Catalyzing Resources

Schools require significant and sustainable funding from diverse revenue streams.

Prizmah recognizes that the largest sources of revenue in all day schools are tuition and fundraising. When schools are able to capitalize on their income and maximize their potential, both educational excellence and affordability are significantly advanced. Funders, communities, and parents invest precious resources because they believe in day school education. Prizmah’s strategy is to work with school professionals in the areas of admission and fundraising through gatherings, training, and support mechanisms to increase their capacity to attract more revenue.

Prizmah’s focus lies in four key impact areas: Affordability, Endowment, Enrollment Management and School Advancement.

Prizmah can tailor this work to your needs and provide opportunities to connect with experts, peers, and colleagues who have engaged in similar work. Areas of work with Jewish day schools and communities include:

Communal Affordability

Prizmah uses its knowledge of the day school field to share new and successful models of communal affordability. In addition to serving as a connector between communities interested in exploring new models and those that have already embarked on one or more new models, Prizmah consultants can help small, mid-sized, or large communities develop contextually appropriate affordability models for themselves.

Tuition Affordability Models

Through webinars, multi-day institutes, and one-on-one coaching and support, Prizmah works with individual schools and communities to help them better understand the potential benefits of alternative models. With its knowledge of local and regional markets, Prizmah also helps schools understand the situations and contexts in which these models (middle income cap programs, across the board or entry level grade tuition reductions, discounts for Jewish communal professionals, indexed tuition) typically work best.

Customized Strategic and Financial Planning for Schools and Communities

Prizmah has served as a consultant and data analyst to a variety of schools, foundations, and federations as they consider a reimagined constellation of schools in their communities. Through competitively priced, customized consultations and plans, Prizmah works with schools and communities to develop models for financial sustainability and growth. Consultations with our experts include strategic planning, endowment planning, and community-wide marketing strategies for day school growth.

Engage: Growing School and Community Partnerships

Through a partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and PJ Library, Engage positions Jewish day schools as hubs of communal Jewish engagement for families. This year-long cohort program provides funding and expertise to enable day school professionals and colleagues to attract prospective students to their schools and build stronger connections across their Jewish community as they support families in making Jewish decisions that fit their needs.

Learn More Here

To engage with us on these topics and more, contact Amy Adler, Senior Director, Catalyzing Resources, at amya@prizmah.org.

Gatherings | In-person and Virtual

Bringing professionals together to learn from experts and peers is one of Prizmah’s hallmarks, and a strategy for engaging those who are best positioned to make an impact on their schools’ revenue.

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Customized Support

School and communal projects can be customized and led by Prizmah subject-matter experts on topics including the areas of affordability, endowment planning, strategic planning, and community-wide marketing strategies for day school growth. Additionally, our team of Prizmah coaches are available to work with your school in specific areas of endowment, enrollment, development, tuition assistance and alternative tuition models.

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Professional Development

Whether through webinars, multi-day institutes or one- on- one consulting, Prizmah works with individual schools and communities in support of meeting their goals. Our Prizmah team is positioned to bring their subject matter expertise and knowledge of leading practices into the day school environment, with a strong understanding of the unique needs of day schools. We offer a wide array of programs and professional development opportunities on topics that include, but are not limited to:

Endowment
New admission and development professional institutes [1-3 years experience]
Convenings designed specifically for senior development professionals [8+ years experience]
Website, social media and marketing
Move management and donor engagement
Recruitment and retention
Alumni engagement
The boards role in supporting institutional advancement

Contact Amy Wasser to Learn More

Networking and Meetups

Community-based Professional Development

Prizmah hosts ongoing check-ins to enable peer-to-peer learning and access to best practices and support. These are opportunities to share resources and engage in meaningful conversations that will help move their schools forward in their work and strengthen the networks of school-based professionals across North America. We currently offer meetups for: