December 2015’s Source for Development Directors featured Bethany Academy’s remarkable viral fundraiser, in which the school’s top fundraising parent made a “miraculous” half-court shot and won half off her daughter’s tuition for the 2016-17 school year. We had a chance to talk with Bethany Academy’s Development Director Rochelle Platter, and discuss what went on behind the scenes to create such a successful fundraiser for the school through a community building event.
The half-tuition midcourt shot was part of Bethany Academy’s first “Bethany Loves Bloomington” fundraiser. “There were three goals for the event,” Rochelle said. “Fundraising, building community, and good community relations.”
Rochelle wanted to do something extraordinary for such an event—and to make sure that it would have a real, lasting impact on the community, she told us. “We wanted to do something to show students how to help their own community, in their own backyards. I don’t know how many students know that hungry people live in the United States instead of just abroad, and we wanted a way to show them how to help their neighbors.”
Then, she discovered her city’s struggle to feed its poorest citizens, adding that “the Twin Cities area has the 9th highest concentration of hungry poor in the United States.”
So it was that “Bethany Loves Bloomington” was born. It launched complete with its own website and a stated goal to fund meals for the surrounding area. The initiative was coupled with a separate capital campaign specifically for the school, bolstering funds for educational programming.
The event took a year and a half to get off the ground. Efforts were accelerated when the new School Head, Bruce Maeda, joined the team. Rochelle admits she was a bit nervous bringing such a huge undertaking to a new Head for thoughts and approval, but found nothing but overwhelming support for the project from Bruce. It was Bruce, Rochelle told us, who grasped the vision, and was then able to help her “sell it” to other community stakeholders.
Kids Against Hunger, a national organization devoted to helping schools feed the hungry within their own community, was brought in to help the school develop and coordinate its meal-packing efforts. “Our stated goal for meals packed was 30,000,” said Rochelle with a laugh, “but after talking with [Kids Against Hunger] about how many volunteers were signing up, how many students we had, that sort of thing, we made sure we had supplies on hand for 40,000 [meals]—just in case.”
And they needed those extra supplies, and then some! In the end, Bethany Academy packaged over 41,000 meals for the hungry in their own backyard.
Rochelle said that the community was thrilled about the project. “We asked people to get community businesses involved as sponsors, and to come help pack the food, too. I personally saw a greater return on time when I made a personal phone call to potential event sponsors, versus a direct-mail piece or email contact.”
The top fundraiser in the school’s capital campaign would win the opportunity for a “half-court, half-tuition” basketball shot in the school’s gym. Rochelle told us about the meeting where that prize was decided, a little awe shading her voice:
We were all sitting around, trying to think of what incentive to offer for the top fundraiser. And then it was Bruce [Maeda, School Head] who suggested, “Let’s offer half tuition.”
Everyone was shocked [and] quiet. I finally said, “And whose [department] budget will that come from?”
Of course, everyone was happy to offer the prize and fulfill it, if a family won. All of our families are highly valued and appreciated, and no matter which family would win, they’d deserve the prize. I’m not sure if anyone really expected someone to make the half-court shot, though!
A family—the Rameys—did make the shot, and so Miss Grace Ramey will be attending Bethany Academy with half off of her fifth grade tuition during the 2016-17 school year. Rochelle indicated that the tuition reduction would be taken equally from every department, and reiterated that everyone was “thrilled” be able to offer such a reward to a deserving family.
The half-court video went viral, leading to offers for the Ramey family to appear on “Good Morning America”—wearing Bethany Academy-branded shirts and sweaters—and other morning talk shows to discuss the winning basket. Rochelle told ISM that whatever the school paid for in reduced tuition will be made up for in the media attention and publicity that the video has generated, thereby fulfilling the third and final of “Bethany Loves Bloomington’s” goals: good community relations.
We asked Rochelle what a school could do to emulate Bethany Academy’s remarkable success, and she had this to say:
Your event needs to come from the heart of serving the community first, otherwise it’ll just be a publicity stunt. Any sort of [prospective] media attention needs to be second to the primary goal of serving your community.
You should also work on selling your concept to your Head of School first. Once they buy in, they’ll be able to sell it to the Board [and other administrators], who can see how it’ll help the school and your students. I got lucky with Bruce, who was on board from the beginning.
In the end, it’s all about building relationships. I got sponsors by asking them for support one-on-one, not just a bulk mailing or anything like that. It took time and research, but it was worth it.
Oh, and bring in someone whose job it is to do what you want to do. We’d never done a meal pack before, so Kids Against Hunger was absolutely vital to making “Bethany Loves Bloomington” the success that it was. We wouldn’t have been able to pull it off, if not for their help.
(We’d also like to add that if you’re going to offer half tuition as the prize for your top fundraiser, make sure that you follow Bethany Academy’s example and know where you’re going to take that money from your budget—on the off chance that someone sinks that half-court shot!)
Congratulations, Bethany Academy, on a successful community event and fundraiser! We wish you and the Ramey family continued success for the rest of this academic year—and for future events to come!
ISM features schools' stories of student, programmatic, and administrative success with nearly 30,000 private school administrators. If your school has a success story you'd like the world to hear, contact our Source editor today!
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for Private School News Vol. 14 No. 6 School Spotlight: The Christ School's One Great Day of Service
The Source for Private School News Vol. 14 No. 7 School Spotlight: Cheshire Academy Shares Social Media Secrets
The Source for Private School News Vol. 14 No. 1 School Spotlight: An English Teacher's Odyssey
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 36 No. 7 The Campaign Feasibility Study: A Map to Campaign Success
I&P Vol. 40 No. 2 Planning the Comprehensive Campaign: Guiding Principles for Success
