Making the Case

I've done several searches lately for advancement roles at PreK - 8 schools. I like advancement searches because you recruit broadly in the nonprofit fundraising world and end up learning a lot about the culture of philanthropy in various cities, which is invariably incredibly reassuring. These searches have also given me the opportunity to become more articulate about the context of donor stewardship and advancement strategy at an independent elementary/middle school. Being a Director of Annual Giving at a PreK - 8 with 400 students, is a very different thing from being one of the 100 people who are responsible for annual giving at a major university, or from being the all-things-advancement person at the local women's shelter. These are the points I try to hit in these conversations, and they are all about being present:

1. The case is evolving before you every day, so you need to be there to see it. You must be able to authentically relate the leading edge of the school's programs to donors, which means that you must make time to experience it--in classrooms, on ballfields, on field trips. You'll know you've really made it when teachers invite you to these activities--evidence that they trust you and understand your work.

2. By doing the above, you will simultaneously mitigate another challenge at independents schools; namely, that your teaching colleagues don't really understand what you do and probably never really will. Independent school teachers are the value proposition, and in elementary/middle schools their work is deeply intimate: they are striving to make good humans. Advancement activities are understandably very distant from their daily experience, and the more that you can humanize it by honoring their work with your presence, and connect grateful donors to the source, the more effective you will become as a colleague and as a fundraiser.

3. Third reason to be present: At an independent elementary/middle school, donors are on campus several times a day. They (parents, and increasingly, grandparents, aunts and uncles, family friends) arrive to drop children off and linger to chat with other parents. They return midday for volunteer assignments or for the poetry reading. They're on the sidelines at the soccer game on Saturday morning. There is no better place to engage with these donors than when you are standing shoulder to shoulder watching the case in action.

All of these things are also true to a degree at larger schools and at secondary schools, but expectations for intimacy grow less intense. Donors might not be on campus quite as much, grandparents day not as robustly attended. You might remember your own children's relief at driving themselves to school, the independence, yes, but also the relief from the appalling spectacle of being seen with their parents. At secondary schools, the expectations from alumni and the importance of meeting them on their turf grow, taking advancement people away from campus more often. At independent elementary/middle schools, however, advancement work is intensely firsthand and relational.