Development/School Research

Having spent a significant part of my career in schools working with marketing and development, I’ve observed that one of the hardest things for small organizations and schools to show is data that demonstrates the efficacy of their program or provide feedback on marketing and development efforts. 

This is information that everyone agrees would be incredibly helpful: for marketing, development, or program growth. However the limitations of a small organization or school means the bandwidth often isn’t there for someone to work on these projects. 

Having completed several projects researching the efficacy of marketing and internal communication tools, I’m excited to work with small organizations and schools to provide additional bandwidth and expertise.

As part of my Masters in NonProfit Leadership, I completed a study on the state of fundraising for private schools that only served middle school. Initially I expected that the challenges of a small private school that solely focused on middle school would experience  unique and isolating development challenges. The results of this research suggests that while there is plenty of opportunity for our schools to grow in their development efforts, schools are also meeting their goals and experiencing success in fundraising. Certainly this is a result worth celebrating. The challenges that these face don’t appear to be unique to independent middle schools as they are well universally acknowledged  in the available literature.

After the survey was distributed to the list of middle schools, several of the development directors asked me for copies of the survey questions to help guide discussions in their own schools. This seems noteworthy and reflective of the larger opportunity for more discussions among independent middle school development offices. One of the obstacles to success in fundraising that respondents reported was ‘Not enough time for planning or strategic discussions.’  Beyond the development offices, this group of schools seems ripe for research on curriculum, program methodology, student development, and long term impact of this unique experience.