Virtual & Onsite Consulting Services
Ensure that your school’s governance and operations support your mission.
We work together with your leaders, teachers, staff members, and students to understand your school’s unique needs, strengths, and challenges. We help you create a plan to help you meet your goals.
Your team can then put these mission-appropriate recommendations into action to achieve increased cash reserves, higher enrollment levels, and long-term stability. At the end of the day, we all have a singular purpose—advance school leadership to enrich the student experience.
We offer personalized consultations for many leadership divisions of a private school—the Board of Trustees, School Heads, the Business Office, the Development Office, Enrollment Management professionals, Marketing professionals, and Academic leaders. Select the area of school leadership you’d like to further explore.
ISM’s Consulting Services can be conducted virtually, ensuring you get the support you need, no matter the circumstances. Learn more by contacting our School Success team.
Our Consulting Services
School Head
Whether you want to ensure that all school functions run at peak efficiency or are considering implementing new strategies and initiatives, lean on a trusted source of knowledge to increase the likelihood of long-term success.
Business & Operations
Take advantage of a full range of planning, facilities, and operations consulting services that give your school a solid footing for the future. Examine where your key operations work well, and where they can use improvement.
Academic Leadership
Your programs set your school apart. Explore how to create and build programs that pull families in and give them an experience they couldn’t have at another private-independent school.
Admission & Enrollment Management
ISM’s data-informed approach pinpoints what attracts families to your school and inspires them to stay. Receive customized solutions based on your school’s unique marketplace stance, challenges, and opportunities.
Fundraising & Development
Learn how to develop successful strategies to engage and bring donors closer to your institution. No matter your school size, history, or pedagogy, explore how to plan, implement, and evaluate your fundraising strategies to realize your full potential.
Marketing Communications
Explore how to share exceptional stories of student learning, engagement, and outcomes, and illustrate how these can become differentiators that distinguish your school from your competitors.
Board of Trustees
The Board must focus its efforts on governing, planning, and financing your school's future, while leaving everyday decisions to competent administrators. To do that successfully, your Board must think, plan, and act strategically.
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One-on-One Coaching for New Heads
Work with an ISM Consultant in your first years of Headship to set you on a path to success.
•Data-Driven Diagnostics •
• Coaching •
• Customized Support •
Help Your School Thrive
ISM members receive access to exclusive, research-based strategies for every leadership division of your school. Take advantage of guidance, savings, and much more.
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See articles for School Heads, Business & Operations, Advancement, Academic Leadership, and Trustees, in addition to Private School News.
How to Talk to Students About Emotionally Charged Media
Academic Leadership // July 11, 2021
Media consumption is only increasing, especially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the age most children receive a smartphone and access to the internet is decreasing. What does this mean for how current students interact with media, their perception of the world and others, and how educators should help?
Read MoreHow to Use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) in Your Private School Marketing
Marketing Communications // July 11, 2021
When 90% of consumers trust the opinions of their friends and family for key buying decisions, private schools can’t afford to leave word-of-mouth marketing to chance. To effectively measure family loyalty to your school, you’ll need to invest resources into establishing a routine customer satisfaction feedback loop for your students, parents, and even your teachers.
Read More2021 Recommended Summer Reading for Private School Leaders
School Leadership // July 11, 2021
The summer months are a perfect time for reflection, creating new goals, and brushing up on skills. Pick up these books to learn and grow so you’re ready to take on a fresh school year this fall.
Read MoreWhat Private School Business Officers Need to Know About the LIBOR to SOFR Transition
Business and Operations // June 20, 2021
As a private school Business Officer, you need to stay on top of changing regulations and how they can impact your school. If your school currently uses the London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for your financial contracts (including lines of credit, loans, and interest rate swaps), we have some valuable news to share.
Read MoreBeyond the Checkbook: Successful Development Planning for Your School
Fundraising // June 20, 2021
Raising money to deliver the school’s mission with excellence is a primary goal of a private school’s Development Office. But “big asks” aren’t everything. A truly compelling development agenda digs deeper, with long-term goals leading the way.
Read MoreHow to Analyze Your Website Like a Marketing Pro and Increase Admission Fast
Marketing Communications // June 20, 2021
You may not be a trained marketing expert—and there’s nothing wrong with that! But if you find yourself wearing the marketing hat, you’re not alone. Many administrators must think like marketers—at least when they plan to use their websites to increase admission.
Read MoreHow to Keep Kids Safe Online
Academic Leadership // June 6, 2021
The days of handing kids a device and telling them to “be safe” are long gone. Online safety has evolved, even in the last year, and, as educators, you must adjust your guidelines, advice, and protection to accommodate even your school’s youngest digital citizens.
Read MoreA Year Like No Other Sheds Light on the Year to Come for International Student Recruitment
Enrollment Management // May 23, 2021
As the final term descends toward exams and graduations, there is no better opportunity for an honest look inward to put those lessons to use: what worked, what didn’t, and how can the collective academic community employ best practices for ushering in a thriving international student program.
Read More5 Must-Know Trends for Raising Major Gifts Post-COVID-19
Fundraising // May 23, 2021
More donors may be willing to engage in annual giving, with just a few others interested in capital gifts. An even smaller number of those donors may plan a transformational gift (possibly as a part of an estate planning process). With these limitations in mind, you can adjust your approach using these five trends to help you engage with donors post-COVID-19.
Read More9 Reasons ISM’s Summer Institute Is the Only Professional Development You Will Need This Year
School Leadership // May 23, 2021
You need concrete tips, road maps, and specifics on how to recover from and flourish in a post-pandemic education system. Every summer ISM offers 20+ topic-focused online workshops as a part of our Summer Institute. Here’s why this real-life, expert, and data-led professional development will be the only one you need all year.
Read More