In ISM theory, the development function, the constituent relations function (including marketing), and the admission function are all part of the school services termed "advancement." To assure efficient functioning among the advancement offices and effective execution of the tasks delegated to each team member, consider the following.

Endowment is an important element of the financial picture in private-independent schools. If your school has an endowment, the following six questions and answers are intended to help you clarify its focus and function. If not, the questions will help your school think about endowment in a meaningful way.

Borrowing originally from concepts advanced in the for-profit sector, ISM has for a decade taught a basic competitive-marketing truth: private-independent schools can compete on the basis of price, product or process, but not on the basis of all three at the same time. The implications of this truth for strategic planning would be hard to overstate. As you, the Board President, prepare for your next planning event, take responsibility for assisting your colleagues in working from a marketplace stance that fits your school’s actual competitive platform.

ISM has long maintained that money follows performance. When private­independent schools provide the education promised by their mission statements and admission materials, parents are willing to enroll (and re­enroll) their children, and donors are willing to contribute on a recurring basis. As accurate as this aphorism continues to be, given the current challenges schools face in attracting and retaining students and donations, it now needs to be modified with—“when validated.”

As you, the School Head, think about the school five years from now, you must consider the Management Team (the Head's direct reports) and ask whether the team members can take the school where the Board, in its strategic plan, wants it to go. You can't do it alone; this group of administrators is critical to meeting (a) the strategic plan goals and (b) the school growth items as laid out in the annual administration agenda.