Creating Cultures of Generosity and Gratitude

This course of study will help advancement professionals focus on the elements of cultures of generosity and gratitude.  While financial generosity is certainly an important part of the life of independent schools, this module is for Advancement professionals who would like to better understand generosity and gratitude in broader terms and develop a strategy over the course of the year to sharpen their school’s understanding of these best practices necessary to build and maintain a culture of generosity and gratitude.

Crafting Your Crucial Strategic Development Plan
Kim Jennings, Generis

Creating your best-ever Development Plan requires philosophical grounding and solid skills. Have you determined concrete next steps to grow generosity and raise funds for your school’s mission, and most importantly do you know why you’re doing them? How close are you right now to understanding the heart of great strategy?

This cohort is appropriate both for those newer to the field and for those looking to further develop their operation’s level of sophistication.

We’ll go over the basic fundamentals and take a deep dive into at least two topics, which will be customized to this Intensive and the group in attendance (as determined by a survey in the spring).

You will acquire important knowledge of the underlying philosophies of excellent development fundamentals, as well as tactical, actionable steps to accelerate generosity and raise funds. Attendees will gain experience and leave with an actionable Year-long Development Plan that they’ve created and refined with professional feedback, built specifically with a roadmap for growing it in subsequent years, making the Intensive an investment for years to come.

Topics we’ll cover include: Designing and Scaling your Major Giving Program; Designing an Effective Multi-channel Annual Giving Program; Understanding Critical Data Best Practices; Supporting your Head of School in their Development Work; Creating Strategy-Rich Special Events; and more.

Establishing a Planned Giving Program
Kelly Wesley Taylor, Trek Advancement

While the importance of cash gifts is appreciated, established independent schools guarantee healthy financial futures by utilizing planned giving programs.  If your school does not have an unwavering giving program, this module is for you.  During your time at the Advancement Institute, you will learn about the elements of an effective giving program and explore the logistics of creating and implementing one for your school.  Throughout the year, you will continue to work on your plan so that you have a promising program in place by the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Developing Your School’s Enrollment & Marketing Plan
Andy Lynch, NorthStar Marketing and Rick Newberry, Enrollment Catalyst

Social posts. Website updates. Open houses. Re-enrollment deadlines. Reports. Meetings. More events. Photoshoots. More social posts. Does it ever seem like you’re on the hamster wheel, always running and never quite catching up? Wouldn’t it be great to step off the wheel long enough to think about purposeful priorities and not just pressing projects? Even better, wouldn’t you love to have an Enrollment & Marketing Plan to guide and align your Marketing and Admissions teams? The reality is most Christian schools don’t have a cohesive plan for their marketing, recruitment, and retention efforts. They are driven by deadlines rather than strategic priorities. The reality is marketing and admissions teams often operate independently without shared goals and dashboards. At CESA’s 2022 Summer Advancement Institute, we’re bringing Marketing and Admissions professionals together to address this gap and lay the foundations for creating a cohesive strategy. Andy Lynch (President & CEO of North Star Marketing) and Dr. Rick Newberry (President of Enrollment Catalyst) will lead the conversation and provide a framework for developing a cohesive Enrollment and Marketing Plan. We’ll walk through three strategic sessions together, including:

• The elements of an Enrollment & Marketing Plan
• An in-depth look at word-of-mouth marketing (including Parent Ambassadors)
• Components of a successful digital marketing strategy

Whether you’ve been operating from a plan for years or just making it up as you go, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to collaborate with your peers and go deep together.

New Family On-Boarding and Wait Pool Engagement Strategies

The average CESA School welcomed 202 new students for the 2021-22 school year.  With this kind of growth, we have a new challenge to welcome record numbers of new families and weave those families into the fabric of our schools. These efforts are a critical part of maintaining the unique ethos of our schools and ensuring new families feel connected to the mission of the school and satisfied with their daily experience.  This module is for admissions staff who would like to strengthen their school’s approach to the new family experience, for both students and parents, from the time the enrollment contract is signed through the completion of their first academic year.

And what about those families waiting in the wings? With tremendous enrollment growth, the need for wait pool planning and execution has arrived. Helpful strategies are needed now more than ever on how to engage with these families as they wait for a spot to open.

Developing Your School’s Enrollment & Marketing Plan
Andy Lynch, NorthStar Marketing and Rick Newberry, Enrollment Catalyst

Social posts. Website updates. Open houses. Re-enrollment deadlines. Reports. Meetings. More events. Photoshoots. More social posts. Does it ever seem like you’re on the hamster wheel, always running and never quite catching up? Wouldn’t it be great to step off the wheel long enough to think about purposeful priorities and not just pressing projects? Even better, wouldn’t you love to have an Enrollment & Marketing Plan to guide and align your Marketing and Admissions teams? The reality is most Christian schools don’t have a cohesive plan for their marketing, recruitment, and retention efforts. They are driven by deadlines rather than strategic priorities. The reality is marketing and admissions teams often operate independently without shared goals and dashboards. At CESA’s 2022 Summer Advancement Institute, we’re bringing Marketing and Admissions professionals together to address this gap and lay the foundations for creating a cohesive strategy. Andy Lynch (President & CEO of North Star Marketing) and Dr. Rick Newberry (President of Enrollment Catalyst) will lead the conversation and provide a framework for developing a cohesive Enrollment and Marketing Plan. We’ll walk through three strategic sessions together, including:

• The elements of an Enrollment & Marketing Plan
• An in-depth look at word-of-mouth marketing (including Parent Ambassadors)
• Components of a successful digital marketing strategy

Whether you’ve been operating from a plan for years or just making it up as you go, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to collaborate with your peers and go deep together.

Creating an Engaging Alumni Program
Penny Abrahams, Independent School Management (ISM)

The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) reports that the median alumni/ae giving is 8%, while the median CESA alumni/ae giving is under 2%. Our schools have an opportunity to not only increase giving from this important group but also continue to tell our school’s stories and to keep our alumni engaged in the life of our schools. This module will explore what motivates alumni of each generation to stay connected to their alma maters, and how our schools can build healthy, productive relationships with alumni that result in a well-organized volunteer program.

Discover how to support an alumni association that encourages professional and personal connections, engages alumni in your school’s present and future, and is highly representative of the breadth and diversity of individuals in your alumni community.

Create a well-organized and responsive program that empowers you to engage and steward alumni. Explore ways to plan and execute virtual and in-person alumni events, reunions, and fundraising initiatives, and discover how to build a representative Alumni Board to reduce the load on staff and give volunteer leadership meaning and purpose.

Throughout the year, participants will meet bi-monthly with their cohort to provide and receive accountability and advice with the goal of completing an effective alumni engagement plan by the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Register

Hotel Reservations

Schedule

Wednesday, June 15th

4 p.m. – Tour of Faith Lutheran Middle and High School
5:30 p.m. – Dinner and Networking
7 p.m. – Opening Program

Thursday, June 16th

8 a.m. – Breakfast
9 a.m. – noon – Cohort Study
noon – 1 p.m. – Lunch
1 – 4 p.m. – Cohort Study
4 – 5:30 p.m. – Break
8 p.m. - Optional Neon Museum Tour

Friday, June 17th

8 a.m. – Breakfast
9 a.m. – noon – Cohort Study
noon – Closing Worship and Prayer
1 p.m. – Grab and Go lunch and depart

Questions? Contact Katie Wiens

[email protected]

770.268.9355