Q: "What is the difference between the Annual Fund and Annual Giving?"

As Development Director, your role is to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors who will then invest in your school's mission. In order to do that successfully, you need the physical environment that will support your activities. So, what should your Development Office look like?

Everybody loves a hard hat. Well, maybe not people who have to wear them every day. But for the rest of us, there is just something kind of cool about being on a construction site, wearing a hard hat. If you are in a capital campaign, and you have construction going on, you have the perfect opportunity to give your constituents a special experience and build enthusiasm for the outcome!

When we set out to find monthly green tips that can impact schools, sometimes we come across the most interesting stories. This month, instead of bringing you a bulleted list of green facility ideas, we're bringing you a whole site full of green educational opportunities and inspiration for your campus. Discover Plastiki. A crew of six people aboard a sailboat made from 12,000 plastic bottles are tweeting, blogging, and filming their journey from California to Australia. It's a 100-day, 10,000-mile science project—and its mission is to spread knowledge about pollution and the power in recycling.

In January, as we were welcoming in a new year, the Ventura school district of southern California was also welcoming a new milestone along their path to being a green school district. Replacing one of their 1977 bus models, they introduced a new state-of-the-art, plug-in hybrid electric school bus to their fleet. Green buses are currently only being produced by one manufacturer in the U.S.—IC Bus Subsidiary of Navistar Inc., based in Raleigh, NC.

Bullying cases are back in the news—and they're more intense than ever. Texting and social media have opened new doors to bullies. Recently, msnbc.com published an article in the wake of a Massachusetts teenager's suicide that shared bullying stories from readers. Some were parents reflecting on their own experiences, and some were parents sharing their challenges concerning their children. One message was consistent—all authors wondered why the school's administration wasn't more involved in protecting the victims.

School gardens are popping up all over the country. It's one of the ways educators are reaching kids about greening efforts, lowering emissions, basic horticulture, biology, and social skills without lecturing. School gardens allow students, teachers, faculty, and even community members to get involved from the ground up, and then later benefit from the garden's fresh produce and florals. Green schools, rather they be "green" by their lunches, their community gardens, or their curriculum, are becoming a national movement.

Social media, social networking, and all the tools available for managing social sites progress at what seems like hyperspeed. New ones are born, old ones fade away, and some bloom into powerhouses that scream, "Why are you not using this yet? Everyone else is on here but YOU!" Whether you're using one site, or have pages on several social sites, you know that they take time, patience, and thought. You also know that some simply fit your personality and lifestyle better than others. We all have our favorites.

Finally, spring has arrived on the East coast! The first flowers have begun to pop their heads above soil, and trees are beginning to bud. Here at ISM, we've even begun working on our company garden. Most of us are glad to wave farewell to the cold, snowy weather. However, some of us are already struggling to get through the first few weeks of spring. It's allergy season! And, although the early spring flowers and trees are mesmeric to most, to a good portion of your students, staff, and faculty, they're a harsh reminder that their sniffles, swollen eyes, and itchy throats are going to plague them for the next eight weeks.

This is a copy of a letter sent to all of ISM's Insurance clients on March 23, 2010. You can read the full letter online by clicking here. As we're all aware, Congress passed historic healthcare reform legislation Sunday night when the US House voted for the Senate Bill that had been passed by the Senate last December. The President signed the bill into law on Tuesday morning. Now that the key elements of the bill are firmly in place (subject to a package of modifiers that the House also passed the "Reconciliation Bill" or "sidecar bill"), we want to offer a few quick thoughts and recommendations to our valued health clients.