In our last newsletter, I announced more details about the CASE and National Association of Independent Schools data collection partnership that was revealed in early April at the CASE-NAIS Independent Schools conference. This important collaboration is a big step for schools; with CASE behind the advancement section of DASL - Data and Analysis for School Leadership, along with National Business Officers Association at the helm of financial operations, the combined power of the DASL dataset will ensure schools have the tools and deeper insights they need for financial viability for years to come. And, with NAIS’ insight into leadership and governance, the DASL dataset will enable heads, chief advancement officers, chief business officers, and trustees to analyze common data to tell the true story of what’s happening at the school.  

The partnership also comes with significant updates to the general data and question set within the advancement section of DASL, and includes expanded questions, analysis, and perks only for CASE members. The most important of these? The measurement of advancement effort, not just advancement results. The framework of “Funds Received vs. New Funds Committed” (a metric that looks beyond mere pledges made in a fiscal year), looks at the past fiscal year’s cash-in-hand as well as the other, previously undocumented, aspects of the advancement team’s combined activities and efforts: planned giving, new pledges, and more. Now, a chief advancement officer (along with head and board) can see the total of all monies acquired for this year and several years down the line.  

The other key change? Elimination of the classic hierarchy. By removing that, we don’t have to argue about whether parents, trustees, or alumni should be counted to the exclusion of an individual’s other role at the school. If you have a trustee who is a graduate and also a current parent, that person can be counted three times to understand their full engagement with the school. The advent of both hard and soft credit counts in each constituency type means that you can single-count your total donors and total dollars, while simultaneously understanding the participation and investment each constituency type is making overall.  

Oh- and one more thing—we’ve added Donor Advised Funds. DAFs used to be counted within “other organizations” on CASE surveys and in DASL. Now, we’ll look at them separately. Why? They’re one of the fastest growing gift types out there. And, with the aforementioned ability to look at hard and soft credit, we’ll get a better understanding than ever before of who is giving and how they’re giving.  

Here’s a sneak peek at the dataset for 2022, which, as a reminder, will all be entered in DASL’s platform, with CASE authoring and analyzing the content. The “core” dataset is for all DASL users. CASE members, however, will enjoy both the core and full datasets to gain deeper insights into their data.  

The core dataset in the CASE-DASL partnership for 2022 will include:  

• Funds received (i.e. cash in hand) by donor type, including parents, alumni, grandparents, parents and grandparents of alumni, employees, and other individuals 

• Hard- and soft-credit gifts, which may be reported in designated cells 

• Funds received from corporations, foundations, donor-advised funds, and other organizations 

• The number of donors in the above categories  

• Donor count and dollar amount of realized bequests 

• Hard- and soft-credit gifts from trustees 

• Funds received by purpose: current operations, restricted and unrestricted, endowment, other capital purposes, irrevocable deferred gifts at face value  

• Three largest donor totals for five types of donors: Living Individuals, Bequests, Donor-advised Funds, Corporations, and Foundations 

• Indicate whether your institution is in the silent or active phase of a capital campaign, if applicable 

The CASE-member-only additional questions in DASL will include:  

• Funds received by gift bands from $100-$500 to $25,000,000+ 

• New funds committed  

• New pledges  

• New funds received, not previously pledged  

• New revocable bequest intentions 

• New funds committed (both hard- and soft-credit) by donor type: parents, alumni, grandparents, parents and grandparents of alumni, employees, and other individuals  

• New funds committed from corporations, foundations, donor-advised funds, and other organizations  

• New funds committed by purpose: current operations, restricted and unrestricted, endowment, other capital purposes, irrevocable deferred gifts at face value  

• New funds committed from trustees  

• Advancement staff FTEs by area of responsibility  

• Marketing communications reporting structure  

• Advancement expenditures by purpose  

As a member benefit, you will also have access to a Graphical Program Summary, which will convey graphically the fundraising progress your institution has made over time, relative to your five closest peer associations, based on a proprietary algorithm. Those reports are living HTML files are downloadable and able to be manipulated for deeper analysis.  

It’s an exciting year for data and for schools! For more information, visit our FAQs page about DASL and the partnership.