Cash Advance

Years ago I was reviewing a school in western Canada and giving all sorts of sage advice about how to effectively raise money, build an alumni base, track annual giving, etc. The advice was well-received, my recommendations implemented, and positive change was made to the advancement programme. The only problem is that I wasn't really sure what I was talking about! Oh, I had been in dozens of schools and met with a host of highly successful fundraisers all over Canada, the United States and Europe. I am confident that I was giving proven and workable expert advice, however (and this is a common problem in education) what was lacking from my repertoire was a solid track record of raising funds myself. My experiences in Montreal taught me a lot about event planning and community building; they taught me about the difference between what people said that they would do and what they could actually deliver; and, they taught me the difference between highly "public" giving and true philanthropy. But, the bottom line at Weston was that we raised money by generating surplus revenues through operations, not through the generosity of external donors. This was a lesson that was lost to some extent on my successor (supported by equally myopic Boards of Governors) who, depending on the vague promises of "generous" constituents, ran huge losses and slowly bankrupted the school while they waited for their advancement ship to come in and bail them out.

Fast forward ten years and there I am, thousands of kilometers away in the middle of the Atlantic, standing at the mike and thanking a host of volunteers for staging an outstanding fundraising event at an art gallery set in the beautiful national botanical gardens. The night was a highly successful component of what is slowly emerging as a comprehensive development and strategic financial plan.

I have always said that timing is everything. When I joined Somersfield in January there appeared to be three strikes against expanding our development prospects. To begin with, a long-standing, highly respected and locally connected Head of School, my friend Margaret Hallett, had stepped down at the height of her game to pursue other interests; the long-serving development officer had been lured to a powerful rival school early in the fall, taking contacts and relationships with him, and hadn't been replaced; the school had just finished a massive and exciting building campaign which had inspired giving but now was completed (and about $12 million in debt); and - wait, did I say three strikes? - we were plunging headfirst into a major global recession which was bound to have an impact both on our school population and the financial liquidity of our donors!

It is now six months later. Standing at the botanical gardens on Saturday night I was able to announce that we had just completed the most successful annual giving and fundraising campaign in the school's history. How did this happen? Well, the same three (four?) strikes turned out to be to our advantage. To begin with, the current economic climate galvanized the Board into reassessing its financial position and willingness to carry a significant debt load. The finance committee began to discuss strategies for long-term sustainability; we created a formal development committee to set priorities, name targets and identify new sources of funding; and, the Board opened itself up to expanding our student base in key areas as a hedge against future contraction - the result was an improved cash flow, a manageable debt-reduction strategy, and a revitalized development mandate.

Secondly, Margaret had hired, in consultation with me, an atypical candidate for development officer. Starting the same day as I did, Megan brought no advancement experience, but offered a wealth of energy, enthusiasm and personal connection with members of the parent body and the larger community. In fact, we used our newness as an advantage as we were able to talk about change and growth and the fact that somebody else had build up the debt but that we were left to pay it off!

Over the next few months, we launched some new academic initiatives: the Somersfield Chair in Mathematics; full-day programming for three year olds to support working Bermudian parents; lap-top carts; SMART boards; and, the introduction of PYP strategies to our Foundations division. Before you knew it, companies and individuals became interested in what we were doing and wanted to get on board. One company (KPMG) donated 40 laptops and two lap-top carts to kick-start our "mobile computer lab" initiative; another (MS Frontier Re) funded the expansion of our SMART board capabilities; and our parents' association got so excited about what we were doing that they raised money to create a new entry-level classroom; upgrade our theatre facility; and make significant technology purchases at all levels of the school. Other companies and individual parents supported our Math initiatives and before we knew it, we had recorded the best year ever in raising funds (in half the time!)

So what did we learn in all this? Three important lessons have emerged in our first venture into the potentially shark infested waters of development. The first, is to tell the truth. We have been up front and open about our debt challenges, our cash flow concerns, and our worries about the escalating need for bursaries and scholarships. Donors have welcomed our candor and have been interested in being a part of helping us find solutions. Secondly, we have been grateful. Saying thank you and giving public recognition have been a big part of what has caught people's attention. There are no tax breaks for charitable giving in Bermuda. Our supporters are just that, supporters. They are interested parents, good corporate citizens and friends of the school. Our events are as much about community building as they are about fundraising and we want people to feel good about attending, not merely good about getting out without spending too much!

Finally, we have been cheerleaders for what we are doing and what we are going to do. I wrote to our parents last week that in a young school like ours with no deep-pocketed alumni to keep us afloat our only recourse was to outperform our rival schools; outperform our expectations for ourselves; and then do even better the next year! They responded that that is something worth supporting.

We will always measure the success of our advancement initiatives in terms of dollars and cents, but there is so much more to it. As long as there are development strategists that think that heavy handed pressure tactics and guilting out potential donors is a long-term sustainable strategy - we should continue to do quite well by comparison!

In some races, nice guys don't necessarily finish last!