All independent schools understand the importance of messaging and campaign themes that will resonate with their donors. Just because your school’s fiscal year ends on June 30th doesn’t mean that deadline resonates with your donors. The strongest fundraising efforts and outreach programs find ways to make fundraising feel meaningful on personal levels with each donor.
Over the past two years, independent schools all over the country have reached to the bottom of their donor base for covid-relief funds, annual funds and other specialty campaigns. If your school is seeing a slow down in annual fundraising because of these other special circumstances, you are not alone. Here are eight ways to deal with donor fatigue at the start of a new year:
1. Choose A Theme
Your school’s annual fund covers a lot of purposes from renovations to resources for new programs and everything in between, so how do you communicate that to a broad range of donors? Giving your annual fund an overarching theme will tie in the entire school community regardless of their personal interests. The theme should focus on opportunity, progress and potential. This will make donors feel like they are making a difference in the future of education and investing in the next generation of young adults.
2. Acknowledge Tradition
While your school’s annual fund theme should focus on the future vision of your school, your messaging should highlight all the beloved traditions and memories shared by your alumni. Annual campus events are timely and resonate with alumni year after year. Your school’s annual fund is a big contributor to keeping those traditions alive today. Sharing your school story and traditions with newer families will make them want to be an active member of the strong community your school built.
3. Layer in a Second Ask
Donors who made a small contribution in the beginning of the school year may be willing to make another donation before June 30th. Rather than being outright and asking again, the second ask should be much more personalized with some breathing room in between donations. Lead discussions with your smaller donors to see where their interests are. Ask the following questions:
- What would you like to see improved at the school?
- What are some of your favorite memories here?
- What’s your favorite part of the school’s community?
Based on their answers, you can craft messaging for a second donation that helps them envision a school they will continue to support in the future.
4. Keep It Fun
Your fundraising campaign should lean into the diversity and uniqueness of your school’s current student body. Showcasing the fun side of campus is just as important as showing the advanced and elite programs you offer. There’s plenty of room in your communication plans to get light-hearted and fun. Feel-good content will remind donors why tight-knit communities like yours are special in the first place.
5. Make It Competitive
Community engagement is an excellent way to increase annual fundraising in the second half of the school year. Friendly competition builds pride about the clubs, teams, departments and graduating classes your donors were a part of. Can hockey alumni raise more money than soccer or basketball? How about graduating classes? Organizing sub-groups and creating a leaderboard will create active engagement with your whole community.
6. Be Transparent
Share progress with your donors regularly. Even if some recent projects are unexciting (like re-paving the parking lot or painting dorms), it’s important to show proof the annual fund truly is going towards bettering the school and its community. Have you introduced new clubs or extracurricular activities? Furnished new classrooms or new equipment in the athletic training facilities? No improvement is too small to be shared with your loyal donor base. Status updates can be included in regular outreach like emails and social media.
7. Build Strong Advocates
Advocates can be your strongest asset in fundraising campaigns. Fundraising outreach is generally more about telling than talking but advocates can balance that. Personal outreach is hard to accomplish by just one employee. When given the proper resources, advocates provide a much-welcome and authentic connection. Your advocates should range from current students and families to other alumni within the community.
To build a network of strong advocates, they should be provided with materials to make communication easy, exciting and authentic:
- Email templates
- Phone scripts
- Print materials
- Regular updates on school happenings
- Giveaway materials
8. Say Thank You in A Big Way
Thank you messages are an essential part of any successful fundraising campaign and they should not be treated as a simple afterthought or automated message after a donation form. We recommend taking the time to customize your thank you’s using highly engaging forms of communications like phone calls and personalized videos. Not only should you thank them for their donation, but also for being an active and valuable member of your school community.
Don’t forget about your employees, advocates and volunteers! They deserve just as much of a thank you as your donors.
Blue Baden is the only marketing and strategy consulting company specifically designed to meet the needs of boarding schools. Build your fundraising strategy with Blue Baden today.
