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.
Red Flags on Résumés
Business and Operations // November 20, 2015
We’ll be coming into hiring season before too long, which means you’ll be inundated with resumes to fill vacant faculty, staff, and administrative positions. While it’s hard to gauge a candidate based on a piece of paper, a résumé can tell you a lot about a candidate. Here are some potential “red flags” on résumés so you can be aware of potential warning signs that a particular candidate might not be the best fit for your vacant position.
Read MoreUnleash Your Inner Monster: An Interview With Katie Johnson, Founder of the Monster Project
Academic Leadership // November 19, 2015
Source readers, we’d like to introduce you to Katie Johnson. By day, she’s an art director from Austin, Texas. By night, she’s the founder and CEO of the Monster Project. Her organization fosters imaginative play by sending student-created drawings of monsters to professional designers all over the world. These designers then create their own versions of the students’ prototypes and return them to the schools, so students can see how their monsters—and their own creativity—can “grow up.”
Read MoreGrading Your Report Card Communication
Academic Leadership // November 19, 2015
Report cards: One of the few things that parents are guaranteed to read. It’s a unique opportunity for your teachers to communicate—clearly and authentically—with both students and families. This semester, evaluate your students with more than a letter grade or a percentage; it’s time for teachers to tell families what they really need to know.
Read MoreThe Importance of Attending Board Meetings
Board of Trustees // November 18, 2015
As a Trustee, you are expected to carry out your due diligence roles—particularly when it comes to Board meetings. In your service to the school, your participation in Board functions is imperative. The Board acts as an entity, not as a collection of individuals. Your attendance and participation are vital to the success of the Board and its actions.
Read MoreEmerging Technologies in Schools
Board of Trustees // November 18, 2015
Private-independent schools must always consider how technology can be best used in the classroom. Your Board, controlling the purse strings through the strategic financial plan, must be mindful of the school’s needs concerning emerging technologies.In a competitive landscape, parents often consider how a school integrates computers and other learning technologies for their children. You don’t want your school to be perceived as “antiquated.”
Read MoreMailing Lists Are Money Sinks
Advancement // November 16, 2015
Electronic communications make reaching potential students and their families as simple as pressing the “send” button. To do that, however, you need email addresses, which can be time consuming to collect when you have to advertise your upcoming enrollment events next week. The temptation to purchase the emails of likely local prospects is like a siren call, luring you to trade your budget dollars for easy access to information—but they’re not worth your time or money. Why? Well, we’ve got a few reasons for you.
Read MoreThree Reasons Your Faculty and Staff Need to Be on Social Media
Advancement // November 16, 2015
If you’re a follower of social media trends, you know that the more “authentic” a post sounds, the greater a response it will generate from your audience. “Natural” voices help foster relationships and prevent readers from feeling like you're selling something instead of engaging them in conversation. One of the best ways to unleash your school’s “authentic” and “natural” voice is to encourage your faculty and staff to post about your school on their personal social media profiles.
Read MoreCan Employee Assistant Programs (EAPs) Combat Drug Addictions?
Business and Operations // November 3, 2015
There is a new type of drug user entering corporate (and non-profit) America, reshaping the image of addiction: abusers of prescription medications. Drug screening, clear and updated employee handbooks outlining policies on substance abuse, background checks, and criminal records are tools for reducing risks to your school. However, these tools and methods for protecting your school and your students aren’t enough to combat the growing number of people addicted to prescription medications. Researchers are urging companies to remember the positive impact Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) programs can have.
Read MoreWellness Programs, the ACA, and EEOC
Business and Operations // November 3, 2015
October is a great month to think about your personal and school’s health. It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, World Blindness Awareness Month, and Bullying Prevention Month. It’s also National Financial Planning Month. And, as you probably know, it’s nearly impossible to think about health prevention without also thinking about your—and your school’s—bottom line. Wellness programs are known to help reduce a school’s health insurance costs. They can be designed to work in several ways that match your mission and reflect your values. However, if your school offers a wellness program either in connection with your health insurance or as a stand-alone program, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have implemented rules about your program—and the regulations depend on the type of plan you offer.
Read MoreAsk ISM’s Risk Manager
Business and Operations // November 3, 2015
Q: Can you share some information that may help clarify the need for a claim form when it comes to International Student Accident Insurance? We have a student covered by an accident and sickness plan, and he has been asked to submit a claim form for a doctor visit due to an illness.
Read More