Running a school is like running a state.  What resources do you consume in the present versus conserve for the future? 15 years from now will your school’s choices be more & better, comparable, or fewer & worse?  What actions can you take in the next five years to improve those choices?

The vital signs of general health for individuals — temperature, pulse, blood pressure, respiration, oxygen saturation and blood sugar. The vital signs of institutional sustainability for schools — program revenue, program expense, grants, advancement net, endowment net, operating contribution, and capital maintenance.

Explore with a management consultant in institutional economics 10 dimensions of philanthropy net for deep board/management dialog and discourse.  Investigate student population, market position and meaningful philanthropy.  Analyze and assess near and long-term performance of institutional sustainability.  

Session provides institutional sustainability analytics for more than 1000 schools including: (i) key segments (K-12, primary, secondary, boarding) and (ii) individual schools (via code).  To include your school in the presentation materials, please email wkummel@rational-partners.com by Mar 30 (filed Form 990 with $5M+ program revenue).

Ideally, all fundraising and advancement initiatives support a school's strategic plan. The strategic plan supports the mission of the institution. They are all tethered in a way that helps prioritize energies, organize staff and volunteers effectively. Institutional success becomes clearly defined and prioritized. Passionate enthusiasm is garnered through this critical visioning process. Boards and administrators unite around lofty, purpose driven goals that ask not just what we do, but why we do what we do. Boards and senior executives are more passionate around goals that they help create.

A great school is a complex organism, with competing priorities, contrasting strengths and an array of idea champions. Marketing and communications and leadership teams can sometimes struggle to come to agreement on how best to distill the richness of their school into a clear, coherent brand platform. Challenges arise when teams attempt to start with selling points (e.g. programming, facilities, etc.) rather than the school's foundational values and mission. Successful brand development teams start with the "whys" in order to find common ground on the "whats." This session will provide a working model for building team consensus around your school's principles and purpose in order to build a branding program that resonates with both internal and external audiences. This session will include a case study and a workshop activity.

The session is designed to provide participants with the context and tools they need to gain a clearer picture of the future and to develop an effective strategy for a new era. Tim Fish will share insights on practical ways for heads of school, their boards and advancement teams to approach problem framing and to engage in strategic design that supports long-term sustainability and fund-raising. Practical case studies from a few schools will also be shared.

Whether you are running a highly successful annual fund or just starting out, you can’t create your next Case for Giving without accounting for the last two years of dramatic change. Join us to explore what you should know before reformulating your next Case for Giving. How you define the compelling elements that inspire giving matters, and we're here to help! 

COVID-19 made many traditional stewardship and donor engagement traditions impossible. Gone were the parties, group gatherings, and visits to classrooms. So what’s a small development shop to do?

The team at Pike responded to this challenge by quickly and creatively building new stewardship opportunities to engage donors, shine a bright light on impact, and provide a much-needed sense of community. This included launching the school's first-ever podcast (a four-part series examining how Pike was paving the way for student learning and growth in unprecedented times), offering "live looks" into busy classrooms during the annual day-of-giving, hosting a 2-day symposium about the future of learning (with nationally recognized experts), and more. All on a minimal budget with a three-person Advancement Team.

In this session, Rod, Donna, and Elizabeth will share what it took to reimagine stewardship at Pike in 2020. You’ll hear what they learned, where they succeeded (and a few places they didn’t), and which of the new efforts were so impactful that they’re already including them in post-pandemic stewardship plans.

The last 18 months have been difficult for everyone but there are strategies that we have learned that we will want to put in our advancement plans as we prepare for the new normal. How will we engage with our alumni and will travel be what it was before the pandemic? How will we solicit our alumni and parents for major gifts? Will our events be virtual or in-person and how did the pandemic change our way of thinking?

Georgetown Day School (GDS) was founded 75 years ago as the first integrated school in Washington, DC and its longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is grounded in that history. GDS’s Advancement operation reflects that commitment and considers diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices. From choosing its words and photos intentionally, to recruiting, engaging, and uplifting its volunteers and staff, to celebrating its diverse community at every turn, GDS is leading the way. Join GDS Advancement leaders Lynn McNair and Lindsey Jacobson with CCS Fundraising executive, Allyson Reaves, in a discussion about not only supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, but weaving into the fabric of your advancement operation and institution.

As the adage goes, “Trust is the easiest thing to lose and the hardest thing to get back.” And because of the importance of trust in donor relationships and school communities, the role of the development professional can be made all the more difficult when there is a lack of it.

Yet, development professionals are often expected to be the conveners of trust – to instill it in new relationships, to notice when it is shaky, and to rebuild it when it is lost.

In their talk, Graham-Pelton Senior Vice President Jennifer R. Harris, Ph.D., and University of Chicago Laboratory School Executive Director of Alumni Relations and Development Damon Cates, will share their experiences of building and rebuilding trust and share:

• Ways to build and establish trust with colleagues, leadership, and donors
• How to build a transparent donor environment
• How to mitigate emergent or chronic trust issues

When giving officers receive a portfolio of donors, it can be challenging to create relationships with a large group of individuals while integrating into a new position. Pipeline management can help lighten the load and provide a strategic road map for future fundraising. In this session we will share the steps to implement a fully functional donor pipeline utilizing the donor centric lens of Independent Schools and integrating the donor management processes of a large institution. Integrating these processes in a smaller shop allows the fundraising team to craft donor outreach strategies in conjunction with a large-scale fundraising campaign. This level of pipeline work can help determine which individuals are ready for active solicitation, while engaging and cultivating others through targeted outreach.