by Barbara Barron | Posted April 24th, 2024 | Subscribe to this newsletter Last week, I was writing a summary of a capital campaign just completed. I do this to pull into one document the highlights (and low points) of a campaign. I recap key moments and decisions we made that changed the course of the campaign, and the surprises …
How Can We Make Good Use of AI In Advancement?
by Barbara Barron | Posted April 10th, 2024 | Subscribe to this newsletter Are you using AI in your advancement work yet? This is a question I am asking my clients and asking myself. Even more on point: how can we make good use of this technology that is emerging with lightning speed? What are the right and ethical uses …
Why Would a Consultant Choose to Work with Your School?
by Barbara Barron | Posted March 27th, 2024 | Subscribe to this newsletter Before I write anything that might have me drifting into the land of self-promotion, let me start with this qualifier: I may not be the right consultant for you. I am honored and, after 7 years of being a consultant, still flattered to be asked nearly every …
How to Look at Pledges in a New Light
by Barbara Barron | Posted March 13th, 2024 | Subscribe to this newsletter It’s that time of year when you may be looking at a batch of outstanding pledges. Whether they are to the Annual Fund or are campaign installments due now, it’s time to send a reminder. Many of us don’t love pledge reminders. In fact, we may even …
Does It Matter What Your Meeting Space Looks Like?
by Barbara Barron | Posted February 28th, 2024 | Subscribe to this newsletter Here’s a true story of two solicitation meetings, where space may have played a key role in the outcomes. Tale #1: Many years ago, when I was a DoD, I was working hard to secure a significant gift from a wealthy and newly engaged family. The Head …
Top 10 Things Great Schools Do in Advancement
by Barbara Barron | Posted February 14th, 2024 | Subscribe to this newsletter There is no end to the lists of “best practices” we might create to guide our work in independent school advancement. My view is that real advancement lives both inside and outside the development office door. I take a broader view, including lots of people. Here’s my …
How to Design a Major Gifts Program That Works
A good major gift program is well designed. It has a short list of needed projects that, generally, have the winning appeal of being tangible, immediate, and high impact. This is the magical trifecta in fundraising!
What Makes a Great Case for Support?
The “great case” is the road map to show a donor what the project is, what good it will do for the school, and how the school and its leaders plan to pay for it. It need not be all that fancy or costly. In fact, most donors I have had the honor of sitting with would prefer we tell it to them clearly, without a lot of distracting glitz. And they most assuredly don’t want us to spend a fortune printing the blessed thing.
How Can We Earn the Opportunity to Make That Big Ask?
Anyone who has read a single article of mine knows that we must start with intentionality. And after intentionality, planning. And then, the benefit of practice. Think of your closest friends. How did you get to know and build trust with them? I suspect that it happened over time, by talking about the things that really matter. From sharing what is most important to you. What you deeply value. Why would it be all that different with a family you are entrusted to engage in your community? Someone from whom you are asking for their support?
Major Gifting with Elizabeth Carter
December 1st, 2021 by Barbara Barron Barbara here. A smidge of context for this unconventional “interview style” article. Elizabeth Carter is a former colleague of mine from our time together at a school several years ago. She currently works as a major gift officer at a hospital in the Northeast. We’ve stayed in touch and she recently let me know …