Terry Fairholm, PresidentFirst, philanthropy. To say that the people in this great country are generous is a massive understatement. I have personally witnessed extreme acts of generosity and kindness toward our Catholic school clients. With gifts from hundreds of dollars to many millions of dollars, Catholic schools are blessed with a loyal, giving and caring constituency. People want to help and will do so if the case for support is compelling, relevant and urgent and is presented in an honest, sincere, professional way, backed up by a comprehensive, thoughtful strategy.
Second, the Catholic schools we serve. Led by talented professionals, from the Board members to the administration, faculty and staff, students are essentially guaranteed an exceptional education and outstanding experience that prepares them for the next step in their lives and forms them for their future. Challenged, however, by their own mission of enrolling any student regardless of their financial circumstances, Catholic schools must be exceptional at securing philanthropic support because, in business language, they sell their product for less than it costs to produce.
Third, seeking philanthropic support for a Catholic school. For example, the average Catholic high school has an enrollment of 500 students, an operating budget of around $5 million and an endowment of around $6 million. With the actual cost to educate one student increasing annually and averaging near $17,000 (depending on the location could be more or less), average tuition around $13,000 (again, depending on location could be more or less) and the net tuition revenue per student around $11,000, most schools begin the year needing around $3,000,000 ($6,000 “gap” per student X 500 students) in philanthropic support just to keep the doors open!
When the school needs facilities renovated, new classrooms, an updated science lab, additional STEM facilities and increased endowment, etc., the only way to achieve success is to conduct a multi-million-dollar capital campaign asking for incremental giving - giving in addition to sustaining their annual support to keep the doors open! So, the traditional thought that, “hey, it’s a school, how difficult can it be?” is a far cry from reality. The business of a Catholic school, particularly a Catholic high school, is extraordinarily challenging. And we’re only addressing fundraising in this article; seeking enrollment is equally challenging.
Finally, the funding solution. This is my opinion and it leads back to the title of this article – Life Rewards Action. Catholic elementary schools are in the infancy stage of seeking philanthropic support and that’s good; keep going. Catholic high schools, however, have relied on philanthropy for a long time but have not been (in general) as assertive in their efforts as they need to be to achieve the results they require.
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Challenged, however, by their own mission of enrolling any student regardless of their financial circumstances, Catholic schools must be exceptional at securing philanthropic support because, in business language, they sell their product for less than it costs to produce.
Four suggestions:
1)Understand the difference between “fundraising” and “advancement”. Both are required; the former keeps the doors open; the latter is transformational;
2) Increase advancement, major gift staff. Every Catholic high school has about 400+ major gift prospects but only one major gift person in the advancement operation who can devote time to them (some schools have more, but the average Catholic high school has one). One person cannot handle a portfolio of 400 major gift prospects; 100 is the maximum and perhaps the President has a portfolio of about 25. Who is dealing with the other 275+?? The answer is NO ONE! And that is why the school isn’t maximizing its philanthropic potential;
3) “Fish in the right pond”. Once you have the staff in place, they must spend their time developing relationships with the right people – those with the highest giving capacity;
4) DO IT NOW! IMPLEMENT! Life rewards action and the biggest mistakes I have witnessed in Catholic education advancement is either taking too long to make the decision to implement or not implementing at all. You can’t get time back and some other entity is getting philanthropic support from the prospects in your constituency base.
Every campaign we have done has been successful because of our customized major gift process and adherence to the fundamentals of successful advancement: focus and disciplined execution. I hope these words inspire you to take action to seek additional philanthropy in support of your important mission.
