 9:00 am Welcome 9:10 am Discovering Your Role as a Cultivator of School Culture | Patrick Schuermann, Director, Independent School Leadership Master's Degree Program, Vanderbilt University (Part 1) Admission professionals are school leaders uniquely positioned to impact their communities in many important ways. One of the most enduring ways leaders shape their schools is through the cultivation of school culture. We will explore the what and why of culture, and then engage in a few quick self-assessments and guided reflections that help us to understand our role as cultivators of school culture. 10:10 am Break 10:20 am Breakout Session I Cultivating and Stewarding Major Donor Relationships in a Small Shop | Jill Goodman, Goodman Consulting How many times have you thought, or even said aloud, “We need to find bigger donors and more of them?” And how many more times has your board of trustees or head of school quietly refused to help you fundraise? Learn the steps to engage more members of the community in fundraising to cultivate an ethos of philanthropy at your school so that potential donors see your school as a stable, viable organization worthy of their support. Participants will learn to recognize the donor experience as front and center in all that they do. Relationship-building, communications, cases for support, fundraising events all must have the donor experience as a priority for the messages and efforts to yield the desired results. Often stewardship of current or past donors is overlooked, causing missed opportunities and poor word of mouth. Participants will learn how to begin or enhance an intentional stewardship program. With a strategic vision, unified messaging, compelling cases for support, and a fired-up team of staff and volunteers, you will be able to confidently identify, attract and retain major donors. The Strategy Pyramid™: Rewriting the #SchoolComms Playbook | Dan Price, Interactive Schools People are bombarded with communications every minute, and you need to stand out and be noticed. Not easy in a ‘24/7, always-on’ society. Learn to manage the complexity of your school's content, mission, vision, and story and segment them into a series of compelling stories and customer journeys that focus on your stakeholders' trigger points. COVID-19 Has Changed The Way Schools Operate - Is Your School Website Ready? | Lorrie Jackson, FinalSite Your website is the core of your Digital Campus. Like your brick and mortar school, your Digital Campus facilitates person-to-person relationships, learning experiences, community-building activities, celebrations and more. Whether it’s hybrid learning, parent communications, virtual admissions or fundraising—moving forward, your school’s online experiences will help define the quality, perception and value of your education. In this session we will share digital strategies to help you attract, engage and retain students and faculty - whether or not your campus is open fully, partially or not at all. Join Finalsite to see how you can reimagine your school's Digital Campus to meet your goals today and in the future. This session will cover:
Confidence and Clarity During COVID-19 Campaign Planning | Elizabeth Milhous, Graham-Pelton The COVID-19 pandemic may have caused the world to take a collective pause, but school fundraising efforts must continue so that we can serve our communities and fulfill our missions. Seasoned fundraising consultant Elizabeth Milhous will share the tools needed to steer schools toward an ambitious campaign with confidence and clarity. During our time together, we will consider the key areas needed to launch a successful effort. What is the intentional language we should use to communicate most effectively with school leadership and stakeholders? We will also dive into the considerations of our varied audiences, setting goals and benchmarks, the resources required in a campaign, and the return on investment. 11:30 am Breakout Session II #SchoolStories: More Important Than Ever | Dan Price, Interactive Schools Spreading positive messages from your school on social media has never been more important Why? We humans thrive on happiness, community, and sharing good news. Social Media is the place to achieve this, so start telling your #SchoolStories. Then watch your community amplify your brand every time they share, like, and retweet. Learn about reach, social influence, and the importance of your digital brand. Access: An Equity Framework for Admission | Brooke Wilson Broudy, Michael Galindo, and Alex Lazo, The Bay School of San Francisco How equitable is your admission process? Do all families of every background have the opportunity to learn more about your school? In this session, we will explore the ways The Bay School of San Francisco has striven to create a more inclusive admission process as a case study. Blueprint for Action: What Schools Can Learn From Frank Lloyd Wright | Jim Healey, Peapod Design Frank Lloyd Wright, a master of self-branding whose architectural gems grace the Chicago area, believed that one must not only be creative, but also take action to put creativity to work. I will bring a Wright-inspired perspective to this workshop-style session. You are the architect of your school's brand, and I will help you think creatively about your school attributes and build your brand in a step-by-step process. You'll work collaboratively in the session and be prepared to take inspired action when you return to your school. "Frank Lloyd Wright was more than just a pioneering architect; he also understood the need for building a brand." - Stuart Graff, Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation President 12:30 pm Lunch Break 1:15 pm Hope Is Not A Strategy: Communicating In The Age Of Uncertainty | Jane Hulbert and Jim Hulbert, The Jane Group
This session will look at the trending issues and the communications challenges they present to schools. Be it COVID, Black Lives Matter, Civil Discourse, and others, the demands on school leaders over the last eight months have been extraordinary. We will focus on strategic communications, the communications strategic plan, messaging, managing social media and universal communications guidelines that all schools should follow. We will work through case studies based on real situations.
2:15 pm Discovering Your Role as a Cultivator of School Culture | Patrick Schuermann, Director, Independent School Leadership Master's Degree Program, Vanderbilt University (Part 2) Admission professionals are school leaders uniquely positioned to impact their communities in many important ways. One of the most enduring ways leaders shape their schools is through the cultivation of school culture. We will explore the what and why of culture, and then engage in a few quick self-assessments and guided reflections that help us to understand our role as cultivators of school culture. 2:45 pm Break 3:00 pm Breakout Session III All Aboard! Empowering Your Faculty And Staff To Embrace Their Roles On The Admission Train | Angela Brown, Director of Enrollment Management and Marketing, Dana Hall School Chances are, your faculty and staff don’t understand how each successful admission season depends on them. They might even think they’re doing you "a favor" when they agree to attend Open House events! Though we live and breathe admission work every day, it is rare that faculty and staff truly understand the process, challenges, and numerous factors that impact enrollment and financial aid each year. Discover new ways to educate and empower faculty and staff members in the admission process so that they see themselves as an extension of the admission office, take pride in being effective school ambassadors, and stop assuming that new families magically fall from the sky! The Philanthropic Climate at Independent Schools | Robert Rice, Natalie Skinner, and Bob Weston, CCS Fundraising This presentation provides insights on the giving landscape in America and pulls from a collection of reports to understand donor trends and motivations as well as opinions in the industry. This includes data from more than 425 Independent School fundraising professionals. Join us to examine a broad view of how the pandemic’s effects on fundraising have changed over time and how professionals are evolving their strategies to meet the moment. How to Adapt Your Admissions Strategy to Remain Relevant and Engaging | Lorrie Jackson, FinalSite COVID-19 has challenged many schools to re-think how they recruit and convert new families: they haven't just had to re-think prospective family engagement — they've had to completely re-shape their strategy and approach. While there won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution for admissions, there are numerous best practices and strategies you can have in place to attract qualified families and compel them to inquire and apply. Whether you have a remote or a hybrid admissions season, this session will help you prepare. This presentation will cover:
4:00 pm Adjourn Pre-Event Session: The 2020 Ride to Independent Schools | Heather Hoerle, Enrollment Management Association (pre-recorded) How do families make the decision to seek out an independent school? How do they continue to make decisions to narrow their list down to their best-fit school throughout the year-long process? How has this process been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic? In this revealing session, we will share data and key takeaways from our 2020 survey of 2,900 families to answer these questions. We will also compare our results from 2020 to our 2017 survey results to discover what's changed and what has remained the same about the ride to independent schools. |
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