All of your school’s advancement efforts (admission, marketing communication, and development) should share a common focus on your children and your mission. Too often, messages in these areas lack incisiveness and unity. A strong message—one that invites people to enroll and to give—communicates a educational experience through the lens of the student. To understand what is different about marketing schools, consider the following student-centered advancement approach.

When you look at the Comprehensive Advancement Model (see the graphic in the accompanying article), “Strategic Board” forms the base. Simply stated, the effectiveness of your advancement program is inextricably linked to your school’s overall stability, and the Board is the guarantor of stability. When the Board operates strategically—focusing on sustaining financial viability and excellence for future generations of students—every aspect of school operations performs at a higher level, including advancement efforts.

Advancement integrates your admission, development, and marketing communications programs at the service of your school’s mission. It is important to collaborate among these three areas. When you do, you impact student recruitment and re-recruitment, aid your school in its strategic direction, and encourage philanthropic giving. ISM now offers a way to measure the effectiveness of your advancement efforts. While the Comprehensive Advancement Model illustrates the key relationships that exist among these areas of advancement, metrics are appropriately seen as important in measuring results. To develop these metrics, we offer ISM’s Advancement Core Values and Standards, including an assessment tool to bridge the gap between values and results.1

In a recent article on endowment, we wrote: “Endowment is no panacea for poor governance, overreaching debt, or an unwillingness to charge what it costs. However, in a school that is mature in its governance and operations, endowment will be a powerful aid to enhance the school’s ability to deliver its mission.” While the optimum gift is unrestricted, many donors are inspired to donate in support of faculty excellence, thus directing their gift for a specific purpose. Setting up such an endowment is not quite as simple as just putting money in the bank. The following suggestions for both organization and intent are meant to provide guidance and to stimulate your own thinking. All boxed comments are illustrative only.

A comprehensive campaign incorporates all of an institution’s fundraising initiatives and objectives—annual, building, and endowment—over a predetermined time period into a unified effort with a coherent theme and coordinated communications strategy. The comprehensive approach to fundraising emerged as a solution to the diverse needs and constraints that a school confronts. Individuals have long given gifts to their favorite institutions. They were inclined to direct their gifts toward building the school’s capital base, either by directly funding new construction or renovation of existing buildings or by making an endowment gift to generate continuing income to establish or sustain programs in perpetuity.

The annual fund is the keystone of your entire development program. Since it is broad-based and regularly occurring, it connects your school with the widest possible group of donors and helps build a culture of philanthropy in your school community. The annual fund also helps identify individuals who might later become primary supporters of capital, endowment, or major gift campaigns. It is a vital point of contact for Development Office professional staff to engage volunteers and develop volunteer leadership.

Your school depends on volunteers to provide an array of services, from helping out in the classroom to handling the nuts and bolts of the annual auction. These key constituents support the professional staff in just about every aspect of the school’s life. Their time and talent are essential and invaluable in enhancing the school’s ability to fulfill its mission.* As Director of Parent Relations (or another administrator who oversees volunteers), one of your responsibilities is to build and maintain a reliable volunteer force. To meet this goal, ensure the work is rewarding for both the individual and the institution. Value and appreciate those who give freely of their time and skills. For its part, the school needs to be assured that everyone working in the school clearly understands expectations.

Many schools have endowment programs. Even more do not. Whether your school should have an endowment is not an easy question to either formulate or answer in a meaningful way. Schools that have them believe that they are a critical part of their futures. Many school leaders think that endowment has to be a part of their ongoing planning. Clearly, if you have an endowment, it can be an enormous plus for the school’s ability to deliver its mission. But it is not as simple as it seems.

In recent years, partly because of the challenges in our economy and partly because the techniques are so successful, some schools use a capital campaign-style, personalized approach to donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship that has inspired many to give and others to continue to increase their level of giving. ISM now suggests that this become the norm, not just a response to special circumstances. The annual fund is the foundation of your fund-raising efforts. Like all development programs, its impact goes beyond dollars—the ultimate goals are to build relationships and to create a culture of giving in your school. Because the annual fund is broadly based and occurs regularly, it connects your school with the widest possible group of donors in your community. It also helps you identify individuals who later might become primary supporters of your capital, endowment, and major gift programs. A robust annual fund also provides a training ground for volunteers to identify, cultivate, solicit, recognize, and steward donors and prospects.

A central component of providing “direct and consistent donor cultivation” is the school’s ability to assist donors in making informed decisions about their giving, while protecting the school from awkward, inappropriate, or perhaps risky gift transactions. Consider the following two scenarios. A donor wants to make a gift to the school using securities that she has owned for many years. She requests the school hold the stock for a month before selling it. A patron of a nonsectarian school will make a seven-figure gift if the school agrees to add a religious component to its mission.