By Dr. Harry Bloom
It is that time of year. Secular New Year’s resolution time. Since I spend most of my waking hours managing the PEJE Atidenu Recruitment & Retention and Governance & Fundraising Academy programs (generously co-funded by The AVI CHAI Foundation), my New Year’s thoughts tend to be about day school sustainability. Not as stimulating as resolving to diet (not a bad idea, for me, at least) but very important nonetheless.
Here are my top five resolutions for Jewish day schools in 2016:
- Generously thank the devoted Jewish day school Board members for their countless hours of selfless service. And, give them the gift of governance training so that their time is most wisely spent and their impact magnified. We certainly need their focus on what matters (day school sustainability and Head of School support, in particular) and their brainpower, financial support, and advocacy!
- Research and implement tuition-setting policies that make our schools accessible to the vital middle-income families who do not feel comfortable participating in the financial aid process because they make healthy incomes but still cannot fully afford day school. Create policies and procedures that reflect realistic percentages of income spent on tuition, the realities of schools’ marginal costs, and the incremental benefits of filling empty seats.
- Set energizing – dare we say inspiring? – long-term goals for our schools based on a thoughtful analysis of their environments, what our schools are doing well, and what they need to do better. Design plans to accomplish these goals, and use the inspiring goals and plans as magnets to attract lay leadership talent and donors. People love to support a winning organization, or, next best thing, an organization poised to become one! A school without an energizing future vision will simply not get the needed support.
- Implement proactive – not reactive – student recruitment and retention processes that enable our schools to go on the offensive. Identify, cultivate, and attract mission-compatible families and students without assuming they will be automatically delivered by “feeder” institutions or voluntarily show up to an open house. There is a definite method to this, as taught in the Atidenu program, and no school can afford to be passive given the stark realities of the world of the Pew Report.
- Build endowments for the future while also maximizing annual fundraising. There was a great deal of progress in endowment building among day schools in 2015, but it is still the sad truth that only a small fraction of schools have significant endowment funds available to generate income to offset expenses and not place the whole burden on tuition-paying families. Let’s do much more in 2016!
Programs like Generations and Create a Jewish Legacy have created replicable methodologies that offer roadmaps to our schools in this arena.
Now for reality. As is the case with most lists of New Year’s resolutions, not all of these are likely to be brought to fruition by all schools in 2015. But, as Rabbi Tarfon said in Ethics of the Fathers, “It is not your responsibility to finish the work [of perfecting the world], but you are not free to desist from it either.” And, there is always 2017 to finish up!
Dr. Harry Bloom is Vice President of Recruitment and Retention, Annual Campaign, and Governance at the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE).
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Great post. My work focuses on #4 and I agree — designing and implementing an intentional, proactive student recruitment and retention program is the key driver of enrollment growth. We need to create awareness, generate excitement, and make it easy for prospective families to find us and learn about our schools. That doesn’t happen by chance. Thanks for the post.
As a Jewish Day School board member and market researcher (and, in the interests of full disclosure, someone who has worked with Dr. Bloom on several of these issues), I’d like to expand on two of the resolutions on his terrific list:
Resolution #3: Offer students educational excellence (especially in the secular arena) and have the proof points to back it up. It’s not enough to say you offer a quality education; parents want to know the specific metrics that allow you to say that. Is it percentage of students moving on to AP classes in high school? Number of acceptances to Ivy League colleges? Number of students taking on leadership roles in Jewish youth groups and local social services organizations? Understanding the metrics that are meaningful to your community and backing them up with data helps with both retention of existing families and recruitment of new families (and builds your brand image).
Resolution #4: Truly know your school’s brand image in the marketplace of families you wish to attract. It is often very different from the image held by those within your school community. The more closely aligned the two images, the more successful you will be in marketing your school to prospective families. Divergent images require a hard look at the root causes of these differences, corrective action, and strong messaging if you are to broaden your school’s appeal.
Cheers to a successful 2016 for Jewish Day Schools everywhere!
Susan J. Levine sits on the Board of Kellman Brown Academy in Voorhees, NJ. She is also Vice President at The Melior Group, a research-based consulting firm serving clients in the nonprofit, education, healthcare, and financial services sectors. She specializes in working with Jewish communal organizations to deepen their understanding of their market environment, and determine actions to strengthen their efforts going forward. She can be reached at slevine@meliorgroup.com.
Dan and Susan have made important points. Proactivity around creating a more compelling case for our schools is a requisite given the magnitude of investment (not just money but emotional, social, etc.) we are asking families to make, and having an accurate sense of what our schools’ image really is not just internally, but in the marketplace too, is part of being in control of our schools’ destinies. The good news: if they do these things, our day schools can increase market penetration, even in the era of Pew.
Wonderful 2016 Jewish Day School resolutions, thank you Harry, much food for thought!
Thank you also Dan and Susan Levine for your insightful and helpful comments.
Jewish DaySchools and perhaps especially Jewish Community Day Schools are facing a challenging future!
Innovative, creative recruitment and marketing material showing the real benefits of a Jewish Day School education along with accurate measures of academic success is vital.
Developing and attracting both financial donors and potential energetic members to the governing Board become easier when success is measurable and visible to the Community.
Tuition, recruitment, development/ marketing and financial stability are steady issues – how to fix them – the challenge!
Finally, Harry’s # 1 is absolutely vital to the success of the school.
Thank you, Harry, for such an important and enlightening article. As a member of the Atidenu program, I would also like to add the importance of gathering and tracking data. No school can effectively work on goals #2-5 without solid information to guide the tactics and implementation. Doing the work to find out the accurate numbers of prospective families and donors will provide a realistic picture of the market, help ensure you identify potential target markets and set attainable goals.