by Barbara Barron | Posted February 18th, 2026 | Subscribe to this newsletter
Here were the initial challenges:
The Head of an outstanding K-8 school came to me with a nagging sense that there was a sizeable opportunity among many families enrolled to raise far more money — IF they could land on the right project. The Board was eager to test the viability of their desire to build an additional outdoor learning space on campus. They retained my services to conduct a feasibility study for a possible capital campaign that combined the physical plant concept along with an expansion of their endowment.
Along came the next challenge:
The feasibility study resulted in mixed reviews. While most families thought the learning space would be a “nice to have,” it did not land as an imperative with them. As we know, capital campaigns need to have the potential to have transformational impact to be worth the time, expense, and risk involved. The reaction to the endowment piece was similarly tepid. Families understood the value of a larger endowment for the school but, as we often see with donors these days, the longer term (read: delayed) impact didn’t excite them enough to see themselves making significant gifts to the effort.
Okay, at the break, I want to know what you would do in a situation like the above.
Do you have an idea? Good. Now I’ll tell you how I tackled it.
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Here’s what I did, in order:
I am about to use a word I’ve avoided since it was overused during COVID times: we pivoted.
As I presented the study results to the Board of Trustees, I could say with authority that I’d heard deep love for the school among the families I interviewed along with a willingness to give to make something important happen. But the project we tested just didn’t hold sway.
What did I discover DID have the needed energy and excitement? The desire to do something significant for their beloved teachers. Raising money to ensure that the school had the financial resources to hire and retain the best educators became the priority. And to do that, I recommended that they build a major gifts program for that fundraising.
As we know, major gifts is not a campaign but a program. An ongoing program that each year might have fundraising potential among a small group — or even just two or three families. I shared with this client school the winning strategy I’d created at another school for HOW we approached identified families to discuss their participation in the program.
But before we dove in, I delivered an educational session for the Board in which we defined the program and agreed to its policies and centering values. We determined how this new program was different and yet would be aligned with the rest of their advancement program. I brought them a set of prompts to work with that helped them gain confidence to have far more meaningful conversations with members of their community and build deeper and more lasting relationships.
Today, their major gifts program is in full swing. They carefully cultivate select families for those meetings and have had good success. The program has benefitted the school and its cherished teachers. An added benefit, the school has expanded the advancement department slightly to enable their director to focus on major gifts, deepening their reach and impact. Lots of wins there.
Have a challenge? Need some smart solutions? Give me a call!
And thanks for all you’re doing.
Barbara Barron
[email protected]
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BARBARA BARRON is one of the most respected and highly sought-after independent advancement professionals in the country, having worked with dozens of schools in every corner of the United States.
She has raised over $20 million for schools where she served as the Director of Development. Barbara is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and presenter who currently advises dozens of schools in various capacities. She is considered a thought leader in the world of advancement, with her writing widely shared by professionals in development offices worldwide.
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