by Barbara Barron | Posted March 4th, 2026 | Subscribe to this newsletter
We’re coming off of conference season!
Did you participate, attend, or present at one or more?
I had the honor of being part of two conferences this year: The Small Schools Leaders Conference and the Southern Association of Independent Schools (first) Brand Conference in Chattanooga.
Whenever I return from a conference, I’m eager to share some of my takeaways. I’m always pumped to try something new. Also, I want to remember what I learned, and am eager to put some of these innovative ideas into practice.
In Chattanooga – at SAIS – I spoke about how we can help our schools build a true culture of philanthropy. I’ve written previously about that topic here: “How Do We Create a Culture of Philanthropy at Our Schools?”
Since that conference was all about branding, I made the point that a school’s philanthropic culture is part of its brand. And every school has a culture of philanthropy. You may not like what it is or how it feels. But it’s there.
What do I mean? Well, let’s start with:
- “Is it ok to talk about money at your school?
- Is development work done in what I call “the light of day,” so it is not perceived as shameful or mysterious?
- Is innovation part of your charge or are you stuck doing it like “we’ve always done it”?
- How would a parent or alum or Board member or teacher describe your school’s philanthropic culture? I suggest you ask a dozen people. Take what you hear and then begin to evolve towards a culture that is alive, open, and joyful.
As I pointed out in my Tips & Take Aways, this is challenging work. Changing culture always is. To help, here are a couple bits of advice to get you started, and to help you keep going:
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Some bits of advice for you:
- Find a believer – even just one—to begin the work. Ideally, this is your Head. But maybe it’s a Board member who can help deliver the message to the rest of the Board.
- Partner with someone. A professional partner in the work. Someone in another school who is trying to do the same thing at their school. Or an outside consultant who can be your thought partner.
- Begin to tell heartwarming stories about the good things that philanthropy brings to your school. Listen at school meeting. Visit a classroom. Watch a play rehearsal or a basketball practice. It’s all there.
- Ask donors of all stripes to give you testimonials about why they support the school. The gift amount isn’t relevant. It’s the feeling of giving and supporting programs and people they love that does.
- Stop focusing so much on the metrics that don’t matter and address those that do (more on this in Part 2). But chief among these is keeping your eye on new, increased, and renewed gifts, not participation.
- Center joy. In your appeals, your thank you notes, your emails, your reports to the development committee, your standing meeting with your Head.
This last one gets me to the other “ah-ha” from the SAIS conference. I had it when I was in a session on “creating better development board reports”, offered by Mattingly Messina of Throughline (https://www.findthroughline.com/#hero) and Kaitlin Windel of APTe (https://www.apte.com/).
They too connected the dots between their topic and the brand theme. They talked about ensuring that the Board is focused on the right metrics and trends. They said that the metrics that help us measure how accurately we can project outcomes are central to the job of the advancement professional. When we bring that kind of clear data and smart analysis, we teach trustees what to look for and then how to ask smarter questions.
That, dear professional, is part of your brand!
This smart session showed great examples of far better dashboards we can use to give trustees the information they need to make the decisions that fall to them. (I encourage you to reach out to learn more.)
Next time, some good learning from the Small School Leaders Conference hosted by the very good people at Easy School Marketing (https://www.easyschoolmarketing.com).
What useful tips or takeaways did you gain from a conference this season? I’d love to hear.
As always, thank you for everything you’re doing.
Barbara Barron
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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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