of campaign or fundraising success. And my name is Liz Farr. I am a Senior Vice President with Grenzebach, Glier & Associates, GG&A. This is a little bit about our firm. We were founded in 1961 and our first client ever was an independent school. And over our history, we have served hundreds of independent schools and typically partner with about three dozen schools each year. As I mentioned, I lead the independent schools practice and work with all kinds of schools all over the country and internationally, K-12, 9-12, K-8, co-ed, day, religious, secular, single sex, et cetera. So lots of different school experience. And I am from schools. I'm an alumna of an independent school and spent 27 years in schools before joining GG&A. So today I'm gonna talk with you about what GG&A considers our essential elements of fundraising success and fundraising in or out of a campaign. But I would say particularly in a campaign, these essential elements take on greater importance. So I'm going to sort of walk you through each one quickly and then dive a little deeper individually and expand on each one. So first, a positive institutional image and reputation is essential to fundraising success. Institutional leadership, that is committed to involving him or herself in the campaign or fundraising process and being a champion for philanthropic priorities. Third, compelling fundraising priorities that have been vetted and approved by the board. Fourth, a compelling case for support about those priorities. Fifth, a capable fundraising or advancement program adequately resourced. Sixth, volunteer leaders who will provide gifts and time and talent for fundraising. Seventh, a sufficient donor base that is willing to commit gifts. And then eighth, reasonable timing. Now let's talk about why these are the essential elements and expand a bit on each one of them. So first, positive institutional image. It's a little bit kept an obvious moment, but you can understand why donors want to invest in a successful organization, in a successful institution. There's a reason that very, very top institutions and organizations attract more support. It's because donors want to be affiliated with their brand, with their image, with their reputation, and the same holds true for independent schools. A second reason that positive institutional image is so important is because investments that are made with big dollars at institutions like independent schools, most typically investments in capital improvements, land acquisition, endowments, those are long lasting. So the long lasting nature of those investments, philanthropic investments means that if the institution is stable, healthy, perceived, that it will be there for a lengthy amount of time, you're more likely to have that institution attract support because of its positive image. And then obviously the sort of the converse is you can imagine, or many of you have probably seen schools that are in turmoil for whatever reason have trouble raising money. Their prospective donor pools or even existent donor pools start to question whether that institution will survive the current turmoil, whether it is a well-run institution, whether its brand is questionable, et cetera. So you can imagine that those institutions and schools have difficulty attracting support. So about this essential element, I would encourage you to question about your school. How is your reputation? Is your reputation an advantage for fundraising? Are there threats to your reputation as an institution that would also threaten fundraising? And particularly think about your most capable and most generous current donors and prospective donors. What would they say about your school? It really, fundraising is not democratic. So you have to remember that it is those who can give the largest gifts and whether they believe the institution has a strong reputation and brand that matters the most. So let's turn our attention to institutional leadership. So by this and the essential element of strong institutional leadership, we're talking about the head of school. So first and foremost, the head of school has to be stable. Heads of school that are currently or constantly turning over those heads when somebody has just gotten there as head of school, they have trouble attracting support to their school because people aren't sure yet about their leadership. Put another way, one of the reasons that the head of school and his or her engagement in fundraising is so important is because just like in a company, you believe in the CEO and you choose to invest in a company often because you believe in its leadership. Same thing with the head of school. Many, many donors and prospective donors view the head of school as the chief executive officer of the school and somebody who either they feel comfortable investing in or don't. So among the responsibilities for a head of school in fundraising generally, and particularly in a campaign, the head of school has to be comfortable creating vision and articulating it, calling prospective donors and donors to mind and together and saying, here's what we aspire to do at our school. Here's how philanthropic support is going to enable us to achieve these aspirations and really sort of get everyone on the same page, board members, administrative team, advancement, volunteers in defining what the vision is and how philanthropic support will fund it. It's vital that the head of school also serve as the gift officer in chief and is willing to and actively does seek support from key prospects, typically larger prospects, whether again, in or out of a campaign. Back to that CEO point, the ability and willingness of people to invest in the school often is tied to their perception of the head of school's level of commitment to using that investment as promised. So if a donor wants this endowment to be established and for it to benefit a certain purpose, often they're tying, do I trust this head of school to ensure that that is how my gift is used? And their level of trust often inspires or impedes their gift. And then finally, resourcing the advancement team. If you can't aspire to raise all kinds of money and then expect to do it with a very slim or poorly resourced advancement team. So it's really incumbent on the head of school to ensure that the advancement department has adequate staffing and budget. So as you think about institutional leadership at your school as an essential element, I encourage you to ask yourself some of these questions. Can your head of school create and articulate vision? Is there clarity about what he or she aspires the school to do under their tenure? Do your most capable donors know your head of school? Do they know him or her on a personal level, not just the sage on the stage in front of a podium addressing a crowd, but have they had one-on-one conversations in which they would develop a level of trust and confidence in your head of school? Is your head able and prepared to devote time to fundraising? Can your head of school make time to be out of the office to meet with key donors? And do they have sufficient training to do that? If not, I would recommend that you get them training. And then are there threats to the headship? Do people perceive your head as approaching retirement? Do they perceive your head as somebody who is not trustworthy, in which case certainly prospective donor and donor support would likely be threatened. Moving on to clear and compelling priorities. Unfortunately, in our work as a firm with independent schools, often we see a bunch of bad rationale for fundraising. And I wanna remind us all of the singular good rationale for fundraising, which is we have objectives and aspirations as a school that philanthropic support can help us to achieve. That is the singular best reason for why certain priorities should be established. But we often hear schools talking about, well, we can't meet our budget, so that's why we fundraise, or we're in debt, so that's why we fundraise. Our building is old, so that's why we fundraise. It's time to have a campaign because we haven't had one in a while, or our peer school is having a campaign, or has a STEM center, or has an endowed fund for X, Y, or Z, so we should too. Think about this, about compelling priorities from your donor's perspective. If you were a donor to your school, let's say you had two children at the school, and you were also an alumna or an alumnus of the school, would these at the bottom of this slide, would these rationales inspire you to make a gift? Probably not. What would inspire you are compelling priorities such as we need to resource our faculty better, we need to pay them what they're worth, we need to have a more socioeconomically diverse student body, and so on. We need to have a better athletic facility, et cetera. So think about this from a donor-centric context, and I think it becomes clear why these things are so important. So some questions to ask yourself about compelling priorities at your school. Do you have strategic institutional goals that are driving what your fundraising priorities are? Is there a through line from one to the other? Are you projecting a reasonable balance between philanthropic support to fund institutional objectives and other kinds of support? So across our client base, we're seeing a decreasing number of schools that are able to fund a new facility entirely with philanthropy. Many, many institutions are borrowing part of construction costs to get to the establishment or the construction of that facility faster. But are you being realistic at your school about what the balance between, let's say fundraising and borrowing is likely to be? And are you prepared to make difficult decisions if you can't fund everything? How will your priorities shake out if you have to cut something and who will decide what to cut? And then I would say, are there threats to your priorities? So for example, have you decided to raise money, for example, for a new lower school, but demographically in your area, there are fewer and fewer students of that age. So that would present a threat to those priorities and donors and prospective donors might start to question, well, why are you building a new lower school if our enrollment is dropping in lower school due to demographics? So think through what your current priorities are, your next campaign priorities, and ask yourselves these questions about the essential nature of strong priorities. So a good case for support is essential to good fundraising. It does not supplant the ability of a head of school, a trustee, an advancement staffer to describe face to face to a donor why an investment of a million, $10 million or $100 million is going to make a difference. But a case for support is an important tool in fundraising that again staff and volunteers can use successfully to inspire prospects to make their best gifts. So the basic sort of structure of a case for support is that it presents a challenge, a challenge being faced by your school, a challenge being faced by your city, a challenge being faced by the world. But that that challenge is essential to articulate and again with our clients sometimes we see an unwillingness or reluctance to actually say on paper in writing, something is not perfect at our school. And it's actually it's not only okay but also productive to say, we are struggling in this area, and that's the first step to inviting people to help you, they have to know you need help first. The second component of a case is that it's offering a solution, a solution that you know will solve your challenge, or at least ameliorate it, but you do not currently have the resources to deliver that solution. And then third, an opportunity for donors to partner with the school and help you bring about that solution to your initial challenge. The best cases for support, combine logic with emotion. They are neither all facts and data, nor all flowery words and pulling at heartstrings but a good combination of both. So about your school I encourage you to ask these questions, are you ready to specify your challenges are you ready to specify the solutions that you as an institution are proposing and tying those solutions to the opportunity for donors to support you and fund those solutions. How do you articulate what people's gifts will do if you give a million dollars it will have these impacts and outcomes. That's essential to outline in a case for support and later a gift proposal. And then, who, who will author your case for support. I think it's important to note that a case for support is sometimes thought of as a campaign tool, but I think annual funds should have a case for support. Annual fundraising initiatives evergreen fundraising initiatives such as endowment should have a clear case for support that you are articulating about why you are asking for annual giving endowment giving a facility, whatever the case may be, write it down, outline the challenge the solution and invite donors to partner. Next, a capable fundraising program is essential, and note that this slide does not say a pro fundraising program of 20 people. It's going to be lean and mighty and very very capable. It's not about quantity, it is about quality in your fundraising program. So what does that look like why what separates a capable fundraising program that is essential to fundraising success from fundraising programs that are not going to be successful in fundraising. So first, they have a strategic and annual operating plan for the program, what are we trying to achieve, and how exactly will we achieve it in this fiscal year, that should be articulated written down agreed to and returned to by the staff throughout the year, with of course support from the advancement or development committee, and the head of school. There should be a use of best practices in play, and a data driven mindset, where as a group the advancement team is analyzing outcomes, determining what the trends are deciphering why those trends have emerged and then changing behavior going forward to to change outcomes and hopefully improve outcomes, a capable fundraising program is devising a table of gifts for the annual fund for a campaign effort for a major gifts effort and basing that table of gifts on qualified prospects, not on on you know raw data of quick screening but actual people that the school's advancement team volunteers head of school know to be interested in and capable of supporting the school, a capable advancement department is also conducting rigorous prospect management so focusing on the most prospective donors in your schools, know you and driving them toward solicitations and also an advancement program of course is supporting the head of school and volunteers in their activities in fundraising. So some questions to ask yourself about this essential element is your advancement program utilizing best practices, where do you feel you could grow, how will you go about achieving that growth, particularly in major gifts work and plan gifts work and advancement In other words, the data management behind major and plan gifts work. Does your advancement staff have the expertise to accelerate fundraising and if they don't have the expertise, how are you going to get it for them. Are you going to hire outside counselor you're going to send them to conferences, are you going to ask them to be by professionals and other independent schools or other organizations entirely, but asking an advancement department to accelerate fundraising and not giving them the tools to do it is an unfair request. When you are looking to amplify fundraising. How might your advancement program and advancement staffing in particular need to change. Will you get less focused on engagement more focused on fundraising will you get. positions, will they be long lasting or just for a campaign term mean think think through all of those things and think about whether your school is positioned well for the future. And then, again, where are their threats is your chief advancement officer nearing retirement is your chief advancement officer, somebody who's last child is graduating from the school next year, even though they're not nearing retirement. Is your chief advancement officer great at making connections with prospective donors or either many who bristle at his or her style. So think through whether your advancement program is is prepared to take it to the next level. Volunteers. So the sixth element is volunteers, the ability and willingness of volunteers to give extraordinary gifts to set examples, and actually to engage in fundraising. There was a trend in our field about sort of, we're going to go all staff fundraisers and do away with volunteers, and frankly I'm glad that the, the pendulum is swung back to using and deploying volunteers effectively because people like to be asked And I think it's essential that that we employ volunteers and fundraising if we want best gifts, not just go away gifts but best gifts from our most capable prospects. They should be making personally significant gifts, particularly the Board of Trustees in an annual fund or an annual basis. We at GG&A typically expect that 20 to 30% of your fundraising total is coming from your Board of Trustees, and in a campaign environment that about 30 to 40% is coming from your Board of Trustees, and remember in a campaign environment that includes multiple boards right because you have board members cycling off and then new ones to replace them. But volunteers giving really pace setting gifts is important and setting the example for others. So, about these, about this essential element I would ask the following questions, can your trustees articulate vision. Can they articulate rationale for philanthropic support. If not, train them in the case for support, train them in what to say. Will they make pace setting gifts annually in a campaign, will they will they add the school to their estate plans and set an example in plan giving and so on. Are they comfortable fundraising, are they prepared to devote time to fundraising. If not, let's get them the training, let's ensure that you have other volunteers who are ready to step up and help with fundraising. And then again, my, my closing question and all of these are there threats to your volunteer availability that might threaten fundraising. These last two essential elements are actually out of your control, which may sound funny then why are they essential elements if we can't control them. I think what's important here is the ability to and dedication to understanding these, even though you can't control them. So, your potential donor pool is finite. It is your alums your parents your past parents your trustees, etc. But you have to understand what it looks like to be successful in fundraising. Your potential donors are your past owners who have to be stewarded for their past gifts well they have to be qualified and cultivated for whatever you're raising money for right now it could be annual giving a major gifts initiative a major campaign and so on. And solicited. I'm surprised at how many times I interact with a school where they say we just don't ask our donors for support. Well, how are they supposed to know that that their philanthropic commitment is welcomed if you're not asking. So driving donors to solicitations is a vital component of ensuring that you're making the most of the prospect pool that you have. A couple of questions to ask, do you have a data driven understanding of your donor pool, do you understand who the top people are, do you understand who the most inclined are the combination and intersection of those two. How do you in a disciplined moves management prospect management system to make the most of the potential donors that you do have. Finally, reasonable timing so timing is out of your control again coven pandemics recessions, the, the sort of fear about the current economy, I was a fundraiser on September 11 2001, and had my annual fund solicitations all stuffed and ready to go. I could not have anticipated, you cannot anticipate what will happen amidst your fundraising efforts, but reasonable timing can be influenced and bettered with your strong planning and nimble adapting. I would say, though, that the adage that when in doubt, keep fundraising holds true. Nobody will ever question that your school needs support. So don't be afraid in recessions in crises, global, global pandemics to keep fundraising and in fact we saw that among our clients in the pandemic that those who kept fundraising did much better than those who paused. So those are the eight essential elements and I encourage you to think about your school, and on those eight essential elements, how would you rate or assess whether those each of those is an obstacle and advantage, or somewhere between. And again, you can affect change you can improve your standing in terms of these eight essential elements to be more successful and fundraising. In closing, thank you for tuning in, and I appreciate you joining me and this is my contact information if you would like to keep in touch with me, and thank you for your time. Bye.

fundraising success

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institutional image

institutional leadership

fundraising priorities

case for support