WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT CATHOLIC SCHOOL CAMPAIGNS?
SCHOOL SERVICES & CLIENTS | WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT CATHOLIC SCHOOL CAMPAIGNS?
- Prospective Donors: The primary objective of a school campaign should be to engage all prospective donor constituencies on terms that acknowledge and embrace their unique relationship to the school. High School annual and capital fundraising will always have some dependency on the support of the obvious constituent groups (school families and local parishes). However, a well designed and orchestrated campaign plan should reach all constituent groups, including grandparents, alumni, foundations, and the corporate community. Campaigns are one-time opportunities for most prospective donors to leave legacy with the school.
- Donor Constituency Relationships: If a school campaign is to achieve its true potential, constituents must be approached in a manner that is natural and comfortable. Schools offer unique opportunities to reach their constituency in natural groups. The natural grouping of the constituency is unique in each school - for some it is the class structure. For others it is the school’s major activities (athletics, arts, etc.). For others still, it is geography.
- Campaign Timeline: A school campaign timeline should be determined first by the campaign’s needs, and then shaped by the dynamics of the school year and key events. There is no other kind of institution that deals with school calendar - why should the school campaign timeline resemble that of any other institution? Most school campaigns are not allowed enough time to accommodate the process required to achieve the true potential. Unfortunately, it is too often the fund-raising firm who dictates the campaign timeline considering factors such as cost of resident counsel or the firm’s fiscal year.
- School Board Leadership: Whether an Advisory Board, Governing Board, or Policy Board, understanding the relationship between the Board and school is critical to engaging this important leadership group in the campaign. To be sure, the Board has an important role to play in a campaign. But, because school Boards are assembled for different reasons than other not-for-profit organizations, it only makes sense that the expectations of the Board in a campaign should be different as well.
How is a school campaign different than our parish’s campaign?
Click on image below to enlarge our chart.
You might think that a Catholic school campaign would look similar to the campaign you had in your parish to build the new sanctuary. While there are some surface-level similarities, these two kinds of institutions couldn't be more different.
The conclusion is that a campaign for a school must be designed with these differences in mind and will require more time than a parish to succeed.
How much can we raise in our school campaign?
The short answer is that any amount could possible for a school depending on several factors ranging from the type of case (eg. construction, endowment, etc), availability of leadership and resources, and institution campaign history.
A more frequent question is: Can we assume a multiple of our budget as a goal, like we did in our parish campaign? The potential for a school campaign is more complicated than for a parish because of several factors. A multiple of a school's budget will not work because, unlike a parish, a school's budget is not determined by the constituency's ability to give. Rather, it is determined largely by tuition and then perhaps some fund-raising work.
To determine how much can be raised in a school campaign, a Campaign Planning Study of giving potential should be conducted. This is often labeled a “feasibility study,” but should not be confused with types of studies carrying the same name. The goal of a Campaign Planning Study should be to identify leadership and financial resources, and then to develop the most appropriate strategy to engage their involvement. An effective Campaign Planning Study will provide the necessary information to establish an accurate and attainable campaign financial goal.
