Nonprofit organizations, including private-independent schools, must educate themselves concerning the legal and fiscal ramifications of unemployment compensation. The costs of not doing so can be significant and crippling to a school’s financial status. 

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As School Head, you know the key to your re-recruitment success is ensuring that everything you promised to prospective families during the admission phase of the relationship becomes their experience once enrolled. Many private-independent schools have achieved and sustained optimal enrollment by leveraging a high-touch, personalized approach to the admission-season relationship. Almost as many maintain a sophisticated and strategically aligned digital media presence, which in today’s market is increasingly important to ensuring strong recruitment outcomes.

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Introducing new families to your school’s culture of giving should be just as personalized as engaging them in the admission process. Your goal is not just to get new parents to give money, but also to involve them with your mission through volunteerism and philanthropy. They have demonstrated their commitment to the school with their “gift” of tuition. How can you bring them closer to school life in ways that remind them why they picked your school? How can you build strong relationships that translate into philanthropic giving? The process involves a journey.

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As the Marketing Communications Director, you know the importance of assessing your school’s culture and your constituents’ satisfaction through a consistent schedule of surveys. These surveys are not only vital to understanding your school’s differentiators, strengths, and areas for strategic focus, but they are also required by most accrediting bodies.

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As a Trustee, School Head, or Chief Financial Officer, you know that a decision to hold tuition flat for a year or more results in lost financial ground and places pressure on future budgets. Inflation quietly depletes your real income and your school may lapse into a cash-negative situation. How can you keep this from happening?

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A key to supporting a productive learning environment for your students and faculty is the partnership your school creates with your parents. One way that partnership plays out is through the volunteer efforts of your parents, often formalized through the work of the school’s Parent Association. Your school depends on parent volunteers to participate in a wide array of activities throughout the year, ranging from celebratory and community-building events to service-learning collaborations and parent education workshops. A Parent Association can actively engage volunteers in various roles and levels of engagement, based on each volunteer’s ability to participate. These volunteer roles are invaluable for boosting your school’s ability to realize its mission.

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ISM has long advised School Heads about the strongly positive correlation between student and teacher perceptions of predictability and support and their enthusiasm, satisfaction, and performance. While the correlation has not been tested among parents, it is logical to infer that students and parents greatly benefit from a predictable and supportive admission process—from the moment of early exploration or inquiry through enrollment and matriculation.

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With the help of search engines, social media, and school review sites, prospective parents conduct intensive research and make educated comparisons about your school and its competitors before they ever contact the Admission Office. If they do call your Admission Office directly, it is likely that, based on their research, they believe your school is a good “fit” for their child and want to confirm this belief by visiting your campus. In other words, the family that scours your website and follows up with a phone call or campus tour has self-identified as a qualified lead and is undoubtedly worthy of your time and attention.

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The number one marker in the second-tier of the ISM Stability Markers® is cash reserves, and it has been continually ranked in the top two of correlates for a school’s long-term sustainability over a period of decades. The technical definition for ISM’s Stability Marker for “cash reserves” is actually a formulaic mix of cash reserves, debt, and endowment. A school’s high score on this means there is excess cash, at levels of 25% /or more of the total operating budget, and low (or no) debt. 

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As many private-independent schools build and bolster international programs, properly retaining those international, nonimmigrant students already enrolled is a critical element of enrollment management. Schools therefore have a vested interest in ensuring their international students maintain status of their student visa. 

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