Happy New Year! Okay, it’s a little early to say that, but it would serve you well to start thinking about December 31st now. Conventional wisdom and research show that most charitable giving occurs during the last week of the year, with the most donations occurring on the last two days. (Of course, the tax deadline incentive helps with that philanthropic phenomenon.)

You care about your former students, whether they go on to become chemists, priests, or teachers just like the ones who inspired them in your school. You want them to remember their days in your classrooms fondly, reflecting their accomplishments with pride to their own children. And – if you and your school have done a superb job – perhaps they will wish to enroll their son or daughter in your private-independent school.

As hard as we try to perfect important school forms and paperwork, it’s inevitable that mistakes occur. Acknowledging this basic fact of life can make you more understanding when you notice errors in a student’s application. That said, you should make allowances for blunders made innocently while recognizing and confronting those made purposefully.

Paid maternity leave is a benefit to which many U.S. employees are not accustomed. Most companies have moved away from offering paid maternity leave, opting instead to follow the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations, which protects employees in organizations with 50 or more workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave. (The United States is one of only eight countries out of 188 with known maternity policies that does not enforce paid maternity leave.) In 2012, only 9% of employers provided new moms with full maternity disability salary, down from 17% in 2005. Who can blame Human Resource Managers for playing it safe when discrimination claims and lawsuits have been statistically increasing?

Homework! Students hate doing it, parents hate policing it, and teachers hate assigning it. In recent years, current homework philosophy has come under fire by teachers, administrators, and parents alike. Modern students bear a heavy homework burden, and schools rarely offer solutions to rectify the situation.

In a recent article, Education Week questions the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s donations in terms of the quantity, quality, and focus of allocated funds to K–12 education. At the forefront of their examination lies the foundation’s recent focus on teacher-related research and programs. One such applied-research experiment, their Measures of Effective Teaching or MET, focuses on a multifaceted approach to teacher evaluation geared toward public education. Its efficacy has yet to be fully vetted, though early analysis appears optimistic.

When choosing your means of thanking contributors to your fund-raising campaigns, keep each major donor’s identity and interests in mind. Public recognition is a secondary motivation for many donors. Peer identification can be seen as a positive business or social by-product, and you may find many “public” settings in which to perform continued recognition.

How you raise money for your school is your full-time focus. It’s serious, driven work that can quickly consume your thoughts as well as your personal time. But not all your efforts have to be serious. Sure, your major campaigns and annual fund need to be as focused as possible, but there are some lighthearted, fun, even funny, ways you can set goals for your smaller fund drives. Here are a few ideas.

You’ve most likely begun your health care measurement period, if not already completed it, to determine how many full-time equivalent (FTE) employees your school employs. However, there still seems to be lingering confusion on blogs and forums across the Web.

If international students make up a large percentage—or any percentage for that matter—of your school’s enrollment, you might want to consider some of the trending stories making waves across the Internet. Reports are coming out that although international student enrollments are on the rise in the U.S., their ability to network and intermingle with domestic students is challenged.