School fundraising is a practice that is common in many schools in the United States. This is also true in high-poverty schools where there are many financial needs that are often not met. Lincoln Elementary School is one of these schools. A well-intentioned first-grade team of teachers develops and works to implement a plan to fundraise using…

This article will highlight the major potholes or chuckholes in the process of moving forward with campus internationalization. Each pothole will have a strategy or strategies associated with filling or avoiding the pothole. These potholes fall into the broad categories of leadership, resources and fundraising, consensus building, curriculum…

Just as online tools are connecting school communities, so, too, are the ways of raising the funds for grassroots projects changing. Over the past 10 years, increasingly sophisticated tools have been developed to assist with the process of raising money online. Crowdfunding is a new approach that offers donors a gamelike experience, with pledges…

When Corbell Elementary opened its doors in 2006 in Frisco, Texas, its newly formed PTA faced the challenge of implementing a productive fundraiser to get the school off to a great start. The new board chose to focus its efforts on a single fundraiser, rather than a series of smaller ones. They wanted to avoid having the children selling any kind…

"Student Success Center Toolkit" is a compilation of materials organized to assist Student Success Center directors as they staff, launch, operate, and sustain Centers. The toolkit features materials created and used by existing Centers, such as staffing and budgeting templates, launch materials, sample meeting agendas, and fundraising…

Quick turnover among chief advancement officers or development leaders is no longer a rare occurrence. Recruitment executives report that half or more of the searches they are conducting result from vacancies caused by vice presidents being asked to resign. And those terminations are not because of fundraising failures. Vice presidential…

It takes one sweet company to make an industry collaboration work! Hershey Entertainment and Resorts is that company! The company is best known for its resort and entertainment entities. As background, it is important to understand the philanthropic history of the company, Milton Hershey, and the town he built on chocolate. Milton Hershey left…

The author reports on how cash-strapped school districts turn to outside groups for help in paying for staff and academic essentials, prompting frustration from some. In states and school districts still struggling to recover from recession-induced funding cuts, parent and community groups are feeling the pressure to raise money for instructional…

Surveys expose differences in how chief development officers and institutional leaders view their fundraising roles. A recent survey of community college presidents and chief development officers shows, for example, that while 82 percent of presidents say they are comfortable asking for gifts, just 55 percent of fundraisers say the same of…

Last summer, the Chabot College Children's Center Evening Program came close to being shut down due to lack of funding. In order to break the typical mold of annual fundraising ideas (e.g., t-shirts, flower pots, and cookie sales) which give low returns, the Center hosted its first fundraising venture called "International Arts Performance…

Most chief development officers (CDOs) genuinely like--and fully respect--their institution's leadership. Considered by many the most important professional relationship at an educational institution, a strong CEO-CDO connection takes insight, planning, and persistence on the part of the development officer. Theirs is a delicate relationship…

Westerly, Rhode Island, is a long way from New Orleans. But the physical distance has not stopped David DeAngelis, choral director at Westerly High School, from providing his students with one heck of a lesson: The opportunity to truly connect with others through music. Under DeAngelis' direction, Westerly's various vocal ensembles have held…

About a year ago, Heidelberg College pumped up its spending for a new, streamlined scholarship program, and then promoted its simplified formula so that students would know how much they could get before they even applied. Heidelberg's strategies worked as it was able to brought in the second-largest class in its 158-year history and a gain in its…

India is increasingly showing up on the travel schedules of college presidents nationwide. Like American corporations that began coming to India more than a decade ago to tap the brain power of its millions of inexpensive, well-educated engineers, software writers, and medical technicians, American higher-education institutions are flocking here…

Schools enjoying strong parental support have parental-involvement programs in place and actively seek to involve parents. Such schools usually have a staff member, frequently a parent, whose task is to establish, manage, and maintain successful engagements among individuals, groups of parents, and the school. Darien, Connecticut's innovative high…