Advancement Articles
Publications pertinent to the purpose of SchoolAdvancement are listed below with the most recent addition first, and all articles are listed alphabetically in the navigation pane to the left. If you discover an article or online resource that should be included, please send your suggestion to admin@schooladvancement.com.
NEW! - Retention Realities - Looking for ways to keep students in your school? One of the best ways to grow enrollment is to keep the enrollment you already have - but remember that retention strategies are different from enrollment strategies. For a more extensive treatment of this topic, consider ordering Retention: A Systems Approach to Growing Enrollment. Order your copy by visiting this link!
"Can Catholic Schools Be Saved" by Peter Meyer (from Education Next from The Hoover Institution, Spring 2007) - This article provides a retrospective of how Catholic school arrived at this point in history, the trends in demographics that seem to be paradoxical for Catholic schools, and the current issues which provide hope as well as threats to Catholic schools in America - the only such system of its kind in the world!
Social Networking Becoming Old Technology - In a Hurry (from The NonProfit Times) - Predictions for 2008 relative to technology and its use for storing information about our schools and using online social networks to replace an organization's intranet. While technology can help, it can't "replace." Remember, technology is only a tool...a very powerful tool, but not the only one in the box.
The Experience - It's all about the experience...not just experience.
In Praise of the Purple Cow (from Fast Company Magazine, January 2003) - Author and marketing guru Seth Godin examines the "remarkabilty" principle as a key component of "marketability."
If Your Customers Are Satisfied, Why Are They Leaving?
- by Jeffrey Gitomer. Still concerned with how satisfied your parents and guardians are? This will cause you to REALLY be concerned, even if they are. Find out what you need to do to create "loyalty" rather than "complete satisfaction."
The Marketing Origin (or, Pieces of a DREAM) - How are elements of the DREAM (Development/Retention/Enrollment/Asset Management/Marketing) related to one another? In truth, every aspect impacts one another. In terms of the process that's created, however, two images are offered. Math majors will like this one.
Marketing IS Education - Think you can't "do" marketing? After all, isn't that a business major? And you were an education major, right? Think of it this way - the business major focuses on how marketing affects business (market share, branding, positioning, etc.). While that's important, an educator has the background to realize HOW and WHY marketing works.
You're Doing it Backwards (and That's a GOOD Thing) - What's the best way to teach a child? Inductively? Deductively? What's the best way to teach an adult? If you're going to design curriculum to achieve a desired outcome, do you start at the beginning. Is it, like the song from "The Sound of Music" says, a "very good place to start?" Or, do we start at the end and work backwards? If we do the latter, be ready with your defense.
4 Rules of Word of Mouth Marketing (Janine Popick, President and CEO-Founder of Vertical Response, January 22, 2007) - What's the best form of marketing? If you said "Word of Mouth," you are correct! But the best is also the most dangerous - a negative message will affect 3 times as many people as a positive message will. Here are four rules that will help keep your parents' experience a positive one.
THINK (Jeffrey Gitomer's "Sales Caffeine," December 18, 2006) -Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible and other books that motivate and inspire people who are sales professionals. In the business world, sales and marketing are sometimes linked together and used interchangeably - but they involve two completely different processes. Marketing is education, but sales is eerily similar to the enrollment process necessary for our schools to follow in order to grow. In this article, Mr. Gitomer speaks about the time between a stimulus and response as "think" time. Steven Covey's "The 8th Habit" parallels Mr. Gitomer's "thinking," stating that this ability to "decide" our course of action in response to a stimulus is what makes us who we are. A good article to embark on "metacognition" - thinking about thinking.
The Joyful Mysteries of Advent and Lent (ISPD Enrollment Solutions, December 2006) - As a ministry that waits in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, John Cooper puts faith into action by paralleling the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary with how we should approach our enrollment efforts. An excellent way to pray for the continued success of our Catholic schools.
An Open Letter to Bill Gates (from District Administration, August 2006) - An excellent synopsis of what's plaguing our schools today by Gary Stager, an editor-at-large for District Administration, "The Magazine for K-12 Education Leaders," and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University.
We're On a Mission From God - Too many people think development and fundraising are synonymous. Raising money is actually the last step of a process that begins with marketing, and allows the advancement cycle to continue. While raising necessary funds are important, an openness toward community involvement and cooperation as well as a sense of mission is needed for development efforts to succeed.
IMing as a Recruitment Tool - Street addresses were all the rage for a time in our country, allowing people the convenience of having mail delivered directly to their home, rather than travelling to the post office to pick it up. Then the telephone made letter writing almost obsolete as a way of contacting someone "instantly." Since "instantly" is now measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second) in our technology-rich culture, email is even too slow for Generation Next. Here's how you're going to have to learn how to reach them...instantly.
Change or Die (from Fast Company Magazine, May 2005) - You may wonder why this is included here, but after reading it, consider that any type of "sales" decision for any expensive item is based on emotion - not logic. A "compelling vision" must be presented to achieve the desired result.
"Renewing Our Commitment to Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools in the Third Millennium" (Published in 2005 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Inc.) - The Bishops of the United States restate their support for Catholic schools, emphasizing the need for inspired and inventive solutions to the challenges facing Catholic schools today.
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