Successful fundraising is a lot like farming.
You have to cultivate a relationship with
potential donors. Regular communication,
casting your vision, and making it easy for
them to donate is vital for a good relationship.
One school didn’t understand this. It
with the remaining 15% from donations
wanted to provide its families with an
or outside organizations. Some schools are
affordable education, so it kept tuition
able to charge high enough tuition that
levels low. However, its tuition was so low,
they don’t depend on giving, but outside
it was losing money and really couldn’t
of higher income areas, this is rare.
operate. Fortunately, the school had
substantial gifts coming in for many years,
which allowed the school to continue, but
when hard times hit and gifts dropped off,
growth came to a screeching halt.
uncollected tuition. It’s hard to keep track
of so many tuition payments and make sure
they’re made on time. Take Wilmington
Christian Academy in North Carolina, for
Different schools have different profit
example. The school administrators were
models. Some focus it entirely on donations.
overwhelmed with a long list of difficult
Some schools have a church or other
delinquent accounts.
organization that supports the school. The
question you have to ask is “How are we
going to make enough money to not only
pay for day-to-day operations, but also to
make extra to grow?” Where is the money
going to come from to build the school
beyond what it is today?
To fix the problem, they switched to
Smart Tuition from a competitor. They
saw how much Smart Tuition’s software
could help them clean up the delinquent
accounts with care and understanding. The
school went from three pages of an Excel
spreadsheet list of delinquent accounts to
Schools traditionally have two very clear
about three people quickly and painlessly.
avenues for fundraising: tuition and
The change had a significant impact on the
donations. Tuition almost always comes
school’s finances.
from the family of the student. Your
business model will determine how much
of the day-to-day operations that tuition
will pay for each year. On average, 85%
of a school’s revenue comes from tuition
10
Many schools have a shortfall from
Another area that schools have a hard
time keeping track of is all the little fees
that come up for the cafeteria, book fees,
summer camps, after-school programs,
music program, athletics, and other