The Parent Campaign

Do I really need to market the annual campaign to the parent community? Don’t they know about the school already?

The parent body just might be the single most important target market for a day school annual campaign. Why?

• They have a personal stake in the campaign’s success.
• They represent the “bread and butter” of the school.
• They are a naturally replenishing donor pool.
• They are passionate donors as well as invested consumers.

The biggest challenge in approaching this market is fairly straightforward. Parents already write big checks to the school – they pay tuition and other school fees. Thus, parents may feel resentful about being asked for donations above and beyond the cost of tuition. The goal becomes to separate tuition from charitable giving in every parent’s mind, and to create a culture of giving within the parent community.

Creating a “culture of giving”

What is a culture of giving and why must we create one? Can we? How?

In order for parents to willingly make meaningful gifts to the school each year,

• The expectation for participation in the annual campaign must be set early on in their child’s school career.
• The case for giving must be clear.
• They must feel good about giving.
• They should see, feel and hear about other parents making gifts  (feel like the norm).
• They must understand that tuition alone cannot accomplish all that the school will provide to its student body.
• The emphasis should be on participation in the campaign rather than on dollar amount.

We must:

• Explain the gap between tuition and the real cost of educating a child.
• Illustrate the need for scholarship dollars and link this service to charitable giving.
• Insert the concept of annual campaign giving throughout the school year agenda – not solely when soliciting a gift.

What should the message feel like and how is this best communicated?

We often think about how we market our campaign to the alumni, grandparent or foundation communities, but it is equally important to spend time planning an internal marketing campaign. Below are five ways to do just this.

1) As mentioned above, the emphasis for parents is typically on participation rather than on dollar amount – as most schools are looking for 100% participation. Every family in the school should feel they are a critical contributor to the campaign and schools must encourage contributions at financial levels that are personally meaningful to the donor.

2) The messaging to parents must be clear — an annual campaign is essential in order to provide the education they are seeking for their children. Tuition is not enough to cover expenses. The annual campaign may allow the school to offer programs, equipment and events such as:

• Tuition support
• Special science equipment
• Professional development for teachers and administrators
• Sports teams
• Shabbatonim
• Outside speakers
• Art and music programs
• Technology – Smart Boards, laptops and iPads
• Services for students with special needs
• Clubs and more…

3) Focus on what is important to families. Why do they attend your school? What will motivate them to give? Understand the school’s value proposition. Is it the:

• Superior educational experience?
• Value based teaching?
• Jewish thought?
• Hebrew language curriculum?
• Jewish continuity?
• Centrality of Israel?

4) The campaign team must link what parents value most about the school (see #3 above) to the annual campaign messaging in all of its literature and public presentations. Parents must understand why annual campaign giving is important and why they are an important part of the campaign.

5) Parents should hear about the annual campaign early and often. Cultivation and stewardship with this target market is about creating multiple opportunities for talking about the campaign, without soliciting.

• Create an annual campaign brochure and include it in parent orientation materials; (Sample Annual Campaign Brochure).
• Email a letter from annual campaign chairs to parents at the start of the year.
• Engage campaign chairs in making a 30-60 second informational speech during the parent open house, talking about the importance of the campaign and ways to get involved.
• Display a campaign thermometer in the lobby of the school (include percent participation) (Sample Campaign Thermometer #1) (Sample Campaign Thermometer #2).
• Include a link to the school’s website in the weekly emails sent to parents, directing them to where they can learn more about the campaign.
• Spotlight a parent donor in the newsletter- with a photo and a brief statement, such as, “I give to the annual campaign because…”

The more often you can communicate about the campaign in a personal way- from parent to parent- aside from the actual solicitation, the better. This will acclimate parents to the annual campaign and present it as the “norm”; something in which all families can and do participate.

How do I organize a parent campaign?

Experience tells us that the most effective solicitors are one’s peers, thus the leadership for each market comes from within the target population. In this case, members of the parent body become the leadership.

• Peer to peer solicitation reinforces a culture of giving.
• Hearing the words, “I made a gift to our school, please join me” speaks to a parent in a different way than does an ask from a staff member.
• Parents are the school’s best ambassadors.

Typically,

a) annual campaign chairs recruit a parent campaign chair(s)

b) who may in turn recruit parent subcommittee chairs (or class chairs), who

c) ensure that each parent is personally and individually solicited for the campaign.

In schools where there are room parents, it may be the person in this role who adds the annual campaign to their portfolio of responsibilities.

• Communicate this expectation at the onset so that room parents are able to get comfortable with this role.
• This reinforces the culture of giving by framing campaign participation as one more activity, volunteer opportunity or event in which parents are typically involved.

For schools without room parents, this may be accomplished by assigning a class chair or grade level chair. And still for other schools, it may be the overall parent campaign chair that is involved at every level. No matter how the campaign is organized, the goal is to ensure that everyone feels they are a part of the campaign and everyone is given multiple opportunities to give.

Remember, a goal for this campaign might be 100% participation. This campaign should feel accessible to all, not just to those able to make high-level gifts.

• Celebrate the smaller gifts.
• Ensure your language talks about making a gift that is meaningful for the donor.
• Enlist leadership that represents donors at all giving levels.

Remember… one must first become a donor in order to serve as a solicitor. Ensure that parent leadership is solicited prior to taking a leadership role in the campaign.

And a word about the annual gala…

Contrary to popular opinion, it is not essential for every school to hold an annual gala event or dinner. While they might be very successful fundraising tools for some campaigns, they are not right for every school. Things to consider when deciding if a gala is right for your school:

• How many hours of staff and volunteer time are being spent vs. net revenue.
• Are you better off using staff time and energy toward the cultivation of individual major donors?
• What is the goal of the annual gala? Are there other ways to accomplish this goal?
  • Can you create smaller more intimate donor recognition events for your major givers?
  • Can you create other, less labor, dollar and time intensive forms of recognition, community outreach and/or mid-level gift acquisition?

If you do decide to hold a gala with a “hefty” per ticket price, it is a good idea to let parents know the purpose of the event prior to sending the invitation… i.e., “In order to raise the over $1 million we offer in scholarship assistance each year, a gala event is being planned by school and community leadership. Parents are encouraged to participate in one or more of the following ways: purchase a raffle ticket, encourage friends to attend; make a sponsorship gift; place an ad in the Ad Journal or purchase a seat at the dinner. Every gift is appreciated!”

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

Recognizing and acknowledging giving at every level goes a long way towards creating loyalty to the campaign and increasing participation. Find creative (and inexpensive) ways to thank all of your donors, especially your parents:

• Using an iPhone, create a simple video showing teachers, students and other faculty members saying “thank you,” and email it to parents.
• Pass out donuts and coffee to all parents during morning drop-off, with a note that says, “Thanks for participating in our annual campaign!”
• Hold a donor appreciation bagel breakfast one morning; invite board members to serve the food.
• Thank parents in the weekly newsletter.

PEJE acknowledges Giving Tree Associates in the development of the material above.