their promotional items. Two musical instruments signed by members of the band were auctioned off between the opening act and the main performance.

Funds realized - about $40,000 for the organization!

Another organization I've worked with planned what was historically one of the largest fundraisers of year for the hosting group. At least 40 or so marching bands came together yearly for a State competition near the end of October. Planning for this event took months - silent auctions, candygrams, 50/50 raffle, program production with advertisements, hosts for all the visiting bands, parking for all the parents and relatives, hotel rooms for the judges, practice field coordination and parking for the buses and trailers for each band, and, of course, the concession stand with all the food and baked goods needed for an event which begins at 10 AM and runs through 11 PM.

Thanks to the weather that day, the group experienced everything from sunny skies to a 20 degree drop in temperature during the day, to hail, to high winds, to rain, to the sky turning an interesting shade of green-gray, to snow, and finally to a clear sky at night with freezing temperatures. When all was said and done, if all of the 85 families of the organization that hosted the event put $10 in a basket, it would have collected more money than was realized in dollars raised on that day.

With that in mind here's an SAT type question for you - What is the main purpose of events? (Remember that in an SAT question, two of the choices can be eliminated because they are incorrect. One of the remaining choices is the "best" answer to the question, but both choices could very well be the correct answer - it's just that one of them is the "better" answer):

a) To raise a lot of money in a very short period of time
b) To build community awareness of the organization
c) To involve the larger community with the hopes of engaging more people in the mission of your organization
d) To bring members of the organization together by working toward a common goal

Let's eliminate the incorrect answers one at a time -

d) is incorrect. This is a benefit of scheduling, planning and executing an event (indeed, it is the purpose of a fundraiser), but certainly not the main purpose of a major event.

b) is also incorrect. There are certainly other ways marketing can occur. While this is also a benefit of an event, it is not its main purpose.

That leaves a) and c).

a) is usually what is expected to happen, and is therefore an "correct" answer. However, as illustrated by the above example, it is not the best answer. Although this is why most organizations plan events and invite people to them, so many things (like weather, conflicting schedules, and other more popular events) can contribute to an event's financial success or failure.

c) is the correct answer. The goal of Development (since events are part of Development) is to continually engage more and more people in the mission of the organization. Not just involve - engage. It is this engagement which will lead to gifts in the forms of time, talent and treasure.

In terms of advancement, the real success will lie in what happens the following year, and what lessons are learned as the organization advances. In the case of the successful concert, the band that was enlisted could not perform the next year, so a different event was scheduled. While it was a very popular show, it generated a little more than half of what the dinner and concert brought in. In the case of the State competition, its scope fit the definition of a fundraiser. Since these were high school bands, most of the people that came to the event were parents of the musicians, alumni, from the bands, parents of alumni, and their friends. While that sounds like a great development audience, the event was hosted by a particular school. Did the people in attendance really and truly care about the host facility? No. They cared about the band they were coming to see. Were members of the community there because they really believed that high school music programs were important to the well-being of the performers? No. If someone had something better to do that day (like stay inside during a freezing hailstorm), you can bet they did that.

The lesson learned from this event was that the organization investigated other systems to make for more successful and consistent sources of income, so that the next time the state competition came along, any funds raised from it could be considered as "gravy" rather than part of the income budgeted for the organization. Indeed, in the greater scheme of things, fundraisers are "gravy." If you rely on them as a main source of income, especially in difficult economic times, your organization will also experience difficult economic times.

Next week, a little more about "Spending Money to Make Money."

Baby Steps Marketing

2011-10-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Last year at this time, experts said the economy was starting to "turn around." This year, they're saying that the recovery will take a very long time, events in Greece and Europe are affecting our stock market, there's still military actions in Afghanistan, provisions of the health care bill are starting to kick in that may affect the way doctors and hospitals are permitted to practice which will impinge on their personal and corporate beliefs, unemployment rates are still at unacceptably high levels, and now we hear of people of warped morals and intelligence accused of planning assassination attempts on government dignitaries.
Looking for some good news?

The Good News is that we are people of hope. St. Paul said that there are three things that last - faith, hope and love. Faith is belief, hope is trust, and love is sacrifice. Unfortunately there are those today who do not believe, who do not trust, and who do not sacrifice. Fortunately, if you are reading this, we are engaged in faith-based schools which allow students to do all those things. Hopefully, we'll heed the words of Scripture, and train up this generation in the "way they should go."

One way is to make sure there are students in our schools through "Baby Steps" Marketing.

It helps to realize that both Enrollment and Development are both "long-term" strategies. They require "sales processes," such as meticulous record-keeping, relationship building, and systematic follow-up. If you're not doing these things and wondering why your enrollment is declining and blaming the lack of contributions on the economy, then you're not doing what you have to do.

Realizing that we don't simply just walk up to a potential donor and ask them for a contribution, much the same process of engagement has to be practiced with parents of potential students. A relationship must first be established with a prospective donor before that prospect can become "engaged" - participating in a deeper relationship - with the school. Engagement is the step that must occur before the person becomes a contributing donor to the school.

Similarly, we can't simply approach a parent when a child turns 5 and expect them to enroll their precious little one in our school - especially if we are charging a significant price for tuition. The engagement process starts right after the child is born! When a child is born in your parish family or Church family, make note of it in your meticulous record-keeping system. When the child is baptized in Church, that is their "starting day." After all, it's said in the Baptism ritual that the child has become a new creation that day. On that occasion, a letter is sent to the the parents and the child from the Bishop (in the case of a Catholic school) of the Diocese where the school is located, along with a small appropriate plush animal. I would suggest a lamb, since Jesus is the Good Shepherd and looks after the sheep - and finds the ones who stray. Maybe there is an organization at the Church or parish who would like to embroider the school logo on a baby blanket and present it as a gift to the child.

On the first anniversary of the Baptism, the parents and child receive a letter from the Superintendent of Schools, along with a magnetic picture frame that parents can put on their refrigerator. The border of this frame says, "Future Catholic School Student," and the child's picture is placed in the frame for all to see.

On the second anniversary of the Baptism, the parents and child receive a small book of a child's first prayers since the child should be learning his/her prayers at that time, along with a letter from the Pastor of the parish, inviting them to be a part of the community and to experience the school.

On the third anniversary of the Baptism, the moms and child receive an invitation to an open house tea from the principal of the school. At this point, the child is 3 years old, and may be ready to enter a PK3 program. If your school has one, you've now earned the right to ask that parent to consider your school since you've laid the groundwork for the past three years.

If you're part of an elementary school, and having just read this, say to yourself, "This doesn't apply to me - I don't have a Pre-K program," now is the time to start one. It's the best feeder system you can get in an elementary school, especially if you include the parents in the school activities to make them a part of the school community. In many areas, Pre-K programs become "money making" programs because of their demand.

A word of caution - I have spoken with many principals that have said they have a great relationship with "an organization that's right down the road from them" that have a Pre-K program, and don't want to start their own to provide competition and jeopardize that relationship. I can point to a couple of examples where that local organization has discontinued their Pre-K program, leaving the school with having to build a program from scratch, missing out on enrolling students by creating a competing Pre-K environment. When the future of your school is at stake, remember that doing the right thing isn't always the easiest thing to do.

And don't we teach that to the children in our schools?

Financial Aid and Your School's Tuition Model

2011-10-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

Tuition - there's that ugly word. "What does it cost," asks the parent who calls the school. The school gives a yearly figure. "Well, our tuition is $3,000 per student, but that doesn't..." The conversation stops there because the interested parent has just hung up the phone. The bewildered school official is upset that she didn't get a chance to tell the parent that if there is more than one child, there is a second child discount of $1,000, except that if the child is non-Catholic, then the tuition is $3,500 for the first student, and there is a reduction in the second child discount.

Reduction in the discount? What if the first child is Catholic, and second one isn't (you know - today's "blended family")? Schools then say, "We'll it's really not if the students are Catholic...it's if the parents are Catholic." Then say that...or is it based on who's paying tuition. It might not be the parent...what if the parents are of another faith, but the grandparents are paying the tuition and they're members of the parish?

And that brings up the Catholic/non-Catholic issue - are we engaging in discriminatory practices? Especially today, with talk of government monies or vouchers, because you know, with government monies come government strings.
I'm a firm believer that the problem isn't the tuition - it's all the other "stuff" that goes with it - just like all the disclaimers that come at the end of a car commercial that advertises a great payment yet assumes $3000 cash or trade down and excludes taxes, registration and delivery charges, etc.

Since Catholic schools started charging tuition, parishes associated with the schools still considered them to be a ministry (as many still do today) of the Church. Therefore, they subsidized the cost of education in order to keep tuition at a minimum - or as minimal as possible. Until recently, the usual formula was that that parish provided half the cost of education and tuition covered the rest, which was fine - until parish attendance started declining. In some parishes, half the cost of education can be 75% of the parish income. Some Dioceses have put rules of percentages in place, mandating that parishes can contribute no more than X% of a school's operating cost - and the rest must be made through tuition and fundraising income.

Remember that fundraising used to be a way to raise money quickly - as in, "We're going to fall $3,000 short this month, so lets raise some money quickly...let's sell some candy!" Now, parents are selling stuff all the time, and fundraising has become a way of life. To be honest, fundraising has its place, but not to raise "reliable" revenues. But that's another conversation for another day.

Then come the dreaded fees - technology fee, uniform fee, supplies and materials fee, book fee, development fee (if you don't want to participate in fundraising), graduation fee, and of course, the application fee.

Note that you shouldn't call it a registration fee anymore. Registration implies unconditional acceptance. If, as a Catholic (or any other faith-based or private) school, you are not equipped to handle the needs of a child, and you accept that child in your school through registration, you are legally bound to provide whatever accommodations are needed for that child to achieve to his/her fullest potential. Using the words "application fee" means that there is some type of screening that must occur before a student is accepted.

Back to the tuition, though. If you're giving a multi-child discount on your tuition in a subsidy model, please note that your parents are not only receiving the equivalent of financial aid for their first child, but that they're also receiving more financial aid for the second child. The danger in having parents complete an application for financial aid is that they will then be receiving still more financial aid that will be applied to the tuition cost that they pay out of pocket. The big question is, 'Do they really need it?"

Knowing today's economic climate, I'll bet your first response is, "Of course they do!"

Well...maybe they don't.

Let's examine this scenario:

Cost of education at school = $5,000 per child. Take your school's operating budget (expenses), and divide it by the number of children in your school. Many schools are afraid to do this simple yet effective exercise. Remember Jim Collins' first step in his acclaimed book, "Good to Great:" Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Hope).

Even those the cost of education is $5,000 per child, here's the school's tuition structure (as advertised on their Web site, which, by the way, is also a mistake today):

Family with two children - tuition for first child = $2500; tuition for two children = $4000.

This means that the tuition for the second child is $1500. The family then says they cannot afford $4000, so the school finance committee considers their letter, takes pity on them and offers them $400, a 10% reduction. The resultant amount is $3600, and the family pays it on a monthly basis at $360 per month.

From the family's perspective, that's the equivalent of their car payment!

The problem - this family may not need the extra 10% - but they asked and they received. Or, this family might need a lot more than the $400, but the school doesn't have anymore to give. They're then candidates for withdrawal, especially since the $360 a month doesn't include the fees for band, field trips, technology, supplies and development. If the fees are $100 for band, $50 for the field trips, $200 for technology, $50 for supplies and $300 for development. That's an extra $700, which has to be paid before the end of September and cannot be spread over 10 months. That family better REALLY love your school, and their experience has to be an incredible one so that you retain them.

In reality, the cost of educating these two children is $10,700 (2 x cost of education plus the $700 in fees). The family is receiving $2,500 in financial aid for the first child, and $3,500 in financial aid for the second child, and an additional $400 from the financial committee, for a total of $6,400 in financial aid, making the tuition $4,300 for both children, or $2,150 for each child.

Does the family need $6,400 in financial aid? If you don't have a financial aid assessment tool, then you don't know. They might need more! They might not need anything, and receive because they ask.

There are two other problems with subsidy. The first is the terminology. Parishes don't want to "subsidize." They "invest" in a Catholic school education, and the funds from the parish are an "investment." If these funds only go to members of the parish, rather than Catholic students from other parishes or non-Catholic students, it's still a parish subsidy. Such a practice was great when the only students in a parish's Catholic school were from that parish...and that's not the way it is today. In fact, most schools across the country are not "parochial" in nature, but are "regional."

The other problem with subsidy is that it make a pastor shudder when the principal reports an enrollment increase. If the pastor is subsidizing at the 50% level, then exciting news to the school, such as 20 additional students are coming to the school, leaves the pastor wondering where he's going to get the extra $50,000 that will be consumed from his parish income if tuition is only $2,500 per child!!

You may be able to move to a cost-based tuition model. In this model, all expenses - fees, costs of administration, staff, curriculum, cleaning supplies - everything that is paid for is put into a column, tabulated and then divided by the number of students in the school to come up with a cost per student figure. Don't forget to include savings for capital expenditures to your school.

The subsidy (or investment) from the parish, as well as non-designated funds from development, are then used to provide financial aid to families based on a third-party assessment of the family's financial condition. Some families might be expected to pay the full $5,000 for their daughter to attend your school, but others may not even be able to pay $500 a year for their son to attend. The only way you'll know is with a Grant and Aid Assessment evaluation tool.

You should even include financial aid in your school's budget - which means parents paying the full amount of the cost of education are actually helping other parents in your school. By no means is this "unfair;" in fact, it's based in Scripture: "Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there may be equality. At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: 'He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.'" (2 Corinthians 8:13-15)

Such an approach does two things:

1) It demonstrates transparency and fiscal responsibility to parents, as well as community constituents - including donors. Donors will give to your school if you have a quality program where quality is demonstrable, and you have a handle on your costs and can provide a report that demonstrates outstanding stewardship of the resources which have been entrusted to you.

2) It allows you to fill every desk. If there is an empty desk in a classroom, it doesn't cost you anything more to fill it after the school year has started. So fill it. The parent is then pulled into the financial aid application process for the following year. What happens is quite magical! In a cost-based tuition model, as enrollment goes up, the cost of education can go down. Once that happens, and people find out tuition is declining, waiting lists start to be created. When tuition decreases under a cost-based model, time can be spent discussing enrollment strategies rather than worrying about how much of a tuition increase "we can live with" for the next year.

Here's the real problem: a "tuition by subsidy" mindset does not allow for long-range planning and the compelling vision necessary to present to your parents relative to what kind of educational experience their child will have. A cost-based tuition/need-based aid approach does.

Oh - almost forgot. Have a vehicle to collect your tuition. If you just invoice the family, your priority is at the bottom of their list because they have other bills to pay that have consequences if they miss a payment. Their mindset is that since you're a faith-based school, you'll have to understand their inability to pay! They need to understand your inability to stay open without them accepting the responsibility to pay tuition for their children.

Asset Management affects Development, Enrollment and Retention. Your tuition has to be marketable, and your school office needs to know how to communicate tuition costs to your prospective families. What would you rather hear?

- "Our tuition? It's $5000 a child...yeah, I know it's steep, but we gotta pay the teachers." I would even venture to say that as soon as you said, "$5,000," you'd hear, "OK, Thank you." (click...buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

Or

- "Our tuition? Most of our families apply for and receive financial aid, with the average award being around $2100. That means our average tuition is about $2900 per child with all fees included. Higher amounts of financial aid are awarded since our aid process takes multiple children into consideration. Of course, if you've been blessed to the point that you can afford the full tuition of $5000 per child, that would be a great blessing to share with the school."

Surveying Your Parents About Their "Experience" of Your School

2011-10-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Continuing on from last week, "The Experience" is one of your school's keys to successful student retention - or should I say, parent retention. Remember that the first step to building enrollment is keeping the students you have. While I have not been able to find scholarly research on this piece of data, anecdotal examples in today's Catholic schools show 8th grade enrollment is around 50% of the corresponding Kindergarten cohort. In other words, if you have 29 students in Kindergarten, odds are that by the time that class gets to 8th grade, there will be about 15 students left under "normal" circumstances.

And we are not living in "normal" times.

To jump back to an exercise that was done when this blog was first begun, it is your school's "remarkability" that not only creates but enhances your students' and parents' experience of your school. If there's something that draws parents to your school in order to enroll their children because there's no other school in the local area that can offer this "experience," your retention success may be better than the school that simply says, "We're a better choice than the local public school because we can celebrate our faith." The only time this position can be considered "remarkable" is if you are the only faith-based school within a 25 mile radius of a child's home, or of another faith-based school.

An exercise that will help discover your school's "remarkability" AND give you insight as to how to increase retention through quality experiences is to ask your long-tenured parents.

Ask parents of 8th graders (that have been there since Kindergarten) three questions:
1) Why they have kept their children in your school;
2) On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, rate their experience at your school; and
3) If answer #2 is not a 10, what one thing would the school need to make that answer a 10.

If you're ambitious, do it with parents in 5th through 8th grade. If you're really ambitious, give the survey to those in 3rd grade and up.

Why not grades K through 2? Those parents are still excited about the school, and the learning their children are experiencing. If you're a Catholic school, children are educated about receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist in 2nd grade. It's after that time that parental enthusiasm may start to wane.

But Parents With Young Children Aren't Moving In to My Community

2011-09-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

How many times have we heard about changing demographics, changing economic circumstances and changing attitudes based on experiences. How many times have we heard that all those changes are detrimental to our schools' survival? Here's a newsflash - EVERYTHING changes. If nothing changed, we would become stagnant, and we would die.

Just think of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has no outflow, hoards all the water that comes into it, and has one of the highest saline concentrations of any body of water in the world. Nothing lives in it (okay, something lives it - it can support certain types of bacteria).

The Sea of Galilee is teeming with life, and is always changing. Water flows in, water flows out. Fish thrive.

Think of your own self, too. What would happen if we only had the ability to inhale?

Now, think of your school and the children that flow through them. The more children that flow through our schools, the more life that is in our hallways, the more vibrant our schools are. So if people aren't moving in to our area, how can we get more children in our schools? Here are three ways to increase your school's enrollment: Retention (the "experience"), Marketing ("Baby Steps") and Development (Community events). Once again, this is another example how all aspects of advancement are related. I've put items in parenthesis so these can be discussed a little at a time over the next month.

Retention

There's an old adage in the media business - the first step to build an audience is to keep the audience you have. That's why when you're watching TV or listening to the radio, they tell you what's coming up next. They'll hope you'll like whatever's coming up that you'll stay tuned. Applying this to schools, the first step to build your enrollment is to keep the students you have.

My book on Retention is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/15736706 and it's on sale until the end of the month.

In a nutshell, there are three "top-line" considerations relative to retention:

The "Experience"
Financial aid (one part of Asset Management)
Tuition model (the other part of Asset Management)

The "experience" doesn't deal with the amount of teaching experience your staff has - it has to deal with the type of experience your parents are having relative to their child's learning. If great things are happening with their child - academically, socially, physically, spiritually - their perception is that their child is having a good learning experience. If there is some academic difficulties, but teachers and staff are most helpful in working with the child and the parents in a very caring manner, the parents' perception is that their child is having a good learning experience. If the school moves to control bullying and demonstrates students caring for one another with, for example, a "buddy" system, the parents' perception is that their child is having a good learning experience. Anything that detracts from a good learning experience is a reason to leave! Rising tuition is usually not the main reason that a child is withdrawn from the school; it is usually, however, the deciding factor when parents are considering disenrolling due to negative "experiences." Think about it - are there public school parents that wish they could disenroll their child from the public school because of the negative experience there? You bet!! Yet, what's keeping them there and enrolling them in a Catholic school, or even another private or faith-based school? The perceived high cost of tuition. Notice - I said the "perceived" high cost of tuition. When in a "paying" situation, most customers will not tell you what's wrong - they will vote "with their feet." When people receive something that they think they are not paying for and are dissatisfied with it (such as a public school education), they will complain about it rather than take action to change. Why? Because people fear the unknown, change will mean that more changes will have to happen, and that could be - no, will be - a lot of work.

Just think if you could poll all the parents in the public school system in which your school is located. What if you asked them, "If you are dissatisfied with the education your child is receiving, and you could enroll them in the school of your choice if the tuition was low, would you do so?" What do you think their answer would be? I would hazard to guess the answer would be split.

If parents were in a district with a high amount of low-socioeconomic constituents, I would suggest they would want to leave the public school district, but many would stay (and continue to complain); if parents were in a district with a low amount of low-socioeconomic constituents, I would say they would remain in the public school district (simply because they would think that they can't afford any type of tuition). I believe these answers have nothing to do with the usual reasons one would offer as to why these suggested outcomes would be so.

Since school districts receive funding based on the tax base of the local community, low-socioeconomic communities in large part have little tax base to draw upon to attract and retain highly-qualified teachers, support top-rate athletics and activities that support and enhance classroom learning, and provide the technological infrastructure necessary to train children to compete in the world marketplace of the 21st century. Although some private and faith-based schools in these communities show better academic scores due to, perhaps, smaller class sizes and personalized instruction, these schools face the same challenges as their public school counterparts do. Further, if students would leave the public school, there would be more resources to be expended to benefit the students that remained, and the public school environment could be improved, while the private and faith-based school might continue to languish in their economic difficulties.

Conversely, those in high-socioeconomic environments endure the inconveniences due to well-maintained facilities, excellent extra-curricular activities that may have a reputation of a winning tradition, technology enhanced learning opportunities and special programs such as vo-tech career training. If the local faith-based or private school cannot provide these, chances are students would remain in the public school.

The underlying reason that drives both of these scenarios - schools are not just schools...they're societies, or, more correctly, communities. Once a person is inculcated into a society or a tight-knit community, it is very difficult to choose to opt for one that may have more potential, yet come with responsibilities and expectations. Moving to a faith-based or private school would certainly hold those types of expectations.

Additionally, one would think that since a large exodus from a school would be disastrous, a large influx would be a blessing. That's not necessarily so, as any type of radical change brings about other changes - some that might not be very popular or could be fiscally constrictive. For instance, if a large number of 6th graders suddenly moved from one school to another (because all the parents got together and decided they wanted their kids to go to school together, and if one was going to do it, they would all do it), there would need to be a choice made - a) split the children 14 children up into the 2 existing 6th grade classrooms that had 24 children each - now there will be 31 children in each classroom; b) Hire another 6th grade teacher - but you'd need an additional 4 children or the new teacher hiring would mean a net loss of funds for your school, since there would be 3 classes of 20, 21 and 21 respectively - and you need 22 in each class to make budget; or c) Start a waiting list. However, By telling some of those parents that they would be placed on a waiting list since your maximum class size was 29, you'd run the risk of losing all of them.

There is much debate as to how change should be made - gradually or globally. Gradually runs the risk of "dragging out" the process, but it can be accomplished. The key is knowing that there is a plan for change, and by detailing the step-by-step process that will take place. The plan for the gradual changes must be known up front. For instance, if you want to exercise at a gym three days a week, it easier to have that goal stated, but then go one day per week until it becomes a habit. Then go two, then finally, go three. You might even go four...or five. But also with that change comes the realization that exercise isn't enough. You need to change your diet. And, you may also have to change your activity schedule so that you can shop for the food to prepare the meals that are necessary for your new diet. Therefore, while gradual changes can be good, ALL the known changes necessary for improvement need to be implemented at the same time. The system needs to be put in place. Not doing so gives ample opportunity for failure.

The other driving factor is that there needs to be a vision in place. There has to be a goal toward which one is striving. If not, then change after change year after year can become tedious, and today's parents and guardians will only stand for tedious for so long. Remember, that's part of the "experience" of your educational environment.

The other way to change is by doing all changes at once (also known as chaos theory). By "upsetting the apple cart" and changing everything, there is no option for participation. Everyone has to pull together to make the necessary changes so that the desired goal can be achieved.

Please note the key phrase in that sentence - "the desired goal." This type of change also needs a vision, and, once again, ALL the known changes necessary for improvement need to be implemented at the same time. The system needs to be put in place. Not doing so gives ample opportunity for failure.

It's no mistake that both of the paragraphs describing different ways of enacting change end with the same verbiage. Both methodologies share the same common denominator...a vision. This is why Scripture tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18). If you're just going along from year to year "hoping" that things will get better, that more students will come to your school, and that more donors will contribute, let me know...I'll buy you a padlock for your school's front door.

How do you know if a parents thinks their child is having a good experience of your school? You ask them! We'll cover that next week. And, just so you keep tuning in for the next four weeks to cover this whole topic, here's what we'll be discussing:

October 2: Surveying Your Parents About the "Experience."
October 9: Financial Aid and Your School's Tuition Model
October 16: Marketing (Baby Steps)
October 23: Development (Community Events)

Publication and Placement of Your School's Remarkable Qualities

2011-09-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

Can you guess the two main places where you need to publish your remarkable qualities?

If you said 1) in the local newspaper and 2) in the yellow pages, that would be incorrect.

Although advertising has its place, what we're dealing with is marketing, and advertising is only a part of marketing. That's a whole new topic for another day.

The correct answer is: 1) in your school's brochure, and 2) on your school's Web site.

There are several schools, I'm sure, that are saying, "We have a Web page, and that's all our parish says we need," or "We're working on getting a Web site," or "Web sites are expensive." If that's where your school is right now, make getting a Web site - no, let me re-emphasize that - make getting a functional, attractive, compelling Web site your number one marketing priority...and, you need to make sure that site works on a mobile device. If it's not optimized for an iPad, iPhone, Android or other phone/pad/tablet that will be released in the next couple of years, that's your second expenditure priority.

Parents of young children today do not look to the newspaper to find out about schooling choices - they don't even necessarily go to the Web first. The first thing they do is talk to the neighbors. Positive "Word of Mouth" is the absolute best type of advertising there is when it comes to enrolling children in your school. After the parent hears about your school through positive word of mouth, however, the next place they look for more information is the Web. Today, you MUST have a Web site - a functional, attractive, compelling Web site...and not just a page.

Gone are the days where parents can volunteer to put a Web site up for you - unless they are a professional Web designer. Interestingly, there are many teenagers today that can do html coding and Web design better than many of their parents that "dabbled" in it 5 or so years ago. But there are three things that you need to discuss with a professional, since this is a marketing tool. Let's call them the 3 A's:
1) Architecture,
2) Appearance, and
3) Analytics

Architecture happens before the first piece of code is written, the first template is chosen (since there are "do it yourself" templated sites out there...and some of them are VERY good) or the first link is created. This step is the pen and paper sketch of where you want to direct visitors to your site. Do you want a special place for parents to log in, and keep that separate from where parents of prospective students can visit, or do you want just one top row of navigation choices with several drop down menu levels? Do you know the rule about scrolling? Is your site going to have a lot of text (since it doesn't take up a lot of space) or pictures (professional ones...not ones you take yourself with that digital camera you received as a free gift from your local office supply store).

Appearance deals with "real estate" - what are the most important elements that should be on the front page of your Web site? Where should they be placed. Is there a lot of white space so that the site looks "uncluttered and clean?" Is the font in a size that's easy to read and professional-looking? Even this blogging program only gives the user the choice of 7 fonts - Arial, Courier, Georgia, Helvetica, Times, Trebuchet and Verdana. Why? Because they're the most common publication fonts. If your Web site uses Comic Sans for its main font, you'll probably want to change it. Many professional Web designers cringe when they hear (or see) that a Web site utilizes it, primarily because it was created as a font to emulate what appeared in comic books. (For a sample, visit http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/fonts/comicsns/default.htm.). The thought it that if it's in a comic book, it's not going to be taken seriously...and you want your school to be seriously considered as the educational option for children.

Analytics deals with all the stats about your site. Where did visitors come from? Where did they go after they left your site? Are there certain times they visit during the day than others? These and other metrics are important to evaluate the impact your site is having on parents of prospective children.

Remember that your Web site is a reflection of your school. So if you have flashing banners, rotating crosses (no kidding...I know one school that did), and multiple color pages with twinkling stars, chances are your prospective parents will look for something that they can actually read, without having to wade through glitz in order to find the information they're looking for. If they like what they see, THEN they'll call the school...most probably to arrange a tour. In that respect, your Web site should have a page that allows the parent to submit their demographics as a request for more information. Don't have them call the school unless you can speak to them immediately and set up a date for them to come in for a tour. If you want more information as to why that's important, send me an email at mikez@schooladvancement.com.

Your first page of your Web site should list your school's 3 to 5 remarkable qualities. It's the "hook" that will capture a parent of a prospective student's attention. If their attention is captured by the bells and whistles of your Web site, they'll miss your "remarkability" completely.

The second place these remarkable qualities need to be published is in your school's brochure. I've visited schools that have some great remarkable things happening there, and they are nowhere to be found in the brochure. For some faith-based schools, their brochure does specify, however, that they have excellent academics infused with Gospel values. While that's important, it's not remarkable; it's an expectation...and expectations don't "sell."

Three things about brochures:

1) Make sure they are done on high quality paper. It's easy to throw low quality paper away...and besides, if you don't care enough about your school to put it on the best paper out there, what does that say about your school? You may think that you're frugal, and spend money wisely. However, parents of prospective students equate a low-quality publication with a low-quality school. The reasoning is the same as the Web site rationale. When it comes to making an educational choice, parents want value - high-quality for low cost. If you give them a low-quality publication, and then show them a tuition that exceeds what they think is a "reasonable" cost, you won't get the chance to tell them that financial aid is available (if they qualify).

2) Don't put a picture of your school with an empty parking lot on it, or no children around the school. Your brochure paints a picture for the parents, personifying the vision that you are creating for your school. If you put an empty parking lot on the brochure, and no children around the school, that's exactly what you'll get.

3) Make sure they are correct. One Catholic school I know has a brochure that says something to the effect of, "Our school follows the example of Jesus, our first teacher." According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as the example of Jesus, that information is completely incorrect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that parents are the first teachers of their children. Further, Scripture shows us that Jesus taught the adults; he blessed the children. Even when He was a child, he taught the adults. It is the responsibility of the adult (read, the parent) to teach the children, and, at least for Catholic schools, they support the parent. Teachers should be well-trained, rather than than simply well-meaning people who "want to help." "Help" is a word that has a short-term connotation; "Support" is one that has a long-term connotation.

Now, where should those brochures be placed? If you said in the back of the church (if your school is associated with a church), that is one place where they should be, but it's not the place where they'll have the most impact. Brochures for schools should be placed where mothers of young children "wait" - since they're all members of Generation X and HATE to wait for anything. If they have to wait, they need something to look at, read, do, etc. The mindset of silence for prayer and meditation while waiting is unknown to this generation. So, while you need to teach them to do that, it is most helpful if they're a part of your school community first.

Where do mothers of young children wait, or, "hang out?" Doctors offices...nail and hair salons...checkout lines at the supermarket (although that's changing with self-serve checkout)...and gyms. Take a supply to all your Realtors in the area as well. If parents with children are moving in to your neighborhood, a brochure from the realtor will reinforce the positive word of mouth advertising...at which point they'll go to the Web sooner to check out your school.

What if parents aren't moving into your neighborhood? We'll touch on that next week, which can also add to the "remarkability" of your school.

Prepare Your Marketing Materials

2011-09-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Now that you've determined your three to five traits that make your school remarkable, remember that they must be truly remarkable traits about your school. There are private Christian and Catholic schools that still believe that because they espouse Gospel values that they are remarkable. In this day and age, that may be enough when the enrollment choices are either your school or the local public school.

However, there are many choices today - public, private, parochial, cyber, charter, cyber-charter, and, if NONE of the schools in the area are what the parent believes is the best educational environment for their child, then the choice is home schooling. The case is more obvious, however, if there are three Catholic schools and a Christian school within a four-mile radius of a child's home. Saying that the number one remarkable characteristic about the school is that the curriculum is infused with the message of the Gospel is a moot point - because all four schools can say that - or at least, have the potential to say that. If you build your school on that singular quality, please note that other schools have done the same thing...and are no longer open. Christian values are EXPECTATIONS in a Christian or Catholic-faith based school. That's like buying a car because it can go in reverse and stop when the brakes are applied.

Now - do you still have five remarkable traits? How about this - make sure you have three. Want examples? OK:

- Even though our school is located in one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the city, we have some of the highest standardized testing scores in the county!

- Our jump rope team has started a national trend, has performed at the White House, and two members went to the world championships in England!

- We have a weekly all-school Mass at 1 PM on Friday afternoons, followed by an open-house!

- Our average SAT scores are among the highest in the county!

If you can put an exclamation point after the statement about your school, and mean it, there's a good chance that it's remarkable! Once again, these remarkable traits must be yours and only yours. If someone else is doing it too, you may be perceived as an imitator rather than an innovator.

Next week, we'll get to the two places where these remarkable traits should be published, and then where those publications should be placed.

Enrollment Planning

2011-09-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

You still have time to discern three to five things that make your school remarkable. When you've discovered them, those are the things that you'll emphasize in your marketing materials. We'll discuss those next week, but, as promised, it helps to know that you just can't make a brochure, send it out, and expect parents to show up at your door.

Many school administrators think that the success of marketing is demonstrated by an enrollment increase. That's incorrect.

Marketing success is demonstrated by an increase in the number of inquiries to the school. Capturing them, cultivating them, and turning those inquiries into enrollments is the measure of success in your enrollment program.

When you begin your enrollment planning, you'll want to get a few things lined up and ready to go, such as:

1) An information sheet to get all the demographic data you can about the family (I call that the INFORM(TM) form, which stands for "Information Needed For Our Record Maintenance").

2) A postcard that you can send to your potential families to direct them to your Web site. But don't just say, "Check out our Web site." They might have already "checked out" your Web site since that's how they may have found out about your school in the first place. Every action must be purposeful. On your Web site, have some information about a special event that's coming up, and make a big deal about it on your home page. Have one of these events every month, so that prospective parents can find out about something different that may appeal to them. For instance, September may have an invitation to the opening all-school Mass; October may have a Saints Pageant in preparation for All Saints Day on November 1; November might have a Thanksgiving assembly. You get the idea.

3) Prepare a series of letters to parents - a parent to a parent, a faculty member to the prospective child, a child to a child, an alum (one that has gone on to do successful things) to a parent. Send one of these every other week to the family. You can also send the family a financial aid application. All these things should keep your school "top of mind" of the prospective parent.

SchoolAdvancement.com has prepared a form to record demographic information about your families, and on the back is a tracking sheet to help you track your contact progress with the family. There's also an enrollment estimating tool that is research based which can help your school develop a target enrollment for the coming year. For more information about these tools, send an email to admin@schooladvancement.com.

Have You Determined What Makes Your School Remarkable?

2011-08-28T21:18:00.000-07:00

School is probably in full swing for you right now, or you're getting ready for it to be. Between the preparations and last minute items to get everything set and ready to roll, and this week's pressures that accompany the start of a new year (gotta get those text books covered and have the parents sign the school's handbooks), you've probably not had time to really give serious consideration to the "remarkability" of your school.

Since this weekend coming up is Labor Day weekend, plan on taking some time and writing down those great qualities of your school that you believe makes it a remarkable place to be. Maybe ask your teachers what they think is remarkable about your school. Your staff too. And, it couldn't hurt - and, in fact, would be incredibly beneficial, - to ask some of your parents...primarily those who are supporters (in terms of time, talent and treasure) of your school. Then, distill those ideas down into 3 to 5 that make your school REALLY remarkable.

Remember, items regarding faith-based, academic excellence and safe and caring environment don't count. They're not remarkable - they're expected. Concentrate on those things that set you apart from every other school in your area...things that nobody else does.

But do it this month - you'll take those ideas to help create a marketing plan in order for you to build enrollment. A tool which will let you do that will be discussed next week.

As you can see, in only a few short weeks, we've moved from strategic planning to marketing and will be moving on to enrollment. You can't simply work on one aspect of advancement and then move on to the next when the first one is done. The fact is that it's never done. Advancement is a living system, and what happens in one area (a child is disenrolled) affects another (tuition may rise, a future alum is lost, a parent is disenfranchised). The fruits of advancement are reaped by those with the patience to plan their work and work their plan, and persevere during the most difficult times.

What Makes Your School Remarkable?

2011-08-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

Now that you know what your school's strengths are, the next step is marketing them to the community. While that may sound simple, that can be a very difficult statement to fully comprehend. There are two things that must be considered:

1) There are at least several (and sometimes many) communities within your local community, and developing one message and then distributing it to all of your communities is not necessarily the best method to accomplish your objectives; and

2) You need to examine, and not just determine, your strengths before creating a marketing plan.

Let's start with the second first. Are your strengths "typical?" For instance, if you're a faith-based school, does your school offer:
- Faith-based values allowing the formation of the entire person?
- Small class sizes to promote personalized learning which result in higher academic performance? and
- A safe and caring community to nurture each person as an individual?

If so, then your school is NOT remarkable, since almost every faith-based school can say the same thing. While these are excellent qualities, they are expectations. Expectations won't bring parents to your door and only your door. It will bring them to your door as well as to the doors of other faith-based schools that are in their area. In this respect, a faith-based school's greatest competition is not necessarily the local public school.

If two or more faith-based schools have the same "big 3" strengths, then the winner will usually be the one that has the lowest tuition - and price is something that you don't even want to get into with a marketing mindset. That has to be saved for the enrollment process.

So, while you're keeping these thoughts in mind (we'll return to them later), think of the strengths that make your school, "your school!" What makes it a remarkable place to be, to learn, to grow? If you don't know, take some time to find out by really revisiting your strengths again. It could be mean the difference between being able to create a strategic five-year plan versus a closure ceremony in the near future.

Now let's take a look at those communities you need to market your school to. There are at least four different communities you must market to:
1) Prospective Parents - your target market. They want to know the remarkable things about your school. Get them emotionally involved so that they will know your school is the best educational choice for their child. The goal of effective marketing to this audience is to increase enrollment, right? Wrong. Effective marketing to your target audience increases the number of parent inquiries to your school.
2) Current Parents - your current market. These are the people you want to keep involved with your school so that they become vital members of the school community. These are the folks that want and need to know everything that's going on with your school. Do your prospective parents need to know that you have three fundraisers this month? No - you might scare them away. Your prospective parents need to know that type of information
3) Alumni and Parents of Alumni - these are your main development targets. Share your successes with them. Again, don't tell these folks you have fundraisers coming up; share that two of your students were selected to represent your school at an event in Washington, DC.
4) The community at large - because the community needs to be aware that you are located there and a vibrant part of the local community. Publicity in the newspaper, billboards on the streets, service activities from the student body to clean up elderly residents' yards during the Fall. These don't increase enrollment, but if you'd like development support from the community, your school needs to act like it's a vital part of the community, and not just ask for stuff from the community all the time.

Make your school known in the community as a remarkable place to be.

Lead With Your Strengths

2011-08-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Now that you're aware of your school's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it's time to pick a direction. Realizing that opportunities and threats are external to your school, it's always best to focus on the things your can deal with - the internal aspects, which are strengths and weaknesses. It's best to start with those things that you've identified as positive attributes about your school.

But let's talk about "you" for a moment. There are several books on "Strength Finding" on the market. One of the most telling for education professionals is "Teach With Your Strengths." The book is a quick read, since most of the book describes the attributes of each particular strength. After reading the first few chapters, the book directs you to an online Web site to help determine your top five strengths.

Just like playing Bridge, you lead with your strong suit, even though you may have to incorporate other aspects into your plans.

For instance, I always thought that one of my strengths was organization. I tried my best to always be organized so I knew where things were, could reference them quickly, and keep things tidy. While that's important, I found out it was not one of my five greatest strengths, which explained why I had to keep working at it.

Strengths are something that you're already good at. One of my identified strengths is "Connectedness." This pertains to getting people together, establishing cooperative projects, networking and certainly has application to communicating via the Internet. When I was an an advancement position, this was a great strength to lead with - allowing me to leave the "organization" aspects to someone who's good at that.

Once you've found your strengths, consider the strengths of your school. Are they congruent? If so, you're in an excellent position to "identify" with your school. As a leader of the school, you will become synonymous with the school...which is why there is so much "shakeup" when leadership changes.

After you've found your strengths, and know the strengths of your school, you can begin to create a marketing plan for your school to capitalize on those strengths. More about that next week. Until then, visit http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Teach-with-Your-Strengths/Rosanne-Liesveld/e/9781595620064/?itm=1 and get your copy of "Teach With Your Strengths." It can be a transformative experience for you...and your school.

Refine Your SWOT or TOWS Analysis

2011-08-07T20:52:00.000-07:00

Last week, I mentioned the importance of having a SWOT or TOWS analysis. Have you done one for your school yet? Maybe not - summer vacations and all, or maybe school started for you last week, and you're just getting things going for the current school year. If that's the case, then set some time aside to "think" instead of just "do." It could also be an exercise in creativity, since one of the ways to develop a creative solution is to move completely away from what you're focused on at the present time.

Now, once you've identified your school's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and placed them within a SWOT Matrix Framework, typical strategic planning procedure says to create solutions to your situations.

However, that's jumping the gun at this point. Take time this week to refine your SWOT. Go through it - add, delete, flesh it out with some explanation and create narrative to describe the bullet points. Jot down resources that may be tapped to help take advantage of the opportunities.

Once you go through it, go through it again. Your goal is to create a narrative report for your first parent/board meeting in September relative to "The State of Your School." Then, at that meeting, announce that at the next meeting, you want to provide a vision as to where the school needs to go. Request input from them as to where they would like the school to be in five years.

You may not want to present such a report to the board or to parents, but they need to be engaged in the mission and vision of the school in order to support it. If you are just wanting parents to drop their children off every day, pay their tuition, and become involved in fundraising, it's not going to happen. Parents today need to see results, and schools need to publish those results. That's the task of marketing - but we're not there yet.

All in due time.

Until then, follow these five steps:
- Pray
- Listen
- Reflect
- Refine
- Repeat As Necessary

Where Are You Now? Where Do You Want To Be? How Will You Get There?

2011-08-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

These are the three steps to the strategic planning process. This week, take some time - maybe an evening - and think about where your school is right now, at this point in history. Why are you a leader in the school at this point in history...perhaps a development director, perhaps a principal. You are in this position right now for a particular purpose...and whether you believe it or not, you are in this position for a reason that is far beyond human rationalization. Examine the strengths of your school. Write them down. One always leads with their strengths.

Finding your strengths is the first of four things you must discover, including threats, opportunities and weaknesses that affect your school. Most strategic planning texts call this a SWOT analysis. Some work in the opposite direction (TOWS) because it's easier to focus on the things that are wrong with what's going on. If that works for you, that's great. Just write all those things down.

Remember that strengths and weaknesses are internal forces; opportunities and threats are external. Internal items are things that you, as the leader, have control over; external items are things that you, as the leader, have little or no control over.

To help you work through the framework, click http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/ for a little more reading before you begin.

The most important thing, however, is to begin. The first step is the beginning of the journey. Change will never occur unless the first step is taken.

I must add something before next week, however, based on some comments I've received. Note that the title of this posting is "Where Are You Now? Where Do You Want To Be? How Will You Get There?" Perhaps a better title is "Where Is Your School Now? "Where Do You Want It To Be? How Will You Get It There?" "Where Do You Want It To Be" might be answered as, "I would like my school to be in a more visible location," or, "I would like my school to be in a newer building which is wired for technology." That's taking "where" in the very literal sense, rather than assessing the overall effectiveness of the school. However, if that's what you really believe would be best for your school's survival, then the next step is to plan how that vision will become reality. If you are the leader of the school, your key responsibility is vision. Proverbs 29:18 tells us, "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

Another comment was that most strategic planners end the second phrase with the word, "Go." I changed the last word of that phrase to "Be." Although the word "go" implies action (which is usually a positive thing), the word "be" implies existence. As a leader of a school, it would make sense that you want your school to still exist 5 or 10 years down the road. Several principals I've spoken to over the years shared the fact that when they were hired, their pastors told them, "You either grow the school, or close the school." There aren't many that choose the latter - or, at least, are aware of choosing to close the school. Some decisions that some leaders make, however, point the school in that direction, which is why "vision" is necessary. Schools should choose to "be" in five years rather than "go" somewhere. The word "be" generates an endpoint (which can change over time).

It also differentiates the second statement from the third (How will you get there?). When someone says, "Where to you want to go?" the path, the journey, the route, is implied to be a part of that statement since it is action-oriented. Utilizing this phrase could cause contradictory statements to be generated between the vision and the plan to get there. Using the word "be" for the second statement establishes the aforementioned endpoint. It should be as vividly described as the starting point. The more vividly the vision is articulated, the easier it will be to map the journey.

As for why I said "you" rather than "the school" is two-fold. First, we know that we must love ourselves first before we can love another. Similarly, before we can effectively lead a strategic planning process for the school we lead, we must also think about such a process personally. Where do you - personally - what to "be" in five years? Is it still as the leader of this school? Or are your aspirations higher? Maybe you want to be the principal at your school for three years and then begin to seek a superintendency. If that's the case, then developing a six-year strategic plan means that you should have two plans for the school - one that is three-years in the making, and another that is six-years long.

Why? Because if you're working toward your personal plan and leave in three years, you can bet that the new leader will not follow a strategic plan for the school from the previous leader - especially if the results generated did not meet the benchmarks that were established for successful assessment. Such a change throws the community of the school into chaos for a while, which takes some time to settle (usually until a new plan is established). Therefore, before you can decide the three strategic components for the school, you must decide the three strategic components as they apply to you as the leader within this school community.

Second, the leader, over time, becomes synonymous with the school to all constituencies involved - students, parents, community leaders, business leaders, alumni, parishioners and donors. Good leaders prepare for the continued success of the organizations which they lead. So, perhaps a personal strategic planning session is necessary first, examining your personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It would be a good first step to preparing a strategic plan for your school or your school's advancement efforts. Sometimes, that's even harder to do that preparing a plan for your school since it involves introspection...and prayer.

Before you dismiss this as something that sounds nice, but addresses nothing about enrollment decreases, increasing financial hardships of parents and all the things that all the other schools have that makes parents enroll their children someplace else, consider this. You are the leader of a faith-based school. Your skills and talents have not only been reviewed and approved by the board, the pastor, and other individuals that were sought for counsel. That's only two elements of approval. You must also believe that this is where God wants you to be at this point in history. You are fulfilling a key role in ministering to the parents of the school, since they are the primary educators of their children. What is taught in your school needs to be reinforced at home. If you're looking for a "strength" in you SWOT analysis, that's an eye-opening one.

The Advancement Director's Schedule

2011-07-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

With college students meeting with advisors to plan their fall semesters, I thought this would be a good time to work on your work schedule as an advancement director, giving you a daily plan to work through. Remember that advancement is a system - you can't just focus on marketing, then move to enrollment once all the marketing's been done, then move to development once all the enrollment's been done. That's linear thinking, and it's one reason why many plans fail, since progress or regression in one area will have an effect in another. All of the elements of advancement (Development, Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing) are in play all the time, so if you're responsible for all those things, that's a lot of balls you have to juggle...and don't let any of them drop.

Even if you're not in charge of finance (or asset management), you still have to work with that person, since tuition and financial aid play a role in the success of advancement. I remember speaking with a school, and sharing my framework with them when I was being considered for an advancement position there. They said that I wouldn't have to worry about asset management since they had a finance director who took care of those things. While you may not be directly responsible for successful tuition collection and financial aid allocation, it is important to be aware of these matters, since both can have a significant impact on enrollment and retention.

So here's your proposed schedule. Mind you, you may have to work evenings and weekends on a specific task (like working with an alum at a sporting event to set the stage for a major gift, or coordinating a gala dinner/auction event and emceeing the evening's festivities), but on a typical Monday through Friday, why not break your schedule down like this:

7:30 - 9:00 Element 1

9:00- 10:30 Element 2

10:30 - 11:00 BREAK

11:00 - 12:30 Element 3

12:30 - 2:00 LUNCH

2:00 - 3:30 Element 4

3:30- 5:00 Element 5

While contiguously, that's a 9.5 hour day, it allows for 7.5 of work...and your lunch may be shorter than an hour and a half, or could be a "working lunch." Also, feel free to rearrange your schedule as your day dictates. You might have to drive an hour to meet with a potential donor for an hour...and that's fine. And you're always going to have some type of on-site meeting happen. This, however, gives you a framework to maintain to keep the "systemicism" of advancement top of mind.

Note that the schedule also does not say Enrollment or Development at a particular time of day. You customize it based on your needs. With that in mind, here's an example of what a Monday and Tuesday could look like:

MONDAY -

7:30 - 9:00 Development

9:00- 10:30 Retention

10:30 - 11:00 BREAK (Get some tea and return office phone calls)

11:00 - 12:30 Marketing

12:30 - 2:00 LUNCH (meet with Diocesan Development Director)

2:00 - 3:30 Enrollment

3:30- 5:00 Asset Management

TUESDAY

7:30 - 9:00 Asset Management (continued from yesterday)

9:00- 10:30 Enrollment

10:30 - 12:00 Marketing - meeting with committee

12:00 - 1:30 LUNCH

1:30 - 3:00 Development

3:00- 4:30 Retention

4:30 - 5:00 BREAK (actually, go home early to attend child's music recital)

Keep your meetings during the workday to an hour and a half maximum to manage your time and respect the time of the people you're meeting with. You might also double up time periods during one day of the week for a lengthy project, but just make sure you don't ignore the Advancement Aspect that you put aside to create a three-hour long block of time.

One last thing - don't give up your break. You may find that rather than a half hour break, you'd like two 15 minute respites, creating something like this:

7:30 - 9:00 Element 1

9:00- 10:30 Element 2

10:30 - 10:45 BREAK

10:45 - 12:15 Element 3

12:15 - 1:45 LUNCH

1:45 - 3:15 Element 4

3:15 - 3:30 BREAK

3:30- 5:00 Element 5

Every child in your school has a schedule, and they are learning every day. Perhaps the reason we may find Advancement overwhelming is that we don't have the same discipline that our kids do. Even Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 18:3) . Granted, the context is completely different, but the average "life-expectancy" of a development director or an advancement director is 18 months. That doesn't bode well for an institution, since it takes 3 to 5 years for Development to have a major impact - EVEN after a change in Advancement leadership! Why? Because when the Advancement Director leaves, all the relationships go with them, and the new person must begin relationship building all over again.

If we want advancement to be a rewarding experience, we have to be open to potential, plant seeds and nurture them, prepare to cultivate them, and be prepared to be amazed since our God is a God of surprise,.

Maintain a disciplined approach to ensure that "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Required Summer Reading

2011-07-16T21:13:00.000-07:00

Since we've just ended another cycle of the five aspects of advancement, here's something a little different as we hit the midpoint of summer.

Most schools give their students a required summer reading assignment. Because we want our students to become life-long learners, we have to lead by example. If they have a summer reading assignment, so do you.

Here are some resources that I've gathered over the past few years. Pick one and read it. I should say that I've never enjoyed reading (except reading about music and reading music - my teachers always wanted me to read the newspapers to become informed about events in the world, which only served to depress the heck out of me. After speaking with students today, I've found it has the same effect on them), but these are texts which are inspiring.

While The Bible is the source of much inspiration, if you read a chapter a day, it would take you about 3 years and 3 months to complete it (or, you could read 3 or 4 chapters a day and complete it in a year). These books, however, should take you only a couple of days to a few weeks to complete. Just pick one - get it - and give yourself the goal to finish it before the new school year begins. You can find them in your local Barnes and Noble or Borders Bookstore or online at Amazon.com. You can even get used copies for much less than new ones, so nothing's going to break the bank here either.

What Customers Really Want: How to Bridge the Gap Between What Your Organization Offers and What Your Clients Crave by Scott McKain - Think students are your customers? Think again. Parents are. Why is your enrollment declining? Because the tuition is too high, right? Think again. Perhaps your parents aren't perceiving value, and aren't being treated the way they want to be treated. The average per student tuition is around $3,500 in many faith-based elementary schools. When you consider that a "major gift" in development circles is anything over $2,500, it's not enough just to send your parents a bill.

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek - Starting with WHY works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don't do so because they have to; they follow because they want to.

Teach With Your Strengths: How Great Teachers Inspire Their Students by Rosanne Liesveld, Jo Ann Miller and Jennifer Robinson - Think you're good at something? You might be, but it might not be one of your five top strengths. Focus on using these strengths, and great results will follow.

Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow by Karen Casey - As a culture, we fight change. But it's the only other thing that's inevitable after death and taxes. So many schools see things changing (declining enrollment, increasing tuition), and wonder what they can do about it. If what your doing doesn't bring positive results, then you have to change. And it starts with your mind.

The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey - We live in a commodity-oriented, fast-paced world. If we can't equate our "brand" with value, we lose. If we can't create our "brand," we lose. What holds it all together? Trust. Once trust is lost, it can be almost impossible to get it back since it must be earned.

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath - What's the key to an idea that "sticks?" The answer lies in SUCCESs.

The Little Black Book of Connections by Jeffrey Gitomer - Connections are important to success today. It's not only who you know, it's who knows you. If nobody knows about you or your school, chances are your enrollment efforts aren't successful and your development efforts are lackluster. From an alumni perspective, it's not only who knows you, but who you will know. Make those connections now - social networking on the Internet is one aspect of it. An online presence is critical today.

Good to Great by Jim Collins - How good companies (from his previous book, Built to Last) became great ones. Apply these principles to your school. A great exercise in leadership, especially realizing the power of The Hedgehog Principle.

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins - How great companies lose sight of their core business and die. An examination of what happens when leadership changes (and leadership is constantly changing in our schools - from principals and superintendents to pastors and bishops).

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn - Believe it or not, Jesus talks about money in the Scriptures more than He talks about heaven. It's how we use not only the talents, but the time and the treasure that are given to us which will determine how we'll get to heaven.

Tribes by Seth Godin - An interesting examination of societies, and how we're connected.

The Dip by Seth Godin - In any great endeavor, there is always a "dip" - that period where things seem darkest right before they takeoff and turn into something wildly successful. It's just that we don't know how long the dip will last if we keep working at it - which is why people throw in the towel at the most inopportune moment.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin - Wouldn't it be a remarkable thing to drive past a field of grazing cows, and see one that's purple? You might even stop the car, grab your cellphone and take a picture of it, to show that you weren't hallucinating. If you want people to stop what they're doing and take a closer look at your school, your school must be remarkable, distinguishing it from other schools around it. Is it?

Strategic Alliances: Three Ways to Make Them Work by Steve Steinhilber - Written by the Director of Strategic Alliances for Cisco, Inc., partnerships are created today since not everyone can do everything excellently today since there's so much that needs to be done and done well. A nice followup to Good to Great (listed above) that speaks to being "Best in the world" at what you do.

Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment - by your truly! Get your copy (at a special price for the summer) at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/15736706.

Next week, we'll take a look at a framework you can use to make Advancement work for you. Since you're familiar with a student's schedule in your school, you'll like this - a lot.

Share Ideas

2011-07-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

This week's entry completes another round of the five aspects of Advancement, focusing on Development. It's an easy one - share ideas. Don't keep trying to reinvent the wheel. One of the ways you can do that with development directors across the country is to join the SchoolAdvancement LinkedIn Group. You need to be a member of LinkedIn first. Join for free at www.linkedin.com. Click http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3967507 to check it out and join in the conversation.

If you know or are in touch with other development directors, get them to join as well. As you know, all the money in the world won't help your school unless you have students in them. Similarly, even though many of SchoolAdvancement's tools and articles are offered free of charge, if no one signs up and no one shares, we all have to work that much harder for fewer and fewer returns.

If you're feeling ambitious, attend other events that non-profits put on. This summer, Relay for Life events are taking place across the country. In my local area, for instance, my wife and I have attended several dinners to benefit childcare programs. Not only are you helping worthwhile causes with your treasure, you're gaining valuable insights as to what you can do to help your school.

What happens with those ideas? Two years ago, we were blessed to be able to begin a fund to help a cause that we believe in - and guess what? Others have become excited about it, and are joining in raising funds to help! Last year, in its first year, we set a goal to raise $10,000. We topped $12,500...all during a time when unemployment and the unstable economy makes the headlines. What is our fund designed to do? Help children whose parents have been affected by these economic conditions participate in music education programs.

People of the community became excited about what we were doing. Reporters came to our events. Stories about them were published in local newspapers and community magazines. Even though those newspapers are local, they're part of a larger community network, and people from two school districts away have asked how we got started so they could possibly start the same kind of fund. Today's social media tools have helped to support the power of a good idea in ways that have never happened before. Share them - and change the world.

BASICS - A Tool to Help Increase Enrollment

2011-07-03T12:52:00.001-07:00

This week, we focus on the "E" aspect of DREAM - enrollment. In more and more of the schools I speak with and read about, many say that it all comes down to money. At this time of year, schools are wrapping up the previous fiscal year, and are finding they have uncollected tuition, or expenses have surpassed the income they projected for this year.

Not every school.

A couple of years ago at this time, I received an email from one school I worked with that said they finally finished the school year in the black. What's outstanding about this is that they did this for the first time in many years, AND they did it in a year where economic conditions were the worst this nation has seen in a long time.

They have an enrollment system, a tuition management system, they make sure their parent and child experience is an exceptional one, market their school to their community, and have a development program in place. Not only has it cultivated major gifts, but they're moving into planned giving! But more about that next week.

The point is that it's not all about the money. Many schools are finding out that it's all about the enrollment (actually, it's all about all five of the aspects of advancement, but let's let enrollment shine here this week).

So here's a little quiz: As a school administrator, if someone asked, "What would you rather have...10 more children, or $10,000?" what would your response be?

I would suggest that 10 more children be the preferred answer. First, it fulfills the mission of the school, to spread the Good News to all the world. Second, the $10,000 would, in most cases, go towards balancing the budget, which means no real significant improvement in the financial situation of the school. Third, if your school tuition is $3,500 per child, 10 children that could pay an average of $1000 each is $10,000. Some may not be able to afford that, but some may be able to pay more.

Chances are that if you have ten parents that want their children to come your school, you could say to them, "Our tuition is $3500 for the first child..." etc. But, if you say, "Our announced tuition is $3500 per child, but the average tuition is $2200 per child because of scholarships and financial aid. Over a 10 month period, that comes to $220 a month - some of our parents pay more depending on their blessings, but some pay less than that too."

If you'd like a free tool to help plan for your enrollment success, visit http://www.schooladvancement.com, then look in the left navigation panel for "ENROLLMENT", and visit the link to complete the inquiry panel for access to these resources.

Gather Current Families Together to Help Stop Mid-Summer Melt

2011-06-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

This week's strategy focuses on retention, which is important during the summer.

High temperatures make lots of cold treats like ice cream and popsicles melt. Enrollment is no different. Most school administrators hold their breath, hoping that those families that said they'd be coming back show up on the first day of school.

How do you make sure that happens? You have to keep in contact with them during the summer.

Now if your school is completely shut down during July, just ignore this suggestion. In fact, plan on losing students. Your shut down is practice for the permanent shut down that has a good chance of occurring.

However, consider gathering everyone back to school for a movie and ice cream - a creative tie-in for stopping enrollment "melt." Maybe show a family friendly movie, and since you're not going to charge anything for attending, you're not breaking any laws as long as you own the video. Perhaps a local business can donate the ice cream. Somewhere around the middle to end of July is a good time, or even the beginning of August for those schools that begin later in the month.

But when should you hold it? Local communities sponsor events on Sunday afternoons. Kids have baseball games throughout the week and on Saturdays. If you've never done it before, pick a day, send an invitation to your families, and stick to it. The point is to keep your families together - not invite the community, business supporters, and donors. This is a family thing. In tough times, families have to stick together. Communities also have to stick together. Your school is a community that needs to stick together.

As for the invitation, it would help if you had every family's email address, so there doesn't have to be a special paper invitation created, printed, mailed and then hope for people to respond. Email is immediate, and you can expect an immediate response.

If you don't want to do the movie and ice cream event, and have the ability to spend some $$$ on postage and little something, create a note to all of your parents, and include a pack of gum with sticks of gum (not those press-out tablet varieties). At a $1 to $2 a pack, such a mailing will cost several hundred dollars, but you can convey the message that it's important to "stick" together, giving your families something to "chew on" over the summer months.

The fact is that you need to do something to keep in touch with your families AND keep your families together over the summer. Think of it as shepherding. The shepherd's job is to keep the flock together and moving in the correct direction. What happens if the shepherd takes a nap for, oh, say, a couple of months?

Allocating Financial Aid Without Having Financial Aid Funds

2011-06-19T14:30:00.000-07:00

Last week we looked at a marketing strategy; this week, we examine an asset management strategy. At first glance at the title of this post, you're probably thinking this is some type of scheme that, on a grand scale, may have caused the collapse of Wall Street and our banking system. You have to remember that greed and irresponsibility were at the root of those failures. We have a responsibility to be good stewards of the gifts entrusted to us - and one of those gifts is creativity.

Just because you don't have financial aid funds is no reason to say, "We don't have any more financial aid to allocate." That's not going to increase your enrollment, and will create extremely negative word of mouth marketing.

To be clear, this is a very important, useful and wise strategy to learn. Those who learn it will succeed. Those who don't will have to face the potential consequence of closure. Indeed, that is how important this strategy is.

When schools I worked with had some financial aid funds to allocate, they could do so either one student at a time, or wait until a large group of students had applied. That's why everyone applied early, since funds were awarded on a first come, first served basis, according to need. When aid funds ran out, principals said they no longer had aid, which made parents turn away.

When you reach this point, you can no longer allocate to one student at a time. You must wait until several applicants to the school are being considered for enrollment (which is why it's important to keep that enrollment pipeline filled!). Then, you can determine the need of each student (through a third-party objective assessment service) and find out what parents say they are able to pay.

The best demonstration is through an example, so let's say that your tuition is $3000 and you "have no financial aid funds left." However, you only have $10,000 to go to make budget. There are six students that have applied for aid:
3 are from one family have $1000 of calculated need for each child.
1 is from one family that has 0 need.
The two other children need $500 each.

If you were looking at each family individually, you would be able to accept the one child that had 0 need, but turn the other 5 away.

If you shift your focus to what a family can actually pay for the student, rather than what they need, you might find you could offer quite a bit of aid.
- The family with 0 need says they can indeed pay $3000.
- The family with $500 calculated need for each family says they can pay only $2400 for each child (and note that's still $100 less than what their calculated need is).
- The family with 3 children say they can pay no more than $1000 each (even though that's $1500 less per child than their calculated need).

With me so far?

Even though you "don't have financial aid funds to allocate, you could award:
- $100 in aid to the family that had 0 need (just because you really want to enroll this child);
- $600 in aid for each of the children that had $500 in need (which is what the family said they could pay); and
- $2000 to each of the children in the family of three (also meeting what the family said they could pay).

If you do that, you'd be collecting $2900, $2400, $2400, $1000, $1000 and $1000, which totals $10,700. You will have met your budgetary need of $10,000, have $700 in extra income (perhaps for additional aid for another family), and have not only met but exceeded the need of each of the families you're working with here, creating a win-win-win situation.

The result - you've awarded $7300 in financial aid without having $7300 on hand to award!

Remember, the only thing that increases in a recession is innovation. All you need is a little creativity, and a little inspiration. Also remember that "inspire" means to "breathe in." When we can take some time and breathe, rather than be rushed to come to a conclusion, we can count on the Holy Spirit to provide the wisdom, knowledge, fortitude, courage, and understanding to deal with the situation. Take a little piety and awe to ask for such resourcefulness in prayer, and to thank Him for all His gifts.

Stay Open!

2011-06-13T02:20:00.000-07:00

This week's entry starts another round of the five aspects of advancement - development, retention, enrollment, asset management and marketing. It's easy to remember the DREAM acronym those five items create.

Since summer is here for many schools, let's start off with marketing. How do we market our schools over the summer? For most of us, the answer is "badly." There was a phrase I heard 20 or so years ago when I was in the radio industry - "If a shark stops swimming, it dies." With that in mind, does your school "close" during the summer? Does it shut down in July so that everyone has four weeks to themselves before ramping it back up in August again? If so, you could be losing potential parents that are moving into your area.

Don't think that people are moving in? In difficult economic times, some parents may have to move in with their parents in order to weather the storm - yet they still want their children to go to a Catholic school. If you're closed, you'll miss their phone call and request for more information. Also in these economic times, companies are transferring people to other cities. Company transfers are done during the summer to coincide with fiscal years that begin in July, and to not disrupt children in school. If you're closed, you'll miss their phone call and request for more information.

Your school can even offer special July seminars in computer applications to students and parents - four sessions - Word on Tuesdays, Excel on Wednesdays, Powerpoint on Thursdays. This can even generate some extra income for you!

If your school is looking to increase enrollment in order to remain open, then staying open during the summer will help you, um, well...stay open.

And on the Seventh Day...

2011-06-05T17:03:00.001-07:00

Since we've completed another round of the five aspects of advancement last week, and since many schools have completed another school year, take time to rest.

You need to.

Rest recharges your batteries, takes your mind off work, it lets you focus on your family, and it, interestingly, makes the opportunity for creativity to flower.

Did you ever notice that you get some of your best ideas in the shower in the morning? How about right before you fall asleep at night? That's because your mind isn't focused on the task at hand, multi-tasking or stressing out over either of those, and your subconscious is free to throw creative ideas out before the conscious mind kicks in and goes, "But you don't have time for that now..."

So take a well deserved rest (if you're still in school, take this advice to heart in the coming weeks. After all, more ways to work advancement through its five aspects will start again next week!

It's Cheaper to Reinforce a Brand Than Create a New One

2011-05-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

This week's post rounds out another group of five of the DREAM elements (Development, Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing). I've decided to touch on this aspect of branding because many Dioceses across the country are merging schools, as well as because of what happened in the auto industry in our country.

On June 1, 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection. In their restructuring, GM's name plates were reduced to four - Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC - Chevrolet as the value leader, Cadillac for the luxury class, and Buick for those who have attained a status higher than Chevy but can't afford a Caddy. Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac and Saab were jettisoned just like Oldsmobile was a few years ago. If you would have asked me what should have been kept, I would have said Chevrolet, Cadillac, Saturn and Hummer. Combine Chevrolet's and Pontiac's models into Chevy (so we can have more sportiness in the value line), Buick and Cadillac into Cadillac (so we can have an entry level Caddy), Saturn as the experimental branch it was designed to be (because you know the four nameplates they're keeping aren't going to be innovative) and GMC and Hummer into Hummer (because what would you rather say you owned - a GMC or a Hummer? AND Chevy has a well-recognized truck line too!). I'd eliminate marketing departments, but many of the factories would stay open since all the models would still be produced - albeit at reduced capacity. But as the title of this this post suggests, GM is capitaled on its most successful brands, and getting rid of the loss leaders.

Now, think of what we do when we merge Holy Family, Holy Rosary and St. Bede's schools. Will we call it Holy Family Rosary Bede's? Although I could think of a great logo and marketing materials for the school, it's more than likely we'll name it something completely different - Like St. Maria Faustina Kowalska - to reflect one of our newer Saints. We're more apt to choose a brand new name than to keep one of the three names and suppress the other two for fear of upsetting the members of the other two parishes and the alumni of their schools.

From a marketing perspective, although the new name presents new and exciting challenges, the "brand" of the three merging schools is lost - as is the association of the name of the school with the alumni that graduated from it. Individuals that graduated from Holy Rosary aren't going to recognize a contribution request from St. Maria Faustina Kowalska unless they've been kept up to date on the changes that have happened, the process that went into choosing a new name, and the events that surround the opening of the new school, since it IS a brand new school. After all, it IS a new "brand," and must be marketed as such (hence the name, "brand new.")

In my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, three public school districts - Castle Shannon, Greentree and Dormont, decided to merge for the same reasons that many of our parochial schools have merged into regional schools. It's one of the only school districts I know that have three distinct, non-contiguous areas, and their high school sits in a completely different school district. Area residents were asked to submit names for the new district - and the winning suggestion was Keystone Oaks - "Key" for door in Dormont, "Stone" for the castle in Castle Shannon, and "Oaks" for the tree in Greentree. If such a story can be communicated with constituencies when merging Catholic schools into a new school, emphasizing its remarkable qualities and capitalizing on its achievements, a new brand can become as well-known as the previous schools' brands and reputations were.

But be prepared to spend some dollars to build awareness. If there are no awareness-building dollars to spend, then reinforce the strongest current brand, and allow significant time for the community to grieve and come to grips with the closure of their school.

Remember, too, that schools "anchor" parishes. In these days of consolidation, there have been very few instances of where parishes with schools have been closed. When a school closes, it sets up a parish for potential merger, or even closure, since the unspoken perception is that there are not enough children there to sustain the life of the parish.

Ask...Even in a Recession...and Feel Good About It!

2011-05-22T10:43:00.001-07:00

This week's emphasis is on the "D" for Development as we go through another round of DREAM aspects of Advancement.

I'll bet you never thought that Development work helps people get to heaven.

If you watch the news, you see stories about failing businesses, increasing unemployment, war strategies in Afghanistan and Libya, nuclear concerns in Iran, terrorism in Pakistan, and the death of Osama Bin Laden. We're all drawn to the news - just like slowing down on the interstate highway to take a good look at the wreck in the opposite lane. The problem is that we focus on the problems. Hopefully we say a prayer for those involved in the accident; hopefully we pray for the unemployed, those in harms way, and those who cause all this grief in the first place so that the Lord will touch their hearts and change them.

Lots of this preoccupation with depressing news then spills over into our own lives, making us assume that everyone is deeply and adversely affected by the depressed global economy.

But they're not.

Yes, giving levels are down, and people are looking to cut costs, but we, as people that are involved in doing great things, still have to ASK, and now, do MORE asking.

For instance - having two children in college puts costs at the top of the "things on our family's mind" list. However, we've had some great blessings financially allowing us to be a little more generous than last year. We received the regular appeal letter from our church, which said, "We realize that these are difficult times, but if you've been blessed, please consider giving a little more than last year so that we may continue the necessary work of our mission." Indeed, we gave a little more.

But no one gave us a phone call to ask to speak with us about increasing the amount we give. I don't condone asking people for specific amounts (since you shoot yourself in the foot either way - you could ask for too much and be laughed at or ask for too little and be told they could have given more), but I do advocate a personal ask over a written ask if you really want to increase gifting amounts. When I ask, I ask people to "prayerfully discern" their gift, since it is something that is between them and their conscience, which is the voice of God, the giver of all good gifts.

In doing so, know that you are ministering to those that have been blessed with material resources. Might I recommend a small book called "The Treasure Principle" by Randy Alcorn. ($8.19 at http://www.christianbook.com/the-treasure-principle-randy-alcorn/9781590525081/pd/525080/1073725783?event=1010SBF5877601010 or $9.99 at http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Principle-Unlocking-Secret-LifeChange/dp/1590525086/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274667827&sr=1-1) The main point is that our salvation is based on how well we share the gifts we've been given. As development/advancement professionals, we're helping people to do that, making this a truly joyful ministry.

Now read the second line of this post again...and feel good about asking.

Retain New Families by Assigning Them a Mentor Family

2011-05-15T19:16:00.001-07:00

We all know the drill all too well - parents show interest in your school, pay their non-refundable registration fee, and then their child doesn't show up for the first day of school. How can you ensure those families maintain enthusiasm for your school over the summer? Moreover, how do you keep families currently enrolled in your school from bailing over the summer?

Here's a way to do both and retain more families - assign current parents in your school the role of ambassador to a new family. Their job is to be a mentor to the new family, preparing them for what to expect throughout the summer and throughout the year.

If family has a task to mentor a family, it will make them less likely to leave. It will also make the new family less likely to leave since they know someone at the school who can introduce them to other members of the school community.

While you can develop some kind of training for potential mentor families, perhaps the best strategy is to let them be themselves. The actions they come up will then be authentic rather than feel scripted.

Keep Score...and then Analyze It!

2011-05-08T21:03:00.001-07:00

In Stephen Covey's Book, "The Eighth Habit," the author makes a profound statement: "People play differently when they're keeping score."

Think about it - a volleyball game is pure fun if the score doesn't matter. But when players are keeping score, set-up strategies develop, rotations are changed for maximum effectiveness, and teammates support one another.

So if keeping score matters, why don't we do it when we're enrolling students in our schools? Sure, we say "We have 10 more Kindergarten than last year," but what happens if two students per grade disenroll every month during the school year. Even though you have 10 more incoming students, you're actually 8 behind the current year.

SchoolAdvancement's BASICS program includes the Enrollment Estimator (TM), a followup-tracking system and a scorecard so that a month-by-month picture of enrollment can start to develop when you analyze the data...and you must analyze the data to see if there are any trends which develop. Perhaps you'll see more students disenroll in February that in any other month; or perhaps you'll see that your school enrolls more new students in February rather than January when you come back from Christmas break.

Tracking enrollment is one of the most important things you can do, since each student is associated with a particular income to the school. Unlike the public school, where the school recieves funding based on the number of students in the school district, your faith-based or private school relies on tuition to maintain a healthy cash flow. To attend to enrollment figures in this manner keeps it top of mind, especially since the fastest way to increase funds coming to the school is to enroll more students.

Pay It Forward

2011-04-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Let's start another round of the five items that comprise advancement so you can continue to work on each a little at a time. As someone once said, "Inch by inch, everything's a since." It also helps to recall that you can't do everything (as in EVERYTHING perfectly and completely) at once when venturing into advancement. It's a long-term growth strategy. You have to build the systems - eventually, they'll all begin to work as a well-oiled machine. You'll see that in action in a future Advancementality post.

This time, let's tackle Asset Management first. Lots of folks have received their federal income tax refunds by now, and that's probably how many of your parents pay off the tuition that's due if any hardships have arisen throughout the year.

But if they've been consistent monthly payers, and they just want to pay off their obligation, consider having them save that refund, and continue making monthly payments to complete their obligations for this year. Then, they can do two things with their refund: Either pay their tuition in full (or at least a good portion of it) for next year, which will result in a lower monthly tuition payment for the coming school year; Or save those funds to be used as their tuition "savings," allowing them to earn a little bit of interest, but using those funds to make their normal monthly payments.

This does three things (there's always three): It helps parents develop a sense of saving (since we need to educate parents too); It creates a larger influx of income at the beginning of your school year (which you can use to get you through the difficult months of December and January); and it provides some hope to parents to keep them and their children as part of your school community. Realizing that, it helps with your student retention.

Realizing the power of this strategy, there will be a new presentation coming this summer from SchoolAdvancement titled, "SHIFT." (I wanted to make it into a book last summer - but found out during the summer that there was already a book by that title that talked about weight loss). Many will look at the thought behind it and remark, "This makes a lot of sense, but we'll never be able to it." Realize this - if that's the attitude you possess as a leader of a school, your school is in more danger than you realize.

The Connectedness of Advancement, and the Resultant Vortex

2011-04-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

Before we get into another round of the five aspects of advancement, let's take a break to review. Hopefully you've come to realize the interrelation between Development, Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing. What happens in one of those areas will affect another; further, that effect may be positive or negative. A little change in one area may have a huge effect on another. While I like to call it "Systemicity," and its study "Systemicism," there is a branch of thinking called systems theory (ST) which has many proponents around the world. From Wikipedia, "Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems in all fields of research. The term does not yet have a well-established, precise meaning, but systems theory can reasonably be considered a specialization of systems thinking and a generalization of systems science. The term originates from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST) and is used in later efforts in other fields, such as the action theory of Talcott Parsons and the system-theory of Niklas Luhmann."

Chaos Theory which basically says the same thing, only with an initial focus on the negative. Again, from Wikipedia, "Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions; an effect which is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. Small differences in initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors in numerical computation) yield widely diverging outcomes for chaotic systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general. Chaotic behavior can be observed in many natural systems, such as the weather."

While these two theories at first glance may seem to be divergent (that is, systems thinking says that every problem is systemic, but chaos theory claims that processes which are mathematically acceptable cannot be accurately predicted), the lesson that must be leared is that everything has an effect on everything else.

This realization about advancement shows that one just cannot focus on one aspect of advancement and expect things to improve. For instance, let's take a look at the vortex schools have been experiencing relative to tuition and enrollment. As tuition rises, enrollment decreases, causing tuition to rise further, causing enrollment to decrease further. At first look, one could say, if we lower tuition, then the enrollment will stabilize, and we can attract more students.

However, recent attempts by schools to consolidate and therefore lower tuition have resulted in lower enrollments! Why? Because the new school is further away, is in a different community, and, for many, "it just isn't the same school." Tradition and "the experience" has a significant impact on retention. That's one of the reasons why I believe that retention and enrollment must be separate processes. Yes, you may attract more new students with a more affordable tuition, but changing "the experience" that current parents and students have can cause more attrition.

It's better to focus on increasing enrollment, which requires three things (there's always three):
1) Marketing, to get the word out (which then requires you know the remarkable things about your school to get parents interested in it as a choice environment for their children's education);
2) An enrollment system (so that no parent falls through the cracks, and you're able to contact prospective parents year after year), and
3) A support system of asset management (tuition management, grant and aid assessment) and retention strategies.

Here's why this is important.

The downward vortex described above doesn't need a support system - gravity does its best to keep a downward spiral continuing until there's nothing left. Just look at water going down the drain after washing dishes in the kitchen sink. However, once an upward vortex begins (that is, more children enroll, tuition can be reduced, causing more children to enroll, causing waiting lists to be created, etc.), a system needs to be in place to support the "upward vortex," since, after all, gravity can make it come crashing down if a support system falters or isn't present. If you don't believe that, then you weren't watching the stock market a couple of years ago.

Upward vortexes need support - similar to the way that mitral valves in our circulatory system keep blood from pooling in our feet when it's en route back to the heart. Asset management and retention strategies act as these mitral valves for our schools' finances.

You'll notice that development hasn't been mentioned here. That's because development is a long-term process. These four aspects (Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing) are things that can be enacted in a relatively short period of time, and help to reverse the downward spiraling vortex of the enrollment-tuition tug-of-war.

If I Had a Milion Dollars (If I Had a Million Dollars)...

2011-04-17T16:09:00.000-07:00

Remember that song from the Barenaked Ladies? Every time I hear someone mention "a million dollars," the song runs through my mind. So, realizing that this week's installment focuses on Development to round out another series of the five DREAM elements involved in Advancement, let's raise a million dollars. It's easy.

I'll bet you said, "Yeah - sure."

But you have to consider three things (there are always at least three, until you realize that three leads to four, and four leads to five, which completes the system):

1) I didn't say how long it would take (note how everyone assumes that everything happens right away);
2) I didn't say how we'd do it (but it's legal and every legitimate development department has someone that specializes in activities like this); and
3) you don't have to get specialized training or help (like you may have to with grantwriting). All you need are 40 people in good health that can give your school $60 a year (only $5 a month), and an insurance agent that specializes in life insurance (I'm sure there's one of them in your school).

These 40 people agree to take out term life insurance policies for $25,000, naming the school as the beneficiary. 40 x $25,000 = $1,000,000. The school receives the funds upon the death of the individuals.

For individuals that hear of this for the very first time, reactions range from "that's just morbid," to "that's funny - now, what's the real plan." It's neither. In it's most simplistic form, it's "Planned Giving."

Specialists in this area of development speak to individuals about annuities, or leaving bequests to organizations upon their passing. I'm sure we've all seen memorializations in churches, universities, hospitals and other institutions. Some people have buildings, wings of buildings or programs named after them. Indeed some of these individuals and families have decided to do great things with their blessings. But even the most common individuals, when they work as a community, can do great things.

It helps to remember that Development is a ministry - it's a ministry to the rich...to those that have been blessed. They are called to share their gifts - and to those that much has been given, much will be expected.

Development is a ministry, since Scripture says that the way we use our gifts and talents is how we get to heaven. The basis is in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus states "Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me" (Matthew 25:40).

Therefore, go, and do likewise.

Your School is a Community - Not a Group of Individuals

2011-04-10T21:15:00.000-07:00

The decision to enroll a child in your school is an emotional one. Logically, we know it is the right decision - but the only way that parents will realize that is by coming to that realization themselves. This is where service and direction are related - getting parents excited about the direction the school is headed so that we can serve them by helping to form their children. Last year at this time, schools were incredibly worried about enrollment for the 10-11 school year - this year, even though some indicators show positive signs, State governments, not to mention our federal government, are facing difficult economic decisions.

First, remember that Jesus told us not to be anxious. Second, remember the words of Pope John Paul II when he became the Bishop of Rome - "Do not be afraid." Third, when it comes to growing enrollment, the first step to increase enrollment is to keep the enrollment you have.

When current parents start making decisions on their own, in the privacy of their home, enrollment starts to deteriorate if they decide to disenroll their children because of what might be. Even if things are bleak now, they may be much better 6 months from now when school begins again. Therefore, when you're preparing tuition invoices or your financial aid award letters, you'll want to give them out in person, in a personal conference-type setting that can reassure them and offer that hope. This way, parents can express their anxiety, and can receive reassurance that the school will do all that it can to address demonstrated financial need of families. This is the opportunity for the school to show parents that we're all in this together.

A community is formed when individuals come together for a particular purpose; hundreds of parents acting as individual families demanding that their needs be met before they commit is nothing more than chaos - and, frankly, it's been how we've operated for the past several decades, and why school administrators get so stressed when dealing with tuition. Setting up individual parent meetings to discuss financial expectations may sound like a lot of work - and it is. But it's better to put time and effort into this exercise and know what you're facing, rather than sending invoices home, and hoping parents return in the fall. That's a completely different type of hope altogether - dare we say it - a false one.

Lord, Give Me a Sign

2011-04-03T08:46:00.001-07:00

If you've been reading this blog, each week focuses on one of the five areas of advancement before the cycle begins again. Two weeks ago it was asset management, as we spoke about converting to a cost-based tuition/need-based aid model, and last week it was enrollment management, as one of the unintended consequence of implementing such a model is an initial drop in enrollment.

This week, marketing is the focus, as it is the precursor to enrollment. Many schools are asking how to do marketing inexpensively. They've looked into TV advertising, radio advertising, and billboards, but they're all so expensive, and many schools that have tried these plans have found their return on investment has not been a positive one.

There are three things to consider (you'll realize that it's very Trinitarian, as are all things - but since three leads to four leads to five to complete the system, there are really two more which complete the five rules of marketing. If you'd like to know what they are, my book on marketing will be coming out this summer). But for now:

1) Who is your market?
2) Repetition is necessary
3) Keep it simple

1) If you're putting a commercial for your school on television, are you placing it during specific times where parents with young children are viewing programming? You might be placing it with your local community-affiliated station, but your cable programmer might be a better place. Running a commercial in a "total audience plan" for your school is usually a waste of time if you're trying to attract enrollment; it's a good idea if you simply want to let the community know your school exists (and if you've got the money to do that, you probably don't need to be reading this).

2) Most "advertising" campaigns by schools make one attempt at a "flight" of ads or a (singular) billboard. The key is repetition. Just like exposing your students to new information, it has to be presented over and over and over and over and over and over (you get the idea) just to break through a mindset that could be closed to the potential of considering your school, and allow that mind to be open to the possibility of a new thought. It used to take 7 exposures; most recent research showed 9 exposures with all the new venues of communication (remember when you could count the number of television channels you could receive on one hand?), and in the future, it will take even more. 10 is probably a good number right now, but with HDTV, twitter, SmartPhones and who knows what coming down the pike, you'll need to get your message out there more and more, and on more and more social networking platforms. Notice there are five ways you can share this article with others at the end of this posting through some of the most popular social media. You'll also need to consider how people are using those platforms, or risk being lost in a sea of voices that wish they were heard.

3) In terms of simplicity, take a lesson from our political candidates. If your school is in a neighborhood, a billboard on the highway that's 3 or 4 miles away isn't going to do anything to build enrollment - especially if drivers zip past it at 65 miles per hour. Political candidates use yard signs (you'll see them popping up now along with the croci - or is it crocuses?), so ask to put signs for your school in the yards of supporters! It's a WHOLE lot less expensive than TV or billboards.

In some communities, yard signs are banned just because political candidates have abused the opportunity. In that case, make some door hanging signs and organize a Saturday morning campaign (if you want more details, email me at schooladvancement@gmail.com)

I hear it coming - "But we have to ask people to do that!" Take comfort in the fact that Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given to you." If you avoid asking because you don't like to, your first task is to change that attitude - you HAVE to if you expect to survive today.

Unintended Consequences of a Need-Based Aid/Cost-Based Tuition Model

2011-03-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

While last week's entry was aimed at asset management (one of the five aspects of advancement), this one deals with enrollment, since it is step one of the implementation of a need-based aid/cost-based tuition model of financing a school.

While it seems pretty easy in theory to grasp, the reality is that it is very difficult to implement effectively unless the initial groundwork has been laid as a solid foundation. As we've seen, as enrollment declines, tuition increases. The thought is to somehow handle the tuition side first. While that should be considered, investigated, and discussed, the first step is to work toward increasing enrollment.

As soon as you understand that first step, however, you realize that there are two items that need to happen before you can take that first step: 1) the best way to build your enrollment is to keep the enrollment you already have (which is retention), and 2) in order to bring new students into your school, you have to first be able to expose your school to new audiences (which is marketing). Retention is a short-term goal, but marketing is a medium-term goal. Therefore, there is a third item (there are always at least three that you need to grasp simultaneously)is an Asset Management item...collect all the tuition that is due to your school.

After reading this, I'm hoping that, if you haven't done so already, you're beginning to see that all of these five aspects of advancement have an effect on each other. Since there are always at least three items in play at any time, the process is indeed akin to juggling. It's the only way to keep three items in the air at the same time with only two hands.

As for the unintended consequences of moving to a cost-based tuition/need-based aid model, the most difficult realization to make is that as you try to increase enrollment, you will definitely lose enrollment when you make the decision to move forward and announce a tuition that is significantly higher than what your tuition currently is if you implement a cost-based tuition strategy without forming the foundation. Therefore, even before gathering a committee to investigate a cost-based tuition/need-based aid model, you must begin efforts to increase your enrollment.

As previously stated, there are three things to keep in mind:

1) Effective enrollment management requires a system that will track inquiries to your school and continuously follow up with them in a meaningful way;

2) Your school must be a quality school first in order to attract new students. Once prospective parents discover you, you have to provide an educational environment that appeals to the parents EMOTIONALLY. Parents must come to the realization that your school is the environment where they WANT to enroll their child, and then deepen that emotion to DESIRE by continually reaching out to the parent to bring them back into the school - perhaps by attending a sporting event or a concert. This might be the hardest step of enrollment, since it requires taking a good, hard look at your school, realizing the things that must be done, and then doing them. Many of these things might be easy to accomplish, but just take time - time that you may not have during the school year. If that's the case, then the summer is the time to do it. Now, before you say, "But we're closed during the summer," please consider -

3) Enrollment is a year-round activity. It does not start in January during Catholic Schools Week and end when school begins. It is a 12-month, relentless search for students. So, if your school closes during the month of July to give teachers and principals a well-deserved rest, that could be the precursor to closing the doors for the other 11 months of the year. While you might have been able to do this in the past, the times - and parents - have changed. Remember that both faith and good works are necessary for salvation...and good works don't take a vacation.

Think of that word, "relentless." God never stops pursuing us. Parishes don't close their doors during the summer because parents are on vacation. There are no businesses that close their doors over the summer and expect to continue growth when they reopen in the fall. Most business that conduct their main business during the winter (like snow removal companies) do something else in the summer (landscaping, parking lot paving) to keep their businesses top of mind. Schools must come to the realization that they must do the same.

Changing to a Need-Based Aid/Cost-Based Tuition Structure

2011-03-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

I've adopted a motto: "Nothing is easy; nothing is free." In Latin - "Nihil est facile; nihil est gratuitum." If something was easy, everyone would do it; and, as evidenced by our economic woes, every change has a price to it. So when someone asks about converting to a cost-based/need-based tuition structure, the basic plan is simple - it's the implementation that's challenging, and which can lead to unintended consequences.

As you can see by the title of this posting, I've even changed the approach to put the "need-based aid" first, since financial aid is foremost when talking about a tuition structure that is based on the actual cost of education.

While this type of funding structure is considered a change, let's mitigate the feelings associated with change, and call it a "shift." If a school is receiving subsidization (or "investment") from a church or group of local parishes, rather than subsidizing the cost of tuition for every student in the school (or, in the case of Catholic schools, every Catholic student in the school), the amount (which is sometimes sizable) is used as financial aid based on a family's calculated need, which is best determined by an objective third-party provider.

For example, if a school's tuition is $2500 per student, and 200 students are in the school, that represents and income of $500,000. However, the budget of the school may be $650,000, with $150,000 coming from the supporting church(es) or parish(es). In this respect, each student is subsidized by $750. The real cost per student in this case is $3250. In the cost-based tuition/need based model, your tuition is $3250 (as it may be for a non-Catholic student OR a Catholic student whose family doesn't participate in the life of the parish). However, families may also choose to pay the full $3250 if they can, or they can pay a lesser amount if they have significant need. I've always encouraged schools to charge a minimum tuition (say $250 or $500 per child) to convey the principle that something of value has a price; if tuition is simply waived, it can increase a feeling of "entitlement," when what we really want to be teaching is "responsibility."

Need-based aid/cost-based tuition will work in your school if you can answer these three questions affirmatively:
1) Are there families in the school that can pay the full-cost of education (in this sample case, $3250)?
2) Are there enough school-age children in your area whose parents desire a Catholic school education for their children? and
3) Are you seeking outside sources for additional funding (from alumni, the community and local businesses who realize the value of your school)?

The difficulties lie in:
- telling a parent that has been in your school for six years that can pay full the full cost of education that their tuition will increase $750 for each of their children next year, and that they may be paying the same amount for their children as a non-Catholic family would. Be prepared to battle an "entitlementality;"
- encouraging families to enroll in the school when you've just increased the tuition while trying to convince them that if they have "need" that they will be awarded financial aid;
- convincing local businesses, parishioners and alumni to support your school with their time, talent and treasure. (Wait a minute - did he say "alumni?" I'm an elementary school - I have no lists of alumni from our school.). If that's what's running through your head, then it's time to make room on your plate for more stuff to do.

An excellent plan of implementation, a comprehensive communication campaign, and putting the proper tools in place to allow this process to take place are essential. These are things to work on during the summer. It's not something you can decide to do at this point (in March) for the new school year which is only 5 months away. It's something you need to start working on for the 12-13 school year.

Of course, there will be some "unintended consequences?" What are they? We'll look at those next week.

Double Your Enrollment

2011-03-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

This week's entry focusing on enrollment rounds out another quintet of the five aspects of advancement. It may seem that I'm stating the obvious here, so please bear with me: Enrollment is the single most important thing you can improve to make your school financially sound. Rationale:

- If there are fewer and fewer children in the school, interaction declines, and the social relationship aspect of the school deteriorates.

- If there are fewer and fewer children in the school, there are fewer teachers that are needed...but parents don't necessarily accept one teacher teaching three grades of children at the same time - which will cause your enrollment to further deteriorate.

- If your tuition is in the several thousand dollars per child range, each student represents, in development terms, a major gift to the school's financial picture.

So -

Why does your school's brochure and/or Web site have a picture of your school on it - with no people around it...or worse, an empty parking lot?

Why is information about your school sent out all at once to an inquiring parent, leaving them to wade through a packet of medical and information release forms, rules, uniform order forms, a financial aid application, etc. and then simply wait for the information to come back to the school...like it will magically appear in the mailbox with no follow up from the school...especially during the summer, since everyone knows there's no one in the office during the summer?

Why does no one at the school answer the phone or return phone messages from prospective parents during the summer? Or, as I've heard from some schools, don't give tours during the summer because it's too hot in the school since it's "all closed up?"

Even more than beginning a comprehensive development program, enrollment is the single most important thing you can do for your school. Both are essential (actually all FIVE elements are essential), but if you need to make a choice, opt for filling desks first.

Effective marketing ties into this, since good marketing leads to more potential new students. "But parents hear our tuition and when we tell them, they hang up."

That's an easy one - don't tell them. Tuition is a fact - and simple facts about your school won't "sell" your school to prospective parents. Enrollment is an emotional decision. Prospective parents have to get excited about your school, so make it a place where parents WANT to send their children. Once they're in, make sure they have an excellent experience so they'll spread the word about your school. Have inquiring parents come to the school first - and at that time you'll be happy to share all the facts and figures as well as the procedure to apply for financial aid...but first, have them visit to make sure your school is the place they want their children to be.

If you've said "but we post our tuition on our Web site because we want to be 'up front' about our tuition." In our current economy, I would wager that if you do so, your school has experienced declining enrollment.

Oh - and those folks that are currently parents in your school have to stop griping about such things as tuition increases or other things they feel are problems in the school (if they are doing so) in the marketplace (translated - anywhere in the community you serve). They must be your evangelists if the school community wants the school to grow.

Want to double your enrollment? Have EVERY CHILD bring a friend to school to spend a day with them. Make it an incredible day for them. Invite their parents to a special session stating the benefits of your school to start the day, and then have them come back to participate in a Mass with the whole school and the new children there, asking a special blessing on them. Okay - maybe you won't double your enrollment, but if you make it a great day, you'll have kids talking to their parents about the great stuff they did in school that day.

And think about this...if your tuition is $3000 a year, and you have 10 children in each class, you could have 20 children in each class, not increase your costs, charge $2500 a year for each child, and increase your income significantly.

I should mention that if your school's tuition structure is not based on what it costs to educate a child in your school, you are probably heavily subsidized by your supporting parishes. Consider making the subsidy (or parish investment) need-based financial aid. We'll talk about that next week.

The 3 "M"s of Development Success

2011-03-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

Development is a long-term approach to sustainable revenues brought about by the effective engagement of individuals in the vision of your organization's mission. That's not a book definition, but everyone involved in development has their own definition of what it is. In this case, it touches on three important aspects - revenues, engagement, and vision. If one of those three are missing, it's not development. The vision comes first, followed by engagement of individuals, followed by revenues. If revenues come first, you've reverted back to fundraising (and you're really not going to engage anyone if you don't have a compelling vision for your organization).

That said, how do know when your efforts are actually starting to bear some fruit? With the approach of Spring, we can see the amount of daylight increasing, the trees beginning to bud, and birds returning to the area with their singing in the morning. Similarly, there are three signs you can watch for which demonstrate your development efforts are starting to have an effect. Two year ago, I saw these signs emerging in an organization that I started to move toward development four years ago. At that time, the organization had $10,000 in their checking account, which was not enough to provide effective cash flow, and certainly not enough to take the students involved in the program on a trip to Orlando, Florida - something the group did every three years. Escalating program costs and a declining membership led to some intense meetings and difficult decisions to move the program forward with a development approach rather than increasing the amount of "already too many" fundraisers. The financial report at the organization's most recent board meeting reported an account balance of $85,000 - even in the difficult economic times we're experiencing in this country. That's a nice turnaround. Last year, a fund was started to help students that want to take private music lessons but have financial need. This year, a alumnus from the organization made a gift of $1,000 due to the successes the program has had, and hopes his gift will help to foster the continued successes of the organization. THAT's engagement.

The three signs are Mentality, Mechanics and Meshing. Here's a description of each, and how they manifested themselves within the organization.

Mentality - The organization would like to purchase a couple of items that cost several thousand dollars each. Rather than saying what kind of fundraiser we can do to raise funds for this cause, one person asked, "Could we get a couple of bids so that we can have a definite cost? We might be able to approach an organization, foundation or individual to make a major gift to cover the cost." Further, when someone in the group says this rather than it coming from the board leadership, that's a good sign that the mentality of development is starting to "stick."

Mechanics - When acknowledgement letters are prepared to send to donors to the first Annual Appeal of Alumni, and someone from the group asks why the envelopes were handwritten rather than being "official-looking" with the organization's logo on the envelope, the members of the group are getting the message. That's why development needs an expense line, rather than just being an income line on the budget. You have to spend money to make money. Fundraisers don't do that - they're expected to bring in enough money to cover the expenses, and then the net overage is entered into the fundraising income line. The problem with that kind of thinking is then there is no record within a budget to see how much an event costs in terms of money and expense. If your school has a fundraising dinner, a car raffle and a golf outing, but no annual appeal, grantwriting, major gift solicitation or planned giving tactics, you're still fundraising.

Meshing - A more visual word for "engagement" of individuals. Recently, one of the founding members of the organization mentioned above passed away, and her family requested that donations be made to the organization. The membership received the news with sadness, and sent condolences, but also decided to use those contributions toward a purchase that organization was considering in order to memorialize her influence on the organization.

One thing to mention about development - the work does not "get easier" as you move forward. While these are great signposts that the organization is shifting from fundraising toward development, there's always more development work to be done, and then there are things that other members of the organization will try to say fall within the purview of development just because it involves writing a thank you note, or because it's reaching out into the community. The development director needs to be aware of those things, but doing all the work will cause burnout in a very short period of time. That's where the role of development is put to the test.

Keep this in mind - the average length of time for "burnout" of a development director to occur is 18 months, precisely because they become the "catch-all" for activities that can't be otherwise categorized. That's unfortunate, because a development mentality will see fiscal results 3 to 5 years down the road. If a development director leaves an organization, and doesn't have the opportunity to "handoff" the relationships developed to the person coming in, then the relationships have to be rebuilt from the ground up. Educational leaders need to realize that changing a development director before they've had time to develop relationships doesn't mean income will increase.

Even Scripture recognizes that development requires at least three or more years to bear fruit - read the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6-9.

United We Stand

2011-02-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

When I worked for a Diocesan Office for Catholic Schools, we developed a slogan that was our first attempt at internal marketing (as opposed to a slogan/tag line for external constituents) - "Together, We Move Forward." We have to move forward - after all, it's called "Advancement." Going back to the way we did things before is regression, and it's the first step toward closure.

So let's talk about the first step toward growth. The first step to grow your school's enrollment is to keep the enrollment you already have - so let's focus on retention this time around.

Communication is key, in all aspects of advancement. It's almost like marketing is the center of the other four "domains" of advancement. Communication with donors and potential donors (Development) is different than communication with current parents (retention), which is different than communication with prospective parents (enrollment), which is still different than communication with internal constituents, such as church councils, pastors, parishioners and boards (asset management). Communication with current parents must be increased at this time of year as they begin to make decisions about next year.

A strategy to building audience in radio states that the best way to build audience is to keep the audience you have. That's why radio stations announce three or four songs or artists that are coming up. Chances are, if you're listening to that station, that you'll like at least one of those enough to keep listening. There are too many natural reasons for tune out (such as reaching your destination if you're listening in the car, or a phone call if you're at home) that maximizing "Time Spent Listening" is of utmost importance.

Similarly, it's important to keep the families you currently have in order to keep building your overall enrollment. This is the time of year when families say they'll have to seriously weigh their options about returning next year, because economic times are very difficult now, even though they love the school. Most of the times, administrators say, "I understand," and then worry what will happen if they leave.

Here's the challenge - tell a family, "I understand completely, but please understand that if you leave, it makes it all the more difficult to continue the work of the school. Costs will go higher to make up for the loss of your children. However, if you stay, and perhaps several of your friends to come to the school, there is a good chance that the overall tuition could be lowered for the coming year." By doing this, you've retained a family, and created a good marketing resource for your school.

Why will the parent consider staying? Because people fear change. Today's parents long to be a part of a community, but, because of their upbringing, don't know what community is. We are social beings. We want to be part of a community - and, would much rather remain part of a community we know than change communities (that's why moving is so traumatic). If others in their neighborhood are telling them about how good their public school is, they know that their neighbors will also be part of their new community at the public school. That could make the decision to leave an easier one to make. Your school must prepare and be prepared to do the same.

What's really difficult for a parent is leaving the Catholic school community for a public school system that may not be academically excellent, have conflicting "clique"-ish communities, and - well - you can't even speak of a faith-based approach to education there.

My book, "Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment," is now available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/14713269

It's Asset Management Time!

2011-02-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

Personally, I think people get depressed in February for three reasons. Even though Valentine's Day makes us feel warm and loved halfway through the month, the cold, snowy winter has something to do with it.

But February has two more activities that make us very uncomfortable - tax return preparations for the calendar year that just ended (and if you have kids in college, you have to do it now so you can fill out the FAFSA form to apply for financial aid), and budget preparations for the school/fiscal year that begins in a little over 4 months. And in this economy, such things can be even more depressing.

This is where it's more important than ever to have a financial aid assessment service since even more parents are expected to apply for financial aid this year than last year. It's also important to have a tuition management service that recommends direct debit for tuition collection, since more parents are opting for a payment plan rather than paying the entire tuition before the school year begins.

The time for in-house preparing, printing, posting and mailing invoices to parents (invoices that they can choose to ignore) is over because it's one of the main reasons why schools end the year with unpaid tuition balances. The time for making purely subjective decisions regarding the amount of financial aid a family receives is over too. Besides, if your school's financial committee is asking for tax returns to they can verify a family's financial need, I'll bet parents are wondering what you're doing with those tax returns since their social security numbers are on them.

FACTS provides both of these services to your school to:
- Help make your life easier;
- Store data securely;
- Allow you to be good stewards of your assets;
- Increase up-front payments;
- Improve cash flow; and
- Turn slow-paying families into on-time payers.

FACTS is the nation's largest provider of tuition management services AND need assessment services. Automated payments and state-of-the-art technology allows your school to stop chasing families to pay their tuition, and start chasing new families to come to your school. Remember, the first step to grow enrollment is to keep the students you have - so we'll focus on retention next week.

Learn more about how FACTS can help your school by visiting http://www.factsmgt.com.

Hang It Up!

2011-02-13T09:02:00.000-08:00

Everything in Moderation

2011-02-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

Now that the first round of all five aspects of Advancement have been covered, let's review before beginning the next round.

In a previous post, I suggested taking "one day at a time" to develop a framework where each element of Advancement could be worked on per day. For example:

Monday - Marketing
Tuesday - Development
Wednesday - Enrollment
Thursday - Asset Management
Friday - Retention

But some folks have commented that this doesn't work, since they always seem to still be putting out fires, and they can never follow through with their plan. Others have said that everything has to be done every day, and that's overwhelming.

Truth be told, every job is overwhelming. You have talents with which you've been blessed. Prioritization is the key. If you're putting out fires, and there's no other way around it, then that is what must be done. However, there are some strategies to planned prioritization.

One recommendation is to use a strategy from the card game, Bridge (Remember Bridge? Folks used to get together for their daily dose of the game.). Lead with your strong suit. Start with what you're good at - it will get that task out of the way first, let you feel a sense of accomplishment, and energize you to do the next thing that has to be done.

The other is to find what must be done everyday. Usually, that's development work - so do your development work every morning. Then, use Monday afternoon for Marketing, Tuesday afternoon for Enrollment, Wednesday afternoon for Retention, Thursday afternoon for Asset Management, and Friday afternoon for whatever hasn't been resolved (or the occasional leave at lunchtime if you've worked every evening that week).

Another possibility is to work an hour and a half a day on each item. Five elements at an hour and a half each give you a 7.5 hour day.

You might have to experiment a little, but when you find what works best for you, then you can work it. "Plan your work and work your plan" has been a phrase that's been around for a very long time, but you need to be flexible enough for adjustments, and to fight the fires which will inevitably erupt.

The point is that you have to be three things: a cheerleader, a juggler, and indefatiguable. To be those things, you have to take time to rest to re-energize, and have something else that you're passionate about to help you retain your creative "edge." All the elements of Advancement must be addressed; you can't just "do" one thing at a time. If you do, you're setting your school up for failure.

Developing a Development Mindset

2011-01-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

Catholic Schools Week

2011-01-23T20:20:00.000-08:00

Next Sunday begins the 2011 celebration of Catholic Schools Week. When it comes to marketing, Catholic Schools Week is seen as a "pinnacle" event, rife with open houses, community activities, "Thank You" lunches, Good Neighbor breakfasts, Grandparent days and pulpit talks at Mass extolling the virtues of the Catholic school's ability to educate the whole child - mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

While it might have been a good idea when it first began in 1974, our society has radically changed since then, and I propose that calling it "Catholic Schools Week" might be hurting Catholic schools at this point in history. Since there's at least always three forces at work, here are three reasons why:

1) Our headline/soundbite society. Today's marketing professionals like to use double entendres or homonymic devices in the slogans or tag lines they develop. For instance, a ski resort in Western Pennsylvania created a billboard with the word "Uplifting" in bold print, placed at the bottom of a picture of four sets of legs adorned in boots and suspended in mid-air over mountain, as if they were riding up a ski lift.

Similarly, think of the headlines we hear - "Obama Wins," "Shuttle Explodes," "Earthquake Rocks Haiti," - now read "Catholic Schools Week," and at either a conscious or a subliminal level, it can resonate in the mind as "Catholic Schools Weak." Sounds the same, but the intended message is completely different. When we look at overall enrollments over the past 30+ years, it would seem that the latter message has taken hold in the minds of our parents in many parts of our country.

2) Marketing principles. Simply celebrating a school one week out of the year isn't enough. The activities that are crammed into one week sap the strength and energy out of the staff of the school, and, many times, especially in the Northeast and the Northern tier of our nation, activities are cancelled due to inclement weather. When that happens, morale nosedives since "activities can't be rescheduled because it's not Catholic Schools Week anymore." So no community dinner, no open house, etc. A "Catholic Schools Month" would give the opportunity for a month-long celebration, while taking the detrimentally homonymic "Week" out of the mix.

3) Educational principles. One open house in the year isn't enough. One "Good Neighbor Dinner" in the year isn't enough. One time is never enough when it comes to marketing. Think of the classroom setting - does every student understand long division after presenting the topic only once? Or division of fractions? Or the rules of grammar? No. We require constant spaced repetition and practice in order for a concept presented in the classroom to be understood, and marketers creatively bombard us with strategically spaced repetition of the messages they develop for the products and services they promote. We need to "Celebrate Catholic Schools" all the time, communicating that message with our parents, parishes, communities, benefactors, donors and alumni.

Marketing communication is the center of the other four aspects of advancement too. Not only Catholic schools, but all schools, can benefit from the lessons learned here. And remember - the week that we Celebrate Catholic Schools is the best time for increasing....

Retention! If you said "Enrollment," the first step to growing your enrollment is keeping the students you currently have. When you celebrate something important to you, you invite those people with whom you have a relationship! Enrollment efforts to attract new students should have started back in September, and if they have, and you've kept in contact with those folks, then by all means, deepen that relationship by inviting them to your celebration events. If, however, you've been using Catholic Schools Week as the time to kickoff your enrollment efforts for the coming school year, it's no wonder why increasing enrollment has been difficult for your school.

Speaking of Retention, my book, Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment, is available at http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/14416878.

Retaining Students - the First Step to Increasing Enrollment

2011-01-16T20:50:00.000-08:00

From the title of this post, you may think it strange as to why I separate enrollment and retention. When I tell schools that these are two different things, they look at me like I have three heads. What most people do is lump enrollment of new students together with retention of old students and call it all "enrollment." However, increasing "enrollment" involves two different strategies. To paraphrase the words of President Obama, we must look beneath the surface and see what the underlying reasons are, and only then can we come to an understanding. So let's look...

Enrollment is the action of bringing new students in to your school. Marketing is tied to enrollment since marketing piques the interest of the new parent, prompting them to visit the Web site, make the phone call, and step inside the door. Then, the "sales" process begins - marketing is education; enrollment is sales.

Retention is not a function of marketing, although it's a measuring stick. Retention is a function of "experience." In other words, what type of experience is the child having at school? What type of experience are the parents having in their interactions with teachers, administration, and other parents? Does the experience prove the marketing? Do we, as schools, "walk the talk?"

And will parents "pay" for the experience? ABSOLUTELY! School administrators cringe when they hear that parents can't pay for tuition, yet will pay for the Disney vacation, the cruise, or the big game tickets (and being a Pittsburgh native, let me tell you - we understand our football and hockey teams...although we're still trying to figure out the baseball team). Parents today are "all about 'the experience.'"

As Catholic Schools Week approaches (which will be the topic of next week's post), think about the experience your current parents and students are enjoying at your school. If they are thrilled about the experience, their "Word of Mouth Marketing" will be more valuable than any slick ad campaign you can imagine. And you get a double-bonus...you not only retain them in your school, but they become ambassadors for your marketing efforts.

If current parents and students are not enjoying the experience of being educated at your school, then you have some homework to do.

How do you know if parents are having an exemplary experience? Ask them! Just two questions...first, on a scale of 1 to 10, what is your satisfaction with your experience here at this school. Second, if the answer is not 10, what needs to happen to make it a 10? Shared experience is an excellent, if not harsh, teacher.

I can hear the naysayers already..."That's not the point! People come to our school because of our faith tradition - not because of the experience they're having." You know what? You're absolutely right - they come to your school because of it...but why do they STAY in your school? Do they feel that they're a part of your school's community? Or are their children there for an education...an education that may not be reinforced at home. Actually, since parents are the primary teachers of their children, the school's role is actually a supporting one.

If that's difficult to comprehend, recall that every faith tradition has aspects that are difficult to comprehend...yet we believe them to be true. The key role that retention plays in your school's growth is no different.

Ask yourself and your staff: "Do we have a tightly-knit community of families in the school that support one another when one loses their job, has a medical hardship, or finds themselves in experiencing difficult times?"

If the answer is "No," you have some homework to do. Let me suggest a text you can use...my book - Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment. You can order it by clicking http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/retention-a-systems-approach-to-growing-enrollment/14416878.

Registration vs. Application

2011-01-09T21:56:00.000-08:00

For the first part of 2011, my plan is to touch on one aspect of advancement per week, and not come back to that aspect until all other aspects have been covered. Last week, we took a look at asset management relative to budget creation. This week, a look at enrollment. To follow the pattern, next week's entry will either be on retention, marketing or development. Once the pattern is established, the five will rotate on through the cycle. For the second half of 2011, my plan is to have all five aspects listed, then comment on one thing for each of them. Keep in mind, however, that plans can change :).

This week, I'm hearing about many schools beginning their "registration" process for the coming 11-12 school year. It would be helpful, in our society that likes to run to the attorney when something isn't going their way, to take a lesson from the Greeks, and really say what we mean when we talk about the enrollment process for our schools. The term "registration" implies that "all will be accepted." For faith-based schools, many times have we seen signs outside of places of worship that say "All Are Welcome!" Indeed, they are welcome - but, as a school, welcoming all means you have to make the decision that you will accommodate all.

In the simplest of terms, let's suppose you have a school that encompasses two floors with two flights of stairs at each end of the school. Since you could be a faith-based school, you may contend that your current building does not have to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and cannot install an elevator due to the exorbitant cost. Then you have registration, through the winter, spring and summer, and, on the first day of school, a student shows up in a wheelchair. Since you have a "registration" process that implies that all will be accepted, you are now in the position to make reasonable accommodation for this child. How will you do that? Can you a afford to make those reasonable accommodations?

I'm strongly suggesting you consider an "application" process that includes the opportunity to provide disclosure for any considerations that your school may not be able to handle. Such a practice may be prudent in these times when economic considerations are top of mind.

Budget Creation is Just Around the Corner

2011-01-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

If you haven't started working on your school's budget for the 11-12 school year, you will very soon. If you remember last year at this time, some analysts suggested that this year would be successful if schools experienced only a 10% decline in enrollment. The interesting thing is that some schools actually have higher enrollments this year than they did last year. However, there are also the schools that lost 33% or more of their enrollment due their community's economic difficulties. One school I know lost two-thirds of their enrollment. They just didn't show up on the first day.

For those schools that lost enrollment from last year to this year, this is the year to learn from last year's lessons. This will be yet another year of unprecedented change for many private and faith-based schools, so why not consider making an even greater change - a new year's resolution, if you will - resolve to plan not only for next year, but for five years down the road.

Most non-profit organizations raise their operating revenues in the year before they use it. Catholic as well as other faith-based schools seem to raise funds from development, fundraising and tuition during the year they're using it. Failure of families to pay tuition then results in a deficit situation, which can lead down the path to closure. If you read the newspapers, those decisions are being made as you read this.

So let's be bold and look five years down the road. If you'd like to raise the funds your school will operate on the year before you actually use them, it can take five years to raise a year's worth of operating revenue. Increasing your school's operational income for the next year by 20%, as well as the revenues of the next four years of operation income by 20% can accomplish that goal. Put the excess 20% in a fund that you don't touch until 5 years down the road. At that time, you'll have a year's worth of operating income, and can then raise funds during that year as the following year's operating income.

Since you've been raising 20% more of what you need for the previous five years, the best thing to do would be to do the same for the next five years, so that you have two years of operating income in reserve. However, rather than using that second five years of increases for operating income, use it for the basis of your school's educational foundation. Doubling that amount through a concerted development effort will generate 10% of your operating budget in years moving forward from that point.

Is this easy? No. Will some folks think it's impossible? Yes. But why not take a look just to see the potential. If you simply raise tuition, it may be outrageous. But, if you increase enrollment AND increase development revenue, it might be something that can be planned for.

But let's just focus on next year for now. What does that look like in terms of real numbers?

Say your school's budget this year is $500,000. 200 students in your school and a tuition of $2500 per student. If you have a 10% decrease in enrollment, you'll have 180 students. If you want to increase your school's operational income for strategic planning purposes as described above, your budget will be $600,000. Say you increase your budget for operating cost increases by 5%, giving you a total income budget of $630,000. Your cost per pupil will go from $2500 to $3500...an increase of $1000 per student, or a 40% increase in tuition.

Perhaps your school is receiving subsidy from your parish at this time. This would be a good time to rethink that practice as well. Rather than using it for subsidy to reduce the amount of tuition across the board, use it as a financial aid pool to help families afford the full cost of education.

You'll also have to educate your parents as to why this change is necessary at this time, presenting this scenario as well as a best case scenario (an enrollment increase in a cost-based tuition structure with additional development revenue ) which could make the tuition actually decrease for some students, especially those that have financial need.

If you're afraid of confronting these facts, and confronting your families with this information, remember the first words of the papacy of John Paul II - "Be not afraid." Our schools need charismatic and visionary leadership - not people to "turn out the lights." Corporations are doing that. At this time in history, we must offer people hope.

As for enrollment planning five years down the road, if you'd like a preview of a tool I've put together to help you plan that far ahead, please send me an email at admin@schooladvancement.com. Use the phrase "five years down the road" in the subject line.

A "Happy New Year" to you and yours, and may it be a peace-filled one for all of us!

The Half-Way Point

2010-12-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

What do you tell parents when they say they're afraid of what's going to happen with the economy, so they're disenrolling their children - even if they're not been currently affected by economic distress?
What type of financial aid are we going to need to offer parents in order to retain the students we have, and how do we really know what parents need? Are you prepared to include a financial aid line item in your budget (which means that parents paying the full cost of tuition are helping to provide financial need for others in your school)?
How do we deal with board members that do not contribute to the school's annual appeal?

The first entry of the new year next week will speak to leadership and vision, since advancement deals primarily with management - vis a vis, ways to reach that vision.

Enjoy this time to rest, reconnect, renew and refresh.

Energize!

2010-12-19T19:48:00.001-08:00

As Christmas approaches, we aren't really in need of more information about advancement at this point in time. Many of us are still making internal and external preparations for the great event that's just a few days away. There are times when we need to slow down in order that we can rev ourselves back up again (just like the economy needs to do every now and then), and this is one of those times.

This week, let's remember the words of Thomas Merton: "There are times when in order to keep ourselves in existence at all we simply have to sit back for a while and do nothing."

Be still. He comes to us in silence.

Now is the Acceptable Time

2010-12-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

Last week I promised to show how marketing, enrollment, retention and asset management and development become especially important as schools begin to think about preparing for the coming school year.

All five aspects of advancement can have an effect on enrollment at this time of the year. Not the enrollment for this year...but this is where parents start thinking about next year, if they haven't already.

Open houses are being scheduled. Entrance tests are happening for high schools. In Catholic Schools, planning for Catholic schools week is underway. So...Marketing - what kind of messages are you putting out there about your school? Are you planning to be at every Christmas Day Mass distributing information about your school? If you answered, "No," you're missing out on reaching a ton of people with a ton of kids that only come to Mass one time per year. It's the golden opportunity to reach as many people as you can at one shot.

Retention - who's coming back? One school I'm familiar with has pictures of every student in the school on one wall in the hall. On the wall on the other side of the hall, there's lettering that says, "I'm in!!" And when the student is registered to return, their picture is moved to the "I'm in" side of the hallway. Oh - and parents see this at the Christmas program they're invited to.

Asset Management - Tuition management services allow schools to practice good stewardship. And you've just said, "Yeah, right!" Indeed, absolutely right. Stewardship is using time, talent and treasure wisely for the glory of God. Lets examine each one. Time - tuition management allows office staff to stop "chasing" unpaid tuition, and better using that time to follow up with parents interested in enrolling in the school. Talent - staff that are great at marketing and development can better use their time for these needed tasks than running to the bank everyday with a deposit. This doesn't even touch upon the security offered through electronic funds transfer. There's even a company out there now that registers checking account numbers. Their slogan - "Register your checking account before someone else does." Treasure - the enrollment of a student in a faith-based school carries with it the responsibility to pay the tuition to be a part of that "privileged environment" that our Bishops speak of.

Development - The more year-end gifts a school receives, the more it can work to keep its tuition costs in check for the following year during budget preparation. And remember, the last week of the year is when most individual charitable contributions are made.

I know - you're also saying, "This is a lot of work. And besides, we're living in difficult economic times!" Why should we bother with development now? EVERYONE is stretched and no one's going to give us anything."

To me, that's called "Despair." Last time I checked, "Despair" was not one of the three things that last. But one of those things is "Hope." So here's something to make you hopeful -

Now is the acceptable time to start a development program, and develop a development mindset.

Why?

Because doing so takes time. It's long term. If you DON'T take the time, you WON'T have the talent nor the treasure to keep your school open for the long term. In fact, this is a GREAT time to start a development program. Since it takes time, you can "build the machine," so to speak, while the economy is in the situation it's in right now. As time goes on, and the economy builds, your development program will build. Both are working in parallel, so when the economy is cooking at full steam again, your program will be at full steam to reap the benefits. If you start a development program in a good economy, it may take you some time to "build the machine" again, but when it's ready to reap the benefits, the good times in the economy may have come to an end. Such an experience is much more difficult to overcome - as we're seeing now!!

This is a time of change - and it IS the acceptable time.

The Old Woman and Her Pig

2010-12-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today, an Old English tale to explain the concept of "Systemicity" as it is associated with Advancement:

An old woman was sweeping her house, and she found a little crooked sixpence. “What,” said she, “shall I do with this little sixpence? I will go to market, and buy a little pig.”
As she was coming home, she came to a stile: but the piggy wouldn’t go over the stile.

She went a little further, and she met a dog. So she said to the dog: "Dog! bite pig; piggy won’t go over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the dog wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a stick. So she said: “Stick! stick! beat dog! dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the stick wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a fire. So she said: “Fire! fire! burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the fire wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met some water. So she said: "Water, water! quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the water wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met an ox. So she said: “Ox! ox! drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the ox wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a butcher. So she said: "Butcher! butcher! kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the butcher wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a rope. So she said: “Rope! rope! hang butcher; butcher won’t kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the rope wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a rat. So she said: “Rat! rat! gnaw rope; rope won’t hang butcher; butcher won’t kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the rat wouldn’t.

She went a little further, and she met a cat. So she said: “Cat! cat! kill rat; rat won’t gnaw rope; rope won’t hang butcher; butcher won’t kill ox; ox won’t drink water; water won’t quench fire; fire won’t burn stick; stick won’t beat dog; dog won’t bite pig; piggy won’t get over the stile; and I shan’t get home to-night.” But the cat said to her, “If you will go to yonder cow, and fetch me a saucer of milk, I will kill the rat.” So away went the old woman to the cow.

But the cow said to her: “If you will go to yonder hay-stack, and fetch me a handful of hay, I’ll give you the milk.” So away went the old woman to the haystack and she brought the hay to the cow. As soon as the cow had eaten the hay, she gave the old woman the milk; and away she went with it in a saucer to the cat.

As soon as the cat had lapped up the milk, the cat began to kill the rat; the rat began to gnaw the rope; the rope began to hang the butcher; the butcher began to kill the ox; the ox began to drink the water; the water began to quench the fire; the fire began to burn the stick; the stick began to beat the dog; the dog began to bite the pig; the little pig in a fright jumped over the stile, and so the old woman got home that night.

The moral - well, there are several:

1) Note that it doesn't say what time the woman got home that night;

2) The simplest task isn't easy after all;

3) Many effective solutions are long-term processes;

4) Teamwork is necessary, and everyone needs some type of remuneration;

5) Chain reactions which solve previously thought-to-be unsolvable problems are sometimes begun with something relatively simple and inexpensive.

6) The desired end result requires a LOT of set up work. You may not see a Return on Investment for sometime, but as long as the processes are in place, you have to keep setting up the dominoes. At some point, the there will be a breakthrough, and then everything falls into place.

7) This is also a lesson in marketing. Today, in turbulent economic times, the instinctive thought is to cut back - but when you cut back, especially in marketing, you run the risk of people not knowing you're there anymore. An entity that may have been very visible in the community suddenly decides to protect its "core" processes and eliminate the "fluff" of marketing. While it seems to be the easy decision to make, the net result is that the community believes it is no longer there. What started out as a way to ride out a recession becomes a path to closure.

From this story, we can see that cutting back is counterproductive, and processes may have to expand to achieve a desired result. Increasing exposure is actually the way to have to help the business survive difficult times.

Need another example? Look at the stock market. When the market falls, the thought is to cut back investing additional capital in stocks because they're not performing. Yet, funds should still be invested when stocks are low - because when the cycle reverses itself, additional shares of ownership will be worth more.

Cut back? Perhaps a little, to prune away some dead branches. But eliminate? No way! Get more people involved? Yes!! Think differently and more strategically? Absolutely!!

As Christmas approaches, next week we'll look at how marketing, enrollment, retention and asset management and development become especially important as schools begin to think about preparing for the coming school year. Some may be thinking this is a good time to discuss a year-end gift for development potential. However, if you're just starting to think about such a thing right now, you're probably too late. That thought process should have started when the school year began. To succeed in Advancement, you need to shift your timetable to one that allows for sufficient planning for obstacles such as those the old woman encountered in today's fable.

With that in mind, I'll bet you're able to see what we're moving towards - which is what advancement is all about.

HOW Do I Do the Things I Need to Do?

2010-11-29T04:35:00.000-08:00

As promised, this week's installment speaks to another aspect of the "how" to handle advancement. While last week spoke to a methodology relative to advancement (taking the five aspects one day at a time until a comfort level has been established to be able to juggle all five with reprioritizing as necessary), I've heard from some folks that it's not that particular aspect of the "how" they need help with.

For instance, a development director might be engaged with an annual appeal, grant writing, planning a special event (like a dinner/auction), and working with alumni to coordinate reunions or a golf outing. Their focus is on generating income; it's not on working with prospective parents to ensure they enroll their child for the coming school year. In fact, they have no desire to do that.

My response - as long as there is someone else to handle enrollment (the admissions director), retention (the principal), asset management (the business manager) and marketing (the communications director), then everyone can focus on their individual responsibilities, perhaps meeting weekly to review successes, challenges, potential difficulties and all-out threats, keeping an eye to yearly pre-established goals.

If, however, everything advancement falls to the development director, then the development director must decide - either learn how to do those things, and how they fit into the greater scheme of advancement, or find another situation where only development responsibilities will be necessary for success.

Even though economists say that we are out of the woods regarding the recession, States are looking to cut budgets for the coming year, and bail-out funds have dried up, which means the government will also be looking at ways to cut costs. Banks are still tight on credit, and unemployment is still in the double-digit range. Even though I'm not an economist, I see friends still being laid off, household budgets being cut and more and more houses with "For Sale" signs in front of them. As we move deeper into economic murkiness, as is common in the life cycle of any organization, flexibility is the key to survival.

The analogy of the tree is so fitting to what we are experiencing. The African proverb states, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now." Let's continue the analogy - deep roots make it easier for the tree to find nourishment in the dry season; pruning is necessary for growth; rigidity ("standing one's ground") will cause the tree to snap, as it must be "strong enough to bend" in order to confront harsh winds; and it must drop its seeds so that more trees can be grown to continue the growth process. I'm sure you can think of more analogies.

As for development, "now" might be the third-best time to grow development. While the first-best time was 20 years ago, the second-best time is during times of prosperity, when you really don't need to be out there, day-in and day-out, raising significant dollars. After all, if you do that, then the goal for the following year will be to raise even more dollars, right? Unfortunately, and all too often today, many individuals think that in times of prosperity, we should only "gather what you need."

And that's the danger of short-term planning. Operationally, year-to-year budgeting is necessary; what's even more necessary is tracking current year against the budgeted amount, as well as where the organization was in the previous year. Development, however, requires a "long-term" outlook, with at least a five-year historical perspective as well as a five-year projection into the future.

In a time when everyone is telling you to cut back, you need to prepare yourself to do more. Or, do it differently. More about that next week.

One Day at a Time

2010-11-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

I'm glad that I have a teaching background when working with teachers and school administrators. Just like a teacher trying to reach so many students with so many preferred learning styles and multiple intelligences, the one message can reach many different school staff members who respond differently, according to their own learning styles and intelligences.

This entry is geared to those folks who have the responsibility of "doing it all," and do not work for a school where there is a Development Director, a Marketing Director, an Admissions Director, a Business Manager and a Principal (who is the de facto Retention Director).

In the spirit of "Start with WHY," you know why you have to do this - because the future of your school depends on it. But the next question is "HOW" to do it, such as, "How do you do this 'advancement' thing if you have to do everything?"

Here are five potential pathways:

1) Marketing as the origin
- Start here (but only if you're collecting all your tuition and students in your school stay in your school from one school year to the next)

2) Put the system in place
- Start all five aspects of advancement and adjust as necessary;

3) Work backwards (the least effective)
- Start with development and work toward marketing. This is for you linear thinkers that are having a difficult time putting the whole system in place and thinking systemically. Just know that it will take an significant amount of time - possibly 10 years - before you see any significant fruit from your work. Why? You're starting with a long-term strategy which will take 3 to 5 years to get rolling. Then enrollment - which is another long-term strategy, which will take three to 5 years to bear significant fruit. Even if you're of the mindset that you're starting both of these processes together, it will be 3 to 5 years before any signs of hope begin to germinate. Also know that along the way, you'll have to put marketing and retention strategies in place since with linear thinking, marketing and retention are usually grouped into enrollment. Sometimes, the last element to be implemented is asset management. Why? Development and Enrollment processes are related, and are usually school-driven functions. Asset management, on the other hand, is sometimes the responsibility of a business manager or is delegated to a person not directly associated with the school, and, unfortunately, is oftentimes removed from the system created by Development, Marketing, Retention and Enrollment. Many schools today have principals that are trying to improve these four elements of their school, and are successful in doing so - however, the school still finishes the year in arrears to the tune of five figures. Why? Because a business manager still manages tuition receivable the same way they did it 20 years ago.

4) Start with Asset Management and Retention
- These are effective short-term strategies, followed by Marketing (a 1 to 3 year strategy) and then Enrollment and Development(3 to 5 year strategies).

For those that are looking for that "fifth" systemic way, just take one day at a time. If you look at a finance department of a major organization, they'll cut checks once a week. So, plan your schedule to work on each of the five aspects of advancement on one day per week. But don't "work" development on Fridays. Development means meeting with people, and Mondays and Fridays are the worst days for that. Schedule that on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Schedule your retention work (letters or phone calls to current parents, etc.) on Fridays. With that in mind, here's a suggested week:

Monday - Marketing
Tuesday - Development
Wednesday - Enrollment
Thursday - Asset Management
Friday - Retention

If you're still asking, "But HOW do I do these things," we'll talk about that next week.

Your School's Web Site

2010-11-14T20:14:00.000-08:00

Blogging once a week about Advancement and "how it works," I'm finding the mindset is a difficult one to build. We're so focused on doing what we need to do in chunks that we fail to see the whole picture. It's how our schools have trained us...first Religion class, then English class, then Math class, then History class, etc.

Similarly, schools that are still "Fundraising" go from the candy sale, to the flower sale, to the fruit sale, to the wrapping paper sale, to the cookie dough sale, to the pie sale, to the - you get the idea - while hoagies (or subs or grinders) are sold every month along with Market Day and other tasks where we keep asking the same people to buy the same stuff month after month.

But now, in these economic times, what do you think will be the first thing to go when people are cutting back on their expenses? Marketing (since it really doesn't raise any money for us) and Development (since Development takes too long to get to the money part, and we need money now).

Development is the practice of building long term relationships rather than just focusing on short term sales. As those relationships deepen, people become engaged with the mission of your school and will commit their time, talent and treasure to seeing it succeed. And just like another long term vehicle, the stock market, there can be some setbacks on the road to success.

Remember, if Catholic school families had practiced planned giving 50 years ago, we'd be one of the most well-funded institutions in the nation. But that was 1959, and we had the Sisters teaching in our schools. Of course, we couldn't imagine life without them back then. Today, we don't have to imagine.

So let's say we make the commitment to move forward with Development. That's when you start to realize that you have to communicate with people (marketing), and while you're communicating why it's important to support the school, you have to also communicate with prospective parents so they will enroll their children in the school. Then you have to try to retain those students, because they become alumni only if they graduate, and the alumni are the ones who have the greatest possibility of giving back your school through your development efforts.

Now you've graduated from "just doing Development" to "Advancement." In order to advance toward your institution's vision, all these things have to happen...and that's where I get into a battle regarding the difference between "Mission" and "Vision." "Mission" is a "development" "thing" - people must become engaged with your schools' "mission." But really, even though there are companies out there that say you can "advance your mission," what does that mean? It means that you must always move forward so that you can continue to fulfill your school's mission.

This view is limited, in that moving forward is unidirectional. Moving forward implies that you cannot move up, down, side to side or in reverse.

You can, however, "Advance toward your vision." Although it implies direction, your vision may not be "somewhere down the road." The goal of advancement is growth. Think of it as three-dimensional. You're at a particular starting point - and rather than moving from here to there, the starting point expands in all directions...like a small golf ball that becomes the size of a basketball...and continues to grow.

Personally, I like to use this model as a representation of Kingdom of God. We build it by starting at a particular point, and then work toward making it grow exponentially into a larger and larger sphere. The model is further concretized when you consider the term "Spheres of Influence."

To make this happen, three things are required - a compelling vision, leadership, and proper tools to do the job.

Two examples to prove the point. First, recall the 2008 presidential election. Let's forget about experience vs. inexperience, potential racial barriers, right vs. left, etc. Here's the one thing that I heard NO ONE talk about - old vs. new (Gasp - you can't talk about that...that's age discrimination). No - I didn't say "old vs. young," I said "old vs. new." "We bought a new house," the proud homeowner exclaims. "How old is it," the friend replies. "Oh, it's about 13 years old, but it's in really great shape." You've all heard that conversation - people buy "new." The conversation is a little different when a family purchases a house that was built in the 1960's. It goes like this: "We bought a house. Yeah, it's a fixer-upper, but we got it at a great price." The image was that John McCain, an older (and certainly more experienced) man represented the Republican leadership of this country (even though Congress had a democratic majority). The image that Barack Obama projected was as a confident advocate of change, presenting a new compelling vision.

Second, recall last year's systemic collapse of the American economy. If America is government "For the people, by the people, and of the people," then who is the Federal Government? It's you and me. "We, the people." And perhaps we've finally realized that we are the ones who bailed out the banks and the auto industry in the hope of a fast recovery. The short-term solution has saddled our nation with the largest debt in its history. A long-term solution would have brought about progress over time, but we needed to see some kind of action to reverse the recession, and needed it NOW.

So how does this relate to the title of today's article, and your Web site for your school. Well, "You need it NOW." If you've been putting it off because it's too expensive to rework it, or it will take too much time, you will not only lose potential students because parents think they won't be able to afford the tuition, or it will take them too much time and energy to find information about your school if you don't put it at their fingertips.

But just as fundraising has advanced to development which has advanced to, well, advancement, it's now no longer just enough to have a "nice" Web site. Companies like SchoolWires.com, FinalSite.com and YourMembership.com build some of the most high-end, great looking sites out there, but they're expanding their services to include forms creation, teacher pages, video vaults, and other solutions which schools will need to serve this and the next generation of parents. eChalk.com and SchoolWorld.com are some others you should check out to provide these services to your school.

In times of economic hardship, one of the first things companies cut back on is advertising since it's the easiest place to look at to cut spending. But, the risk is that they will be out of the public eye, and their downfall will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By cutting marketing efforts, institutions say, "Oh, people know enough about us already."

Can we say that about our schools? If we can't, then it's time to INVEST in a Web site...a professionally-made one. If you need the recommendation of a great company that has made some great reasonably-priced Web sites, check out Third Planet Communications (http://www.333planet.com/).

Why is this so important today? Because the next generation of parents (which will have school-aged children within the next 3 to 5 years) are today's college students that are communicating with Facebook and cell phones. If you don't have the vision and leadership necessary to create a robust and interactive Web presence for your school, you may not need a Web site...but you may need a lock for your school's front door.

"Systemicity"

2010-11-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

I like when synchronicity happens.

Sometimes, it means less work, as it does in the case of this week's post. Since this blog is all about how "advancement" works as a system, I just found a great concrete example I can use to describe it. I was installing one of those under-the-cabinet radios in our kitchen recently. I emptied the bottom shelf, got the template, taped it in, drilled the holes, and then fed the screws in from the top. While I balanced the radio with one hand under the cabinet, I attached each screws just a little so that all five of them would support the radio.

My wife looked at what I was doing and said, "I hope that's not going to hang down like that." I said of course not, since all the screws had to be tightened. Then I started tightening - first one for a couple of turns, then another, then another, going around to each screw several times. My wife said, "That's taking a long time - can't you just tighten one screw first? Then it hit me - sure I could, but I'd have to hold the radio in place. If I let it hang, then tightening one screw would make the other ones jam up.

And isn't it the same with our schools? If they're being supported well, and everything's in place, then we can tweak our marketing, or re-examine our development strategies. But more often than not, our schools are just "hanging" out there, beset by the latest financial crisis, hoping families don't leave, and, if they stay, that they pay their tuition.

The only way to lift the radio quickly is to have five hands, each with a screwdriver, all turning at the same rate. Similarly, if we want fast action in our schools, then we have to hire an enrollment/admissions director, a development director, a marketing director and a business manager (the principal can play the role of the retention manager) to make sure all those processes are in place.

But it wouldn't be enough to say to several secretaries that this is the job that they are going to do - their learning curve would be too steep. And hiring seasoned professionals that can do the job is outside the budgetary constraints of many schools.

Then how do we "lift" our schools up? A little at a time. But we have to start - and lifting our schools requires even more than just advancement strategies. First, you have to have a good product.

When I was the program director of the local public radio station, the general manager said that we have to market ourselves since nobody knows about us. I said that we first have to make sure we're putting out a quality product, since if we do great marketing, and people tune in to hear poor programming, mispronunciations or operational miscues, they'll tune out and tell all their friends how bad we are.

Similarly, the "left side" of your "boat," (more about that later), consists of five elements:

faith identity or founder's heritage
activities
curriculum
technology
surroundings

For more about "Systemicity," check out SchoolAdvancement's "Marketing Matters" at http://www.schooladvancement.com/-systemicity-.htm.

Now, what's this about a "boat?" If you were part of the CSAANYS or NYSCAIRS conference in Albany, New York last week, you may have attended a session titled, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat: [Your School's] Life is But a DREAM." Those that attended said it gave a great example of how the left side of the boat (the concrete items listed above) need to balance with the right side of the boat (the abstract items as set forth in the DREAM framework). It's systems thinking in action...and systems thinking is one of the five disciplines of a learning organization.

It's interesting...Peter M. Senge made this comment in 1990 in his book, "The Fifth Discipline." Very few people had read it; yet, it's exactly what we need to know to help our schools do what they need to do today.

Spending Money to Make Money...But Where Do You Get the Money to Spend?

2010-11-01T04:35:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years, I've adopted a personal motto, and in the spirit of most mottos, as best as I can, I've translated it into Latin: Nihil est facile; nihil est gratuitum. It means, "Nothing is easy; nothing is free."

What most schools want to do is just increase revenues, since most have cut their budgets to the bone. They don't want to spend money on a Development or Advancement Director, or, if they do, then they expect that person to raise funds with no budget.

As can be expected, frustration sets in, and it's decided that doing nothing is more fiscally prudent. It's one of the reasons why the average "life expectancy" of a Development or Advancement Director is 18 MONTHS, while it takes at least 3 to 5 YEARS to get the development ball rolling into somewhat of a juggernaut.

Unfortunately, more of the same happens, and the downward spiral continues. And in critical economic times, there are more and more opportunities for systemic "glitches" to occur.

In light of all that is changing around us, this may be the time to make some incredibly unprecedented changes as well, bringing another well-known phrase mind: "Drastic times means drastic measures."

One avenue you might consider is to employ a tuition management company, such as FACTS, to manage your tuition capture process. If families want to pay on a monthly basis, the payment is taken from the responsible payer's savings or checking account. Such action stops slow pay families and results in a more predictable cash flow for your school.

If families choose not to participate in this type of monthly program, then they can pay their tuition in full, up-front, before the school year begins. And many do! Upfront tuition collection increases, which allows interest to be earned on those funds. That's interest that was never garnered before, and can provide some funds to begin your advancement program (since development is only a part of advancement). Once you automate the tuition revenue capture, you then have time to work on calling those families that have expressed an interest in enrolling their students for the following year...and more students in the school means the more families to help share the financial burdens, making things easier for everyone.

I'm the local FACTS representative for West Virginia, Upstate New York and all of Pennsylvania (except for Philadelphia) and as of January 1, Ohio, but if you're in other areas of the country, I can put you in contact with your local representative. Or, simply click http://www.factsmgt.com for more information. We even have tools to help your Development efforts raise even MORE revenues for your school through online giving, and our program is affordable. How affordable? Can you carve $500 out of your budget, or ask a donor to make an investment gift of $500 for the first year of service? Indeed, nothing is easy and nothing is free, but FACTS Donor Services is as close as you're going to get to both of those two utopias.

Events - Are They Really Worth It?

2010-10-25T06:16:00.000-07:00

Change takes time and energy. So does developing "Advancementality" (a mindset that realizes advancement as a living system of Development, Retention, Enrollment, Asset Management and Marketing).

Events can be considered fundraisers - but are they really "development" activities? Are they worth it? I've seen both ends of the spectrum.

One organization I've worked with planned a concert with a local popular band, but made it into a two-day affair. The evening before had a dinner at a very nice restaurant for a limited number of people (who could all be seated at the same table) with members of the band. Diners paid a fee to have the privilege of attending the event, and the restaurant donated the room and the food. The servers were compensated for their attentiveness that evening. The concert was open to the community and held at a local popular theatrical venue. There was a silent auction, and the band got to sell their promotional items. Two musical instruments signed by members of the band were auctioned off between the opening act and the main performance.

Funds realized - about $40,000.

Another organization I've worked with planned what was historically one of the largest fundraisers of year for the hosting group. At least 40 or so marching bands came together yearly for a State competition near the end of October. Planning for this event took months - silent auctions, candygrams, 50/50 raffle, program production with advertisements, hosts for all the visiting bands, parking for all the parents and relatives, hotel rooms for the judges, practice field coordination and parking for the buses and trailers for each band, and, of course, the concession stand with all the food and baked goods needed for an event which begins at 10 AM and runs through 11 PM.

Thanks to the weather that day, the group experienced everything from sunny skies to a 20 degree drop in temperature during the day, to hail, to high winds, to rain, to the sky turning an interesting shade of green-gray, to snow, and finally to a clear sky at night with freezing temperatures. When all was said and done, if all of the 85 families of the organization that hosted the event put $10 in a basket, it would have collected more money than was realized in dollars raised on that day.

With that in mind here's an SAT type question for you - What is the main purpose of events? (Remember that in an SAT question, two of the choices can be eliminated because they are incorrect. One of the remaining choices is the "best" answer to the question, but both choices could very well be the correct answer - it's just that one of them is the "better" answer):

a) To raise a lot of money in a very short period of time
b) To build community awareness of the organization
c) To involve the larger community with the hopes of engaging more people in the mission of your organization
d) To bring members of the organization together by working toward a common goal

Let's eliminate the answers one at a time -

d) is incorrect. This is a benefit of scheduling, planning and executing an event, but certainly not its main purpose.

b) is also incorrect. There are certainly other ways marketing can occur. While this is also a benefit of an event, it is not its main purpose.

That leaves a) and c).

a) is also incorrect, as illustrated by the above example. Although this is why most organizations plan events and invite people to events, so many things (like weather, conflicting schedules, and other more popular events) can contribute to an event's financial success or failure.

c) is the correct answer. The goal of Development (since events are part of Development) is to continually engage more and more people in the mission of the organization. Not just involve - engage. It is this engagement which will lead to gifts in the forms of time, talent and treasure.

In terms of advancement, the real success will lie in what happens the following year, and what lessons are learned as the organization advances. In the case of the successful concert, the band could not perform the next year, so a different event was scheduled. While it was a very popular show, it generated a little more than half of what the dinner and concert brought in. In the case of the State competition, other systems were investigated over the course of the year to make for more successful and consistent sources of income, so that the next time the state competition came along, any funds raised from it could be considered as "gravy" rather than part of the income budgeted for the organization.

Next week, a little more about "Spending Money to Make Money."

Baby Steps Marketing

2010-10-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

Looking for some good news?

Even though some experts say the economy is starting to turn around (by the way, they said that last year at this time too), we still hear about the war in Afghanistan, the continuing health care debate, rising unemployment rates and the long period of recovery we can look forward to.

The Good News is that we are people of hope. St. Paul said that there are three things that last - faith, hope and love. Faith is belief, hope is trust, and love is sacrifice. Unfortunately there are those today who do not believe, who do not trust, and who do not sacrifice. Fortunately, if you are reading this, we are engaged in faith-based schools which allow students to do all those things. Hopefully, we'll train up this generation in the "way they should go."

One way to make sure there are students in our schools is through "Baby Steps" Marketing.

It helps to realize that both Enrollment and Development are both "long-term" strategies. They require "sales processes," such as meticulous record-keeping, relationship building, and systematic follow-up. If you're not doing these things and wondering why your enrollment is declining and blaming the lack of contributions on the economy, then you're not doing what you have to do.

Realizing that we don't simply just walk up to a potential donor and ask them for a contribution, much the same process of engagement has to be practiced with potential parents. A relationship must first be established with a prospective donor before that prospect can become "engaged" - participating in a deeper relationship - with the school. Engagement is the step that must occur before the person becomes a contributing donor to the school.

Similarly, we can't simply approach a parent when a child turns 5 and expect them to enroll their precious little one in our school - especially if we are charging a significant price for tuition. The engagement process starts right after the child is born! When a child is born in your parish family or Church family, make note of it in your meticulous record-keeping system. When the child is baptized in Church, that is their "starting day." After all, it's said in the Baptism ritual that the child has become a new creation that day. On that occasion, a letter is sent to the the parents and the child from the Bishop (in the case of a Catholic school) of the Diocese where the school is located, along with a small appropriate plush animal. I would suggest a lamb, since Jesus is the Good Shepherd and looks after the sheep - and finds the ones who stray. Maybe there is an organization at the Church or parish who would like to embroider the school logo on a baby blanket and present it as a gift to the child.

On the first anniversary of the Baptism, the parents and child receive a letter from the Superintendent of Schools, along with a magnetic picture frame that parents can put on their refrigerator. The border of this frame says, "Future Catholic School Student," and the child's picture is placed in the frame for all to see.

On the second anniversary of the Baptism, the parents and child receive a small book of a child's first prayers since the child should be learning his/her prayers at that time, along with a letter from the Pastor of the parish, inviting them to be a part of the community and to experience the school.

On the third anniversary of the Baptism, the moms and child receive an invitation to an open house tea from the principal of the school. At this point, the child is 3 years old, and may be ready to enter a PK3 program. If your school has one, you've now earned the right to ask that parent to consider your school since you've laid the groundwork for the past three years.

If you've read this and say, "This doesn't apply to me - I don't have a Pre-K program," now is the time to start one. It's the best feeder system you can get in an elementary school, especially if you include the parents in the school activities to make them a part of the school community. In many areas, Pre-K programs become "money making" programs because of their demand.

A word of caution - I have spoken with many principals that have said they have a great relationship with "an organization that's right down the road from them" that have a Pre-K program, and don't want to start their own to provide competition and jeopardize that relationship. I can point to a couple of examples where that local organization has discontinued their Pre-K program, leaving the school with having to build a program from scratch, missing out on enrolling students by creating a competing Pre-K environment. When the future of your school is at stake, remember that doing the right thing isn't always the easiest thing to do.

And don't we teach that to the children in our schools?

Financial Aid and Your School's Tuition Model

2010-10-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

Tuition - there's that ugly word. "What does it cost," asks the parent who calls the school. The school gives a yearly figure. "Well, our tuition is $3,000 per student, but that doesn't..." The conversation stops there because the interested parent has just hung up the phone. The bewildered school official is upset that she didn't get a chance to tell the parent that if there is more than one child, there is a second child discount of $1,000, except that if the child is non-Catholic, then the tuition is $3,500 for the first student, and there is a reduction in the second child discount.

Reduction in the discount? Okay, well what if the first child is Catholic, and second one isn't (you know - today's "blended family")? And that brings up the Catholic/non-Catholic issue - are we engaging in discriminatory practices? Especially if they receive government monies or vouchers! Who do we base the Catholicity on - the parent or legal guardian (since they're the one footing the tuition bill), or the student? Or, if we're talking about people footing the bill, maybe it's the Grandparents!

I'm a firm believer that the problem isn't the tuition - it's all the other "stuff" that goes with it - just like all the disclaimers that come at the end of a car commercial that advertises a great payment yet assumes $3000 cash or trade down and excludes taxes, registration and delivery charges, etc.

Since Catholic schools started charging tuition, parishes associated with the schools still considered them to be a ministry (as many still do today) of the Church. Therefore, they subsidize the cost of education in order to keep tuition at a minimum - or as minimal as possible. Until recently, the usual formula was that that parish provided half the cost of education and tuition covered the rest, which was fine - until parish attendance started declining. In some parishes, half the cost of education can be 75% of the parish income. Some Dioceses have put rules of percentages in place, mandating that parishes can contribute no more than X% of a school's operating cost - and the rest must be made through tuition and fundraising income.

Remember that fundraising used to be a way to raise money quickly - as in, "We're going to fall $3000 short this month, so lets raise some money quickly...let's sell some Christmas candy!" Now, parents are selling stuff all the time, and fundraising has become a way of life. To be honest, fundraising has its place, but not to raise "reliable" revenues. But that's another conversation for another day.

Then come the dreaded fees - technology fee, uniform fee, supplies and materials fee, book fee, development fee (if you don't want to participate in fundraising), graduation fee, and of course, the application fee.

Note that you shouldn't call it a registration fee anymore. Registration implies unconditional acceptance. If, as a Catholic (or any other faith-based or private school) you are not equipped to handle the needs of a child, and you accept that child in your school through registration, you are legally bound to provide whatever accommodations are needed for that child to achieve to his/her fullest potential. Using the words "application fee" means that there is some type of screening that must occur before a student is accepted.

Back to the tuition, though. If you're giving a multi-child discount on your tuition in a subsidy model, please note that your parents are not only receiving the equivalent of financial aid for their first child, but that they're also receiving more financial aid for the second child. The danger in having parents complete an application for financial aid is that they will then be receiving an additional amount of financial aid that will be applied to the tuition cost that they pay out of pocket.

Therefore, here's the scenario - cost of education at school = $5000 per child.

Family with two children - tuition for first child = $2500; tuition for two children = $4000.

This means that the tuition for the second child is $1500. The family then says they cannot afford $4000, so the school finance committee considers their letter, takes pity on them and offers them $400, a 10% reduction. The resultant amount is $3600, and the family pays it on a monthly basis at $360 per month.

From the family's perspective, that's the equivalent of their car payment.

The problem - this family may not need the extra 10% - but they asked and they received. Or, this family might need a lot more than the $400, but the school doesn't have anymore to give. They're then candidates for withdrawal, especially since the $360 a month doesn't include the fees for band, field trips, technology, supplies and development. That comes to $100 for band, $50 for the field trips, $200 for technology, $50 for supplies and $300 for development. That's an extra $700, which has to be paid before the end of September and cannot be spread over 10 months. That family better REALLY love your school, and their experience has to be an incredible one in order that you retain them.

In reality, the cost of educating these two children is $10,700 (2 x cost of education plus the $700 in fees). The family is receiving $2,500 in financial aid for the first child, and $3,500 in financial aid for the second child, and an additional $400 from the financial committee, for a total of $6,400 in financial aid, making the tuition $4,300 for both children, or $2,150 for each child.

Does the family need $6,400 in financial aid? If you don't have a financial aid assessment tool, then you don't know. They might need more! They might not need anything, and receive because they ask.

The other problem with subsidy is that it make a pastor shudder when the principal reports an enrollment increase. If the pastor is subsidizing at the 50% level, exciting news, such as 20 additional students are coming to the school, leave the pastor wondering where he's going to get the extra $50,000 that will be consumed from his parish subsidization fund if tuition is $2,500 per child!!

You may be able to move to a full cost tuition model. In this model, all expenses - fees, costs of administration, staff, curriculum, cleaning supplies - everything that is paid for is put into a column, tabulated and then divided by the number of students in the school to come up with a cost per student figure. Don't forget to include savings for capital expenditures to your school.

The subsidy from the parish, as well as non-designated funds from development, are used to provide financial aid to families based on a third-party assessment of the family's financial condition. Some families might be expected to pay the full $5,000 for their daughter to attend your school, but others may not even be able to pay $500 a year for their son to attend. The only way you'll know is with a Grant and Aid Assessment evaluation tool. Then, the development income can be used for special projects, and the parish subsidy can be converted to a source of financial aid for students in need.

Such an approach does two things:
1) It demonstrates transparency and fiscal responsibility to parents, as well as community constituents - including donors. Donors will give to your school if you have a quality program where quality is demonstrable, and you have a handle on your costs and can provide a report that's transparent, demonstrating stewardship of the resources which have been entrusted to you.
2) It allows you to fill every desk. If there is an empty desk in a classroom, it doesn't cost you anything more to fill it after the school year has started. So fill it. The parent is then pulled into the financial aid application process for the following year. What happens is quite magical. In a full cost tuition model, as enrollment goes up, the cost of education can go down. Once that happens, and people find out tuition is declining, waiting lists start to be created. Tuition can actually decrease under a full cost model, and time can be spent discussing enrollment strategies rather than worrying about how much of a tuition increase "we can live with" for the next year. A subsidy mindset does not allow for long-range planning and compelling visions to present to your parents relative to what kind of educational experience their child will have. A cost-based tuition/need-based aid approach does.

Oh - almost forgot. Have a vehicle to collect your tuition. If you just invoice the family, your priority is at the bottom of their list because they have other bills to pay that have consequences if they miss a payment. You're the school - you have to understand their inability to pay, right? Only if they understand your inability to stay open without them accepting the responsibility to pay tuition for their children.

Asset Management affects Development, Enrollment and Retention. And your tuition has to be marketable, and your school office needs to know how to communicate tuition costs to your prospective families. What would you rather hear?

- Our tuition? It's $5000 a child...yeah, I know it's steep, but we gotta pay teachers today, y'know.

Or

- Our tuition? Most of our families apply for and receive financial aid, with the average award being around $2100. That means our average tuition is about $2900 per child with all fees included. Higher amounts of financial aid are awarded since our aid process takes multiple children into consideration. Of course, if you've been blessed to the point that you can afford the full tuition of $5000 per child, that would be a great blessing to share with the school.

Surveying Your Parents About "Their Experience"

2010-10-02T22:07:00.001-07:00

Continuing on from last week, "The Experience" is one of your school's keys to successful student retention - or should I say, parent retention. Remember that the first step to building enrollment is keeping the students you have. While I have not been able to find scholarly research on the topic, anecdotal examples in today's Catholic schools show 8th grade enrollment is around 50% of the corresponding Kindergarten cohort. In other words, if you have 29 students in Kindergarten, odds are that by the time that class gets to 8th grade, there will be about 15 students left under "normal" circumstances.

And we are not living in "normal" times.

To jump back to an exercise that was done when this blog was first begun, it is your school's "remarkability" that not only creates but enhances your students' and parents' experience of your school. If there's something that draws parents to your school in order to enroll their children because there's no other school in the local area that can offer this "experience," your retention success may be better than the school that simply says, "We're a better choice than the local public school because we can celebrate our faith." The only time this position can be considered "remarkable" is if you are the only faith-based school within a 25 mile radius.

An exercise that will help discover your school's "remarkability" AND give you insight as to how to increase retention through quality experiences is to ask your long-tenured parents.

Ask parents of 8th graders (that have been there since Kindergarten) three questions:
1) Why they have kept their children in your school;
2) On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, rate their experience at your school; and
3) If answer #2 is not a 10, what one thing would the school need to make that answer a 10.

But Parents With Young Children Aren't Moving Into the Area Where My School is Located!

2010-09-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

How many times have we heard about changing demographics, changing economic circumstances and changing attitudes based on experiences. How many times have we heard that all those changes are detrimental to our schools' survival? Here's a newsflash - EVERYTHING changes. If nothing changed, we would become stagnant, and we would die.

Just think of the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has no outflow, hoards all the water that comes into it, and has one of the highest saline concentrations of any body of water in the world. Nothing lives in it (okay, something lives it - it can support certain types of bacteria).

The Sea of Galilee is teeming with life, and is always changing. Water flows in, water flows out. Fish thrive.

Think of your own self, too. What would happen if we only had the ability to inhale?

Now, think of your school and the children that flow through them. The more children that flow through our schools, the more life that is in our hallways, the more vibrant our schools are. So if people aren't moving in to our area, how can we get more children in our schools? Here are three ways to increase your school's enrollment: Retention (the "experience"), marketing ("Baby Steps") and development (Community events). Once again, this is another example how all aspects of advancement are related. I've put items in parenthesis so these can be discussed a little at a time over the next month.

Retention
There's an old adage in the media business - the first step to build an audience is to keep the audience you have. That's why when you're watching TV or listening to the radio, they tell you what's coming up next. They'll hope you'll like whatever's coming up that you'll stay tuned. Applying this to schools, the first step to build your enrollment is to keep the students you have. (It's the title of my new book which will be available soon!) There are three "top-line" considerations relative to retention:

The "experience"
Financial aid (one part of Asset Management)
Tuition model (the other part of Asset Management)

Just think if you could poll all the parents in the public school system in which your school is located. What if you asked them, "If you are dissatisfied with the education your child is receiving, and you could enroll them in the school of your choice if the tuition was low, would you do so?" What do you think their answer would be? I would hazard to guess the answer would be split. If parents were in a district with a high amount of low socioeconomic constituents, I would say they would want to leave the public school district, but many would stay (and continue to complain); if parents were in a district with a low amount of low socioeconomic constituents, I would say they would remain in the public school district.

A quick look at why this is so. Since school districts receive funding based on the tax base of the local community, low socioeconomic communities in large part have little tax base to draw upon to attract and retain highly-qualified teachers, support top-rate athletics and activities that support and enhance classroom learning, and provide the technological infrastructure necessary to train children to compete in the world marketplace of the 21st century. Although some private and faith-based schools in these communities show better academic scores due to, perhaps, smaller class sizes and personalized instruction, these schools face the same challenges as their public school counterparts do. Further, if students would leave, there would be more resources to be expended to benefit the students that remained, and the public school environment could be improved, while the private and faith-based school might continue to languish.

Conversely, those in high socioeconomic environments endure the inconveniences due to well-maintained facilities, excellent extra-curricular activities that may have a reputation of a winning tradition, technology enhanced learning opportunities and special programs such as vo-tech career training. If the local faith-based or private school cannot provide these, chances are students will remain in the public school.

The underlying reason that drives both of these scenarios - schools are not just schools...they're societies, communities, social networks. Once a person is inculcated into a free society or a tight-knit community, it is very difficult to choose to opt for one that may have more potential, yet come with responsibilities and expectations.

Additionally, one would think that since a large exodus from a school would be disastrous, a large influx would be a blessing. That's not necessarily so, as any type of radical change brings about other changes - some that might not be very popular or could be fiscally constrictive. For instance, if a large number of 6th graders suddenly moved from one school to another (because all the parents got together and decided they wanted their kids to go to school together, and if one was going to do it, they would all do it), there would need to be a choice made - either a) split the children 14 children up into the 2 existing 6th grade classrooms that had 24 children each - now there will be 31 children in each classroom; or b) hire another 6th grade teacher - but you'd need an additional 4 children or the new teacher hiring would mean a net loss of funds for your school, since there would be 3 classes of 20, 21 and 21 respectively - and you need 22 in each class to make budget. By telling some of those parents that they would be placed on a waiting list since your maximum class size was 29, you'd run the risk of losing all of them.

The easiest changes to make are gradual changes - but the plan for the gradual changes must be known up front. For instance, if you want to exercise at a gym three days a week, it easier to have that goal stated, but then go one day per week until it becomes a habit. Then go two, then finally, go three. You might even go four...or five. But also with that change comes the realization that exercise isn't enough. You need to change your diet. And, you may also have to change your activity schedule so that you can shop for the food to prepare the meals that are necessary for your new diet. Therefore, while gradual changes are good, ALL the known changes necessary for improvement need to be implemented at the same time. The system needs to be put in place. Not doing so gives ample opportunity for failure.

So how do you know if a parents thinks their child is having a good experience of your school? You ask them! We'll cover that next week.

And just so you keep tuning in for the next four weeks to cover this whole topic, here's what we'll be discussing:

October 4: Surveying Your Parents About the "Experience."
October 11: Financial Aid and Your School's Tuition Model
October 18: Marketing (Baby Steps)
October 25: Development (Community Events)

Publication and Placement of Your School's Remarkable Qualities

2010-09-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

I'll bet you can guess the two places where you need to publish your remarkable qualities.

If you said in the local newspaper and in the yellow pages, however, you would be incorrect.

Although advertising has its place, what we're dealing with is marketing, and advertising is only a part of marketing. That's a whole new topic for another day, though.

The correct answer is: 1) in your school's brochure, and 2) on your school's Web site.

There are several schools, I'm sure, that are saying, "We don't have a Web site," or "We're working on getting a Web site," or "Web sites are expensive." If that's where your school is right now, make getting a Web site - no, let me re-emphasize that - make getting a functional, attractive, compelling Web site your number one marketing priority.

Parents of young children today do not look to the newspaper to find out about schooling choices - they don't even necessarily go to the Web first. The first thing they do is talk to the neighbors. Positive "Word of Mouth" is the absolute best type of advertising there is when it comes to enrolling children in your school. After the parent hears about your school through positive word of mouth, however, the next place they look for more information is - the Web. Today, you MUST have a Web site - a functional, attractive, compelling Web site.

Gone are the days where parents can volunteer to put a Web site up for you. Many schools did that in recent times - and many schools continue to close. Your Web site is a reflection of your school. So if you have flashing banners, rotating crosses, and multiple color pages with twinkling stars, chances are your prospective parents will look for something that they can actually read, without having to wade through glitz in order to find the information they're looking for. If they like what they see, THEN they'll call the school.

Your first page of your Web site should list your school's 3 to 5 remarkable qualities. It's the "hook" that will capture a parent of a prospective student's attention. If their attention is captured by the bells and whistles of your Web site, they'll miss your "remarkability" completely.

The second place these remarkable qualities need to be published is in your school's brochure.

Three things about brochures:

1) Make sure they are done on high quality paper - it's easier to throw low quality paper away...and besides, if you don't care enough about your school to put it on the best paper out there, what does that say about your school? You may think that you're frugal, and spend money wisely. However, the prospective parents equates a low-quality publication with a low-quality school. The reasoning is the same as the Web site rationale. When it comes to making an educational choice, parents want value - high-quality for low cost. If you give them a low quality publication, and then show them a tuition that exceeds what they think is a "reasonable" cost, you won't get the chance to tell them that financial aid is available (if they qualify).

2) Don't put a picture of your school with an empty parking lot on it, or no children around the school. Your brochure paints a picture for the parents, personifying the vision that you are creating for your school. If you put an empty parking lot on the brochure, and no children around the school, that's exactly what you'll get.

3) Make sure they are correct. One Catholic school I know has a brochure that says something to the effect of, "Our school follows the example of Jesus, our first teacher." According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as the example of Jesus, that information is completely incorrect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that parents are the first teachers of their children. Further, Scripture shows us that Jesus taught the adults; he blessed the children. Even when He was a child, he taught the adults. It is the responsibility of the adult to teach the children. Teachers should be well-trained, rather than than simply well-meaning people who "want to help," and should also know their role as part of a faith-based school.

Now, where should those brochures be placed. If you said in the back of the church (if your school is associated with a church), that is one place where they should be, but it's not the place where they'll have the most impact. Brochures for schools should be placed where mothers of young children "wait" - since they're all members of Generation X and HATE to wait for anything. If they have to wait, they need something to look at, read, do, etc. The mindset of silence for prayer and meditation while waiting is unknown to this generation. So, while you need to teach them to do that, it is most helpful if they're a part of your school community first.

Where do mothers of young children wait, or, "hang out?" Doctors offices...nail and hair salons...checkout lines...and gyms. Take a supply to all your Realtors in the area as well. If parents with children are moving in to your neighborhood, a brochure from the realtor will reinforce the positive word of mouth advertising...at which point they'll go to the Web sooner to check out your school.

What if parents aren't moving into your neighborhood? We'll touch on that next week, which can also add to the "remarkability" of your school.

Prepare Your Marketing Materials

2010-09-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Now that you've determined your three to five traits that make your school remarkable, remember that they must be truly remarkable traits about your school. There are private Christian and Catholic schools that still believe that because they espouse Gospel values that they are remarkable. In this day and age, yes, and that may be enough when the enrollment choices are either your school or the local public school.

However, there are many choices today - public, private, parochial, cyber, charter, cyber-charter, and, if NONE of the schools in the area are what the parent believes is the best educational environment for their child, then the choice is home schooling. The case is more obvious, however, if there are three Catholic schools within a four-mile radius of a child's home. Saying that the number one remarkable characteristic about the school is that the curriculum is infused with the message of the Gospel is a moot point - because all three schools can say that - or at least, have the potential to say that.

Now - do you still have five remarkable traits? How about this - make sure you have three. Want examples? OK:

- Even though our school is located in one of the most socio-economically disadvantaged areas of the city, we have some of the highest standardized testing scores in the county!
- Our jump rope team has started a national trend, and has performed at the White House!
- We have a weekly all-school Mass at 1 PM on Friday afternoons, followed by an open-house!
- Our average SAT scores are the highest in the county!

If you can put an exclamation point after the statement about your school, and mean it, there's a good chance that it's remarkable! Once again, these remarkable traits must be yours and only yours. If someone else is doing it too, you may be perceived as an imitator rather than an innovator.

Next week, we'll get to the two places where these remarkable traits should be published, and then where they should be placed.

Enrollment Planning

2010-09-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

You still have time to discern three to five things that make your school remarkable. When you've discovered them, those are the things that you'll emphasize in your marketing materials. We'll discuss those next week, but, as promised, it helps to know that you just can't make a brochure, send it out, and expect parents to show up at your door.

Many school administrators think that the success of marketing is demonstrated by an enrollment increase. That's incorrect.

Marketing success is demonstrated by an increase in the number of inquiries to the school. Capturing them, cultivating them, and turning those inquiries into enrollments is the measure of success in your enrollment program.

When you begin your enrollment planning, you'll want to get a few things lined up and ready to go, such as:

1) An information sheet to get all the demographic data you can about the family (I call that the INFORM(TM) form, which stands for "Information Needed For Our Record Maintenance").

2) A postcard that you can send to your potential families to direct them to your Web site. But don't just say, "Check out our Web site." Every action must be purposeful. On your Web site, have some information about a special event that's coming up, and make a big deal about it on your home page. Have one of these events every month, so that prospective parents can find out about something different that may appeal to them. For instance, September may have an invitation to the opening all-school Mass; October may have a Saints Pageant in preparation for All Saints Day on November 1; November has a Thanksgiving assembly. You get the idea.

3) Prepare a series of letters to parents - a parent to a parent, a faculty member to the prospective child, a child to a child, an alum (one that has gone on to do successful things) to a parent. Send one of these every other week to the family. You can also send the family a financial aid application. All these things should keep your school "top of mind" of the prospective parent.

SchoolAdvancement.com has prepared a form to record demographic information about your families, and on the back is a tracking sheet to help you track your contact progress with the family. There's also an enrollment estimating tool that is research based which can help your school develop a target enrollment for the coming year. For more information about these tools, send an email to admin@schooladvancement.com.

Have You Determined What Makes Your School Remarkable?

2010-08-31T08:39:00.001-07:00

School is probably in full swing for you right now, or you're getting ready for it to be. Between the preparations and last minute items to get everything set and ready to roll, and this week's pressures that accompany the start of a new year (gotta get those text books covered and have the parents sign the school's handbooks), you've probably not had time to really give serious consideration to the "remarkability" of your school.

Since this weekend coming up is Labor Day weekend, plan on taking some time and writing down those great qualities of your school that you believe makes it a remarkable place to be. Maybe ask your teachers what they think is remarkable about your school. Your staff too. And, it couldn't hurt - and, in fact, would be incredibly beneficial, to ask some of your parents - primarily those who are supporters (in terms of time, talent and treasure) of your school. Then, distill those ideas down into 3 to 5 that make your school REALLY remarkable.

Remember, items regarding faith-based, academic excellence and safe and caring environment don't count. They're not remarkable - they're expected. Concentrate on those things that set you apart from everyone else.

But do it this month - you'll take those ideas to help create a marketing plan in order for you to build enrollment. A tool which will let you do that will be discussed next week.

As you can see, in only a few short weeks, we've moved from strategic planning to marketing and will be moving on to enrollment. You can't simply work on one aspect of advancement and then move on to the next when the first one is done. The fact is that it's never done. Advancement is a living system, and what happens in one area (a child is disenrolled) affects another (tuition may rise, a future alum is lost, a parent is disenfranchised). The fruits of advancement are reaped by those with the patience to plan their work and work their plan, and persevere during the most difficult times.

What Makes Your School Remarkable?

2010-08-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

Now that you know what your school's strengths are, the next step is marketing them to the community. While that may sound simple, there are two things that must be considered.

First, there are usually many communities within a community, and developing one message and then distributing it to all of your communities is not necessarily the best method to accomplish your objectives.

Second, you need to examine your strengths before creating a marketing plan.

Let's start with the second first. Are your strengths "typical?" For instance, if you're a faith-based school, does your school offer:

Faith-based values allowing the formation of the entire person?
Small class sizes to promote personalized learning which result in higher academic performance? and
A safe and caring community to nurture each person as an individual?

If so, then your school is NOT remarkable, since almost every faith-based school can say the same thing. While these are excellent qualities, it's not something that's going to bring parents to your door and only your door. It will bring them to your door as well as to the doors of other faith-based schools that are in their area. In this respect, a faith-based school's greatest competition is not necessarily the local public school.

If two or more faith-based schools have the same "big 3" strengths, then the winner will usually be the one that has the lowest tuition - and price is something that you don't even want to get into with a marketing mindset. That has to be saved for the enrollment process.

So, while you're keeping these thoughts in mind (we'll return to them later), think of the strengths that make your school, "your school!" What makes it a remarkable place to be, to learn, to grow? If you don't know, take some time to find out by really revisiting your strengths again. It could be mean the difference between being able to create a strategic five-year plan versus a closure ceremony in the near future.

Lead With Your Strengths

2010-08-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

Now that you're aware of your school's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it's time to pick a direction. Realizing that opportunities and threats are external to your school, it's always best to focus on the things your can deal with - the internal aspects, which are strengths and weaknesses. It's best to start with those things that you've identified as positive attributes about your school.

But let's talk about "you" for a moment. There are several books on "Strength Finding" on the market. One of the most telling for education professionals is "Teach With Your Strengths." The book is a quick read, since most of the book describes the attributes of each particular strength. After reading the first few chapters, the book directs you to an online Web site to help determine your top five strengths.

Just like playing Bridge, you lead with your strong suit, even though you may have to incorporate other aspects into your plans.

For instance, I always thought that one of my strengths was organization. I tried my best to always be organized so I knew where things were, could reference them quickly, and keep things tidy. While that's important, I found out it was not one of my five greatest strengths, which explained why I had to keep working at it.

Strengths are something that you're already good at. One of my identified strengths is "Connectedness." This pertains to getting people together, establishing cooperative projects, networking and certainly has application to communicating via the Internet. When I was an an advancement position, this was a great strength to lead with - allowing me to leave the organization aspects to someone who's good at that.

Once you've found your strengths, consider the strengths of your school. Are they congruent? If so, you're in an excellent position to "identify" with your school. As a leader of the school, you will become synonymous with the school...which is why there is so much "shakeup" when leadership changes.

After you've found your strengths, and know the strengths of your school, you can begin to create a marketing plan for your school to capitalize on those strengths. More about that next week. Until then, click http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Teach-with-Your-Strengths/Rosanne-Liesveld/e/9781595620064/?itm=1 and get your copy of "Teach With Your Strengths." It can be a transformative experience for you...and your school.

Refine Your SWOT or TOWS Analysis

2010-08-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Remember that SWOT or TOWS analysis from last week? Have you done it yet. Maybe not - summer vacations and all, or maybe school started for you last week, and you're just getting things going for the current school year. If that's the case, then set some time aside to "think" instead of just "do." It could also be an exercise in creativity, since one of the ways to develop a creative solution is to move completely away from what you're focused on at the present time.

Now, once you've identified your school's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and placed them within a SWOT Matrix Framework, typical strategic planning procedure says to create solutions to your situations.

However, that's jumping the gun at this point. Take time this week to refine your SWOT. Go through it - add, delete, flesh it out with some explanation and create narrative to describe the bullet points. Jot down resources that may be tapped to help take advantage of the opportunities.

Once you go through it, go through it again. Your goal is to create a narrative report for your first parent/board meeting in September relative to "The State of Your School." Then, at that meeting, announce that at the next meeting, you want to provide a vision as to where the school needs to go. Request input from them as to where they would like the school to be in five years.

You may not want to present such a report to the board or to parents, but they need to be engaged in the mission and vision of the school in order to support it. If you are just wanting parents to drop their children off every day, pay their tuition, and become involved in fundraising, it's not going to happen. Parents today need to see results, and schools need to publish those results. That's the task of marketing - but we're not there yet.

All in due time.

Until then, follow these three steps:
Reflect
Refine
Repeat As Necessary

Where Are You Now? Where Do You Want To Be? How Will You Get There?

2010-08-01T21:25:00.001-07:00

These are the three steps to the strategic planning process. This week, take some time - maybe an evening - and think about where your school is right now, at this point in history. Why are you a leader in the school at this point in history...perhaps a development director, perhaps a principal. You are in this position right now for a particular purpose...and whether you believe it or not, you are in this position for a reason that is far beyond human rationalization. Examine the strengths of your school. Write them down. One always leads with their strengths.

Finding your strengths is the first of four things you must discover, including threats, opportunities and weaknesses that affect your school. Most strategic planning texts call this a SWOT analysis. Some work in the opposite direction (TOWS) because it's easier to focus on the things that are wrong with what's going on. If that works for you, that's great. Just write all those things down.

Remember that strengths and weaknesses are internal forces; opportunities and threats are external. Internal items are things that you, as the leader, have control over; external items are things that you, as the leader, have little or no control over.

To help you work through the framework, click http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/swot/ for a little more reading before you begin.

The most important thing, however, is to begin. The first step is the beginning of the journey. Change will never occur unless the first step is taken.

I must add something before next week, however, based on some comments I've received. Note that the title of this posting is "Where Are You Now? Where Do You Want To Be? How Will You Get There?" Perhaps a better title is "Where Is Your School Now? "Where Do You Want It To Be? How Will You Get It There?" since we're speaking of your school rather than "you" personally. But if that would be title, it could be misunderstood - because "Where Do You Want It To Be" might be answered as, "I would like my school to be in a more visible location," or, "I would like my school to be in a newer building which is wired for technology." But the answer is more complex than that - although if that's what you believe would be best for your school's survival, then the next step is to plan how that vision will become reality.

Note that the first part of this posting spoke of you as a leader, so perhaps we have to backtrack just a little.

Another comment was that most strategic planners use the phrase "Where do you want to go," and I changed the last word of that phrase to "be." That was intentional. Therefore, I'll start with an explanation of this first before moving on to the "you" or "your school" argument.

Although the word "go" implies action (which is usually a positive thing), the word "be" implies existence. As a leader of a school, it would make sense that you want your school to still exist 5 or 10 years down the road. Several principals I've spoken to over the years shared the fact that when they were hired, their pastors told them, "You either grow the school, or close the school." There aren't many that choose the latter - or, at least, are aware of choosing to close the school. Some decisions that some leaders make, however, point the school in that direction, which is why a "vision" is necessary. Schools should choose to "be" in five years rather than "go" somewhere. The word "be" generates an endpoint (which can change over time).

It also differentiates the second statement from the third (How will you get there?). When someone says, "Where to you want to go?" the path, the journey, the route, is implied to be a part of that statement since it is action-oriented. Utilizing this phrase could cause contradictory statements to be generated between the vision and the plan to get there. Using the word "be" for the second statement establishes the aforementioned endpoint. It should be as vividly described as the starting point ("Where are you now?"). The more vividly the vision is articulated, the easier it will be to map the journey ("How will you get there?).

As for why I said "you" rather than "the school" is two-fold. First, we know that we must love ourselves first before we can love another. Similarly, before we can effectively lead a strategic planning process for the school we lead, we must also think about such a process personally. Where do you - personally - what to "be" in five years? Is it still as the leader of this school? Or are your aspirations higher? Maybe you want to be the principal at your school for three years and then begin to seek a superintendency. If that's the case, then developing a six-year strategic plan means that you should have two plans for the school - one that is three-years in the making, and another that is six-years long.

Why? Because if you're working toward your personal plan and leave in three years, you can bet that the new leader will not follow a strategic plan for the school from the previous leader - especially if the results generated did not meet the benchmarks that were established for successful assessment. Such a change throws the community of the school into chaos for a while, which takes some time to settle (usually until a new plan is established). Therefore, before you can decide the three strategic components for the school, you must decide the three strategic components for you as a leader within this school community.

Second, the leader, over time, becomes synonymous with the school to all constituencies involved - students, parents, community leaders, business leaders, alumni, parishioners and donors. Good leaders prepare for the continued success of the organizations which they lead. So, perhaps a personal strategic planning session is necessary first, examining your personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It would be a good first step to preparing a strategic plan for your school or your school's advancement efforts. Sometimes, that's even harder to do that preparing a plan for your school since it involves introspection...and prayer.

The Advancement Director's Schedule

2010-07-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

7:30 - 9:00 Aspect 1

9:00- 10:30 Aspect 2

10:30 - 11:00 BREAK

11:00 - 12:30 Aspect 3

12:30 - 2:00 LUNCH

2:00 - 3:30 Aspect 4

3:30- 5:00 Aspect 5

MONDAY -

7:30 - 9:00 Development

9:00- 10:30 Retention

10:30 - 11:00 BREAK (Get some tea and return office phone calls)

11:00 - 12:30 Marketing

12:30 - 2:00 LUNCH (meet with Diocesan Development Director)

2:00 - 3:30 Enrollment

3:30- 5:00 Asset Management

TUESDAY

7:30 - 9:00 Asset Management (continued from yesterday)

9:00- 10:30 Enrollment

10:30 - 12:00 Marketing - meeting with committee

12:00 - 1:30 LUNCH

1:30 - 3:00 Development

3:00- 4:30 Retention

4:30 - 5:00 BREAK (actually, go home early to attend child's music recital)

One last thing - don't give up your break. You may find that rather than a half hour break, you'd like two 15 minute respites, creating something like this:

7:30 - 9:00 Aspect 1

9:00- 10:30 Aspect 2

10:30 - 10:45 BREAK

10:45 - 12:15 Aspect 3

12:15 - 1:45 LUNCH

1:45 - 3:15 Aspect 4

3:15 - 3:30 BREAK

3:30- 5:00 Aspect 5

Maintain a disciplined approach to ensure that "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

Required Summer Reading

2010-07-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

Since we've just ended another cycle of the five aspects of advancement, here's something a little different as we hit the midpoint of summer.

Most schools give their students a required summer reading assignment. Because we want our students to become life-long learners, we have to lead by example. If they have a summer reading assignment, so do you.

Here are some resources that I've gathered over the past few years. Pick one and read it. I should say that I've never enjoyed reading (except reading about music and reading music - my teachers always wanted me to read the newspapers to become informed about events in the world, which only served to depress the heck out of me. After speaking with students today, I've found it has the same effect on them), but these are texts which are inspiring.

While The Bible is the source of much inspiration, if you read a chapter a day, it would take you about 3 years and 3 months to complete it (or, you could read 3 or 4 chapters a day and complete it in a year). These books, however, should take you only a couple of days to a few weeks to complete. Just pick one - get it - and give yourself the goal to finish it before the new school year begins. You can find them in your local Barnes and Noble or Borders Bookstore or online at Amazon.com. You can even get used copies for much less than new ones, so nothing's going to break the bank here either.

What Customers Really Want: How to Bridge the Gap Between What Your Organization Offers and What Your Clients Crave by Scott McKain - Think students are your customers? Think again. Parents are. Why is your enrollment declining? Because the tuition is too high, right? Think again. Perhaps your parents aren't perceiving value, and aren't being treated the way they want to be treated. The average per student tuition is around $3,500 in many faith-based elementary schools. When you consider that a "major gift" in development circles is anything over $2,500, it's not enough just to send your parents a bill.

Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek - Starting with WHY works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don't do so because they have to; they follow because they want to.

Teach With Your Strengths: How Great Teachers Inspire Their Students by Rosanne Liesveld, Jo Ann Miller and Jennifer Robinson - Think you're good at something? You might be, but it might not be one of your five top strengths. Focus on using these strengths, and great results will follow.

Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow by Karen Casey - As a culture, we fight change. But it's the only other thing that's inevitable after death and taxes. So many schools see things changing (declining enrollment, increasing tuition), and wonder what they can do about it. If what your doing doesn't bring positive results, then you have to change. And it starts with your mind.

The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey - We live in a commodity-oriented, fast-paced world. If we can't equate our "brand" with value, we lose. If we can't create our "brand," we lose. What holds it all together? Trust. Once trust is lost, it can be almost impossible to get it back since it must be earned.

Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath - What's the key to an idea that "sticks?" The answer lies in SUCCESs.

The Little Black Book of Connections by Jeffrey Gitomer - Connections are important to success today. It's not only who you know, it's who knows you. If nobody knows about you or your school, chances are your enrollment efforts aren't successful and your development efforts are lackluster. From an alumni perspective, it's not only who knows you, but who you will know. Make those connections now - social networking on the Internet is one aspect of it. An online presence is critical today.

Good to Great by Jim Collins - How good companies (from his previous book, Built to Last) became great ones. Apply these principles to your school. A great exercise in leadership, especially realizing the power of The Hedgehog Principle.

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins - How great companies lose sight of their core business and die. An examination of what happens when leadership changes (and leadership is constantly changing in our schools - from principals and superintendents to pastors and bishops).

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn - Believe it or not, Jesus talks about money in the Scriptures more than He talks about heaven. It's how we use not only the talents, but the time and the treasure that are given to us which will determine how we'll get to heaven.

Tribes by Seth Godin - An interesting examination of societies, and how we're connected.

The Dip by Seth Godin - In any great endeavor, there is always a "dip" - that period where things seem darkest right before they takeoff and turn into something wildly successful. It's just that we don't know how long the dip will last if we keep working at it - which is why people throw in the towel at the most inopportune moment.

Purple Cow by Seth Godin - Wouldn't it be a remarkable thing to drive past a field of grazing cows, and see one that's purple? You might even stop the car, grab your cellphone and take a picture of it, to show that you weren't hallucinating. If you want people to stop what they're doing and take a closer look at your school, your school must be remarkable, distinguishing it from other schools around it. Is it?

Strategic Alliances: Three Ways to Make Them Work by Steve Steinhilber - Written by the Director of Strategic Alliances for Cisco, Inc., partnerships are created today since not everyone can do everything excellently today since there's so much that needs to be done and done well. A nice followup to Good to Great (listed above) that speaks to being "Best in the world" at what you do.

Next week, we'll take a look at a framework you can use to make Advancement work for you. Since you're familiar with a student's schedule in your school, you'll like this - a lot.

Share Ideas

2010-07-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

BASICS - An Enrollment Tool

2010-07-06T18:21:00.000-07:00

This week, we focus on the "E" aspect of DREAM - enrollment. In more and more of the schools I speak with and read about, many say that it all comes down to money. At this time of year, schools are wrapping up the previous fiscal year, and are finding they have uncollected tuition, or expenses have surpassed the income they projected for this year.

Not every school.

Last year at this time, I received an email from one school I worked with that said they finished this year in the black. They have an enrollment system, a tuition management system, they make sure their parent and child experience is an exceptional one, market their school to their community, and have a development program in place. Not only has it cultivated major gifts, but they're moving into planned giving! But more about that next week.

The point is that it's not all about the money. Many schools are finding out that it's all about the enrollment (actually, it's all about all five of the aspects of advancement, but let's let enrollment shine here this week).

So here's a little quiz: As a school administrator, if someone asked, "What would you rather have...10 more children, or $10,000?" what would your response be?

I would suggest that 10 more children be the preferred answer. First, it fulfills the mission of the school, to spread the Good News to all the world. Second, the $10,000 would, in most cases, go towards balancing the budget, which means no real significant improvement in the financial situation of the school. Third, 10 children that could pay an average of $1000 each is $10,000. Some may not be able to afford that, but some may be able to pay more.

Chances are that if you have ten parents that want their children to come your school, you could say to them, "Our tuition is $3500 for the first child..." etc. But, if you say, "Our announced tuition is $3500 per child, but the average tuition is $2200 per child because of scholarships and financial aid. Over a 10 month period, that comes to $220 a month - some of our parents pay more depending on their blessings, but some pay less than that too."

If you'd like a free tool to help plan for your enrollment success, visit http://www.schooladvancement.com, then look in the left navigation panel for BASICS: Bringing Additional Students Into Catholic Schools. Click the link and complete the inquiry panel for access to these resources.

Gather Current Families Together to Help Stop Mid-Summer Melt

2010-07-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

This week's strategy focuses on retention, which is important during the summer.

High temperatures make lots of cold treats melt. Enrollment is no different. Most school administrators hold their breath, hoping that those families that said they'd be coming back show up on the first day of school.

How do you make sure that happens? You have to keep in contact with them during the summer.

Now if you're completely shut down during July, just ignore this suggestion. In fact, plan on losing students. Your shut down is practice for the permanent shut down that has a good chance of occurring.

However, consider gathering everyone back to school for a movie and ice cream - a creative tie-in for stopping enrollment "melt." Maybe show a family friendly movie, and since you're not going to charge anything for attending, you're not breaking any laws as long as you own the video. Perhaps a local business can donate the ice cream. Somewhere around the middle to end of July is a good time, or even the beginning of August for those schools that begin later in the month.

But when should you hold it? Local communities sponsor events on Sunday afternoons. Kids have baseball games throughout the week and on Saturdays. If you've never done it before, pick a day, send an invitation to your families, and stick to it. The point is to keep your families together - not invite the community, business supporters nor donors. This is a family thing. In tough times, families have to stick together. Communities also have to stick together. Your school is a community that needs to stick together.

As for the invitation, it would help if you had every family's email address, so there doesn't have to be a special paper invitation created, printed, mailed and then hope for people to respond. Email is immediate, and you can expect an immediate response.

If you don't want to do the movie and ice cream event, and have the ability to spend some $$$ on postage and little something, create a note to all of your parents, and include a pack of gum with sticks of gum (not those press-out tablet varieties). At a $1 to $2 a pack, such a mailing will cost several hundred dollars, but you can convey the message that it's important to "stick" together, giving your families something to chew on over the summer months.

The fact is that you need to do something to keep in touch with your families AND keep your families together over the summer. Think of it as shepherding. The shepherd's job is to keep the flock together and moving in the correct direction. What happens if the shepherd takes a nap for, oh, say, a couple of months?