by Barbara Barron | Posted September 6th, 2023 | Subscribe to this newsletter Years ago, my team and I set out to put the then-popular 80/20 rule into practice. I posed this challenge: since 80% of our support comes from 20% of our donors, should we not deploy 80% of our time, resources, energy, and love on that loyal, generous …
How Can We Set Priorities that Serve Us and Our Programs?
by Barbara Barron | Posted August 16th, 2023 | Subscribe to this newsletter A new school year. A new chance to get off on the right foot. If you’re like me, after a needed refresh over the summer, you’re ready to take it on again — but maybe with some new thinking. A new set of practices to keep us …
Sacrificing Sacred Cows: Some Reflections on CASE-NAIS ’23
My overarching “ah-ha” was that the sometimes tough-to-make tactical goals of increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at our schools were made real in several sessions — with actual, honest-to-God solutions that we could take home and implement.
Moving Beyond Conflict Between the Development & Business Offices
August 11th, 2021 by Barbara Barron Conflict between development and business offices doesn’t have to be a thing, but my experience in this profession has shown me that it often is. Many school’s business and development offices live in an awkward space between conflict and cooperation. Sometimes the relationship is chilly but workable, other times unproductive, even adversarial. From the …
How Can We Fit In at Our School?
May 26th, 2021 by Barbara Barron and Kelly Tieger We talk a lot about “fitting in” at schools, don’t we? Our admission teams are charged with identifying and enrolling students – and families – who we believe will be a “right fit”, or a “good fit”. This is, of course, crucial, because selecting students and families who seek the program …
Ignoring “The Gap” and Moving Away from a Scarcity Mindset
February 24th, 2021 by Barbara Barron I get why “The Gap” was created. Back in the day, it made a certain amount of sense for independent schools who were charging tuition but still needed additional non-tuition revenue to mount annual giving campaigns to make their operating budgets work. No doubt they were finding it incredibly challenging to explain to parents …
How Do We Become Schools That Truly Value Teachers?
by Barbara Barron | Posted March 13th, 2019 With huge gratitude to the brilliant mind of Gordon MacKenzie and re-reading his astonishingly smart and creative book “Orbiting the Giant Hairball”, I’ve been moved to write about our typical organizational charts and how we might think about them in a very different, and perhaps better, way. Most schools operate within a …
How Do We Create a “Culture of Philanthropy” At Our Schools?
by Barbara Barron | Posted June 13th, 2018 Quick note from Barbara: So excited to share this work, which is a collection of advice from many trusted friends and collaborators. For those of you who came here by word of mouth, the fastest way to get the “Culture of Philanthropy” PDFs are by signing up for my mailing list. By …