Does fund raising look any different in a down economy? The obvious answer is yes! How do you ask people who have lost their jobs to make an investment in your school? Or what happens if a major player is forced to leave town, or even goes bankrupt? Or how do you get money from someone whose bonus was paid in deferred stock?

Once a month, a member of the ISM Development Team will answer a development-related question submitted by one of our readers. To ask a question to be addressed in future e-letters, please click here.

Many schools, at one time or another, will conduct a phonathon to supplement the annual giving letter campaign. Is yours stagnant? Not getting the results you used to? To revitalize that phonathon, you need to make sure your volunteers are well trained and have the support they need for maximum returns. Here are a few tips for a vibrant phonathon.

Teachers, Principals, and school administrators are finding themselves in a new and challenging position as legal marijuana is showing up in classrooms throughout the nation—must noticeably in California.

As flu season kicks into full gear, you may find yourself standing in your local drugstore wearing slippers, holding tissues, and searching for something over the counter to help with the symptoms. If you find yourself picking up traditionally popular holistic treatments, think about the following interactions first.

There is a delicate balance between educating children on the importance of being healthy and damaging their self-esteem. When a child is overweight, it's hard to find the right sequence of words to express concerns. What you don't want to do is push the child toward dangerous eating or exercise habits, or away from you. Yet, it's vital to communicate healthy relationships between food and kids—especially now as yearly statistics continue to grow dimmer and dimmer for our future generations.

Two veteran teachers in a school each teach a secondary World Geography class. They have approximately the same class sizes, the same content, and the same access to technology. The students of the first teacher groan at the mention of his subject, while the students of the second teacher can't wait to get to class. So what is making the difference??? In this case it has to do with the pedagogy each has elected to use.

If you haven't heard about Shirley Price's lecture yet, we're surprised. The story is alarming, and raises some serious risk management concerns for schools nationwide. On January 15, 2010, in Hitchcock TX, school Board member Shirley Price was supposed to give a motivational speech to a group of sixth- through eighth-grade girls. However, the presentation turned from motivational into an explicit sex talk and used some profanity.

Most educators know that what is learned in the classroom is only the first step in a child's education. A small public school in California, Christa McAuliffe Elementary School (named after the teacher killed in the Challenger explosion, Christa McAuliffe), has a program that not only takes this theory and encourages parents to spend evenings with their children discussing homework and the days' activities, but requires parents to be involved.

In its new study Sex and Tech: Results From a Survey of Teens and Young Adults, The National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy found that 39% of teens have sent or posted sexually suggestive messages via text, e-mail, or instant message. And 20% of teens have sent or posted online nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves. This collision of cyber technology and judgment, dubbed "sexting," could have a profound effect on your school.