The Catholic School Leaders Podcast

17 Why did the fundraiser flop?
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John Mihalyo: [00:00:00] ~Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast. My name is John Mahalio, the host and founder of Elementary Advancement Solutions, where our mission is to connect Catholic school leaders with the ultimate goal of growing Catholic education worldwide. For more information on how we can help you maximize your school's advancement, recruitment, and leadership potential,~

~try that one again. ~

Welcome to the Catholic School Leaders Podcast. My name is John Mahalio, host and founder of Elementary Advancement Solutions, where our mission is to connect Catholic school leaders with the ultimate goal of growing Catholic education worldwide. For more information on how we can help you maximize your school's advancement, recruitment, and leadership potential, Visit us at www.

elementaryadvancement. com.

So at the time I'm recording this podcast, it's May, uh, finishing up the school year here in the United States. And one of the things that's always great to do in May is to look back on the year that was, look at what went well, maybe things that, uh, could have done better on, or could see opportunities for improvement.

And one of those areas that I always enjoyed looking at at the end of the year was our advancement efforts. How did we do on our recruitment? How did we do on our [00:01:00] fundraising? Did we maximize all of our potential? Did we meet our goals? If we didn't, where did we come up short? And so, as we sit here in May, I wanted to do a little bit of a different podcast today, rather than interviewing somebody else, but just to talk with you.

and help you to analyze how your advancement, your development, your fundraising program went this year, and maybe look at some reasons why you maybe came up a little bit short on those fundraising efforts. And so today I want to talk about some of the areas that may have caused, or may have been the root cause, of why you didn't maximize your potential.

Now, as we all know, we've never, ever, ever met a Catholic school out there who goes, you know what? We're all good. We've got plenty of money. We have way too much money. We don't even know what to do with it. So we're all good on our fundraising. ~Uh, if, if you have, please let me know, because we would love to know the secret of that.~

But I just haven't found a whole lot of Catholic schools out there. that have that kind of a problem. So as we look at the year that just passed, let's talk about some reasons why your fundraising [00:02:00] efforts didn't reach the goals that you set. And if you did reach your goals, congratulations. Um, I think it's awesome.

I think it's fantastic when you exceed ~your, ~your goals. Um, and obviously if you've done that, hopefully we can give you some strategies today ~to ~that will help you even further ~to, ~to take what's going really good ~and take it ~and make it great. So number one, what's the first reason that you didn't hit your fundraising goals?

1 Aimed too High
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John Mihalyo: Well, number one, you may have aimed too high in your goal. I hear a lot of times that, ~uh, uh, ~an event, ~uh, ~a annual fund, whatever the case might be that is taking place, ~uh, ~we have a steady history of that event raising a certain amount of money. Maybe it's 25 or 50 or a hundred thousand dollars. And this year we're going to set that goal at two million.

That's a big jump for one year. And I think when you're setting your goals for your advancement office and your fundraising efforts, you need to make sure that you're being realistic about ~what's~ What your school is able to obtain, and what might be a little bit of a pie in the sky goal. [00:03:00] So, maybe number one, you set your goal too high, and it really was something that was unattainable.

And if you do that, and your efforts aren't realistic, if you're asking your advancement office to do too much, and that goal is set too high, Uh, it's one thing to be aggressive, but it's another thing to be realistic. And so we want to make sure that we're realistic in our goals. And as you start looking at next year, what is a realistic goal for whatever the effort that you're looking at, whether it's an annual fund, whether it's a gala, whether it's a golf tournament, whether it's a walkathon, whatever, whatever your school might be doing to create that culture of giving.

What's a realistic expectation and how are you going to continue to grow that? Because to me, one of the biggest things is getting that involvement first, which is going to lead to that later investment.* *So number one, you set your goal way, way too high. But number two, maybe you set that goal too low.

~What do you mean by setting it too low? Well, here's an example of that. When you made an ask, when you, Put something out there, an event, a, uh, an annual fund, whatever the case might be. You didn't give people that opportunity to exceed your expectations. Here's an example of that. A couple of years ago, I had a school that had a dinner.~

~Uh,~

~I'm going to start on number two again. ~

2 Aimed too Low
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John Mihalyo: The second reason that [00:04:00] you may not have hit your advancement goals, you set your goals too low. How in the world could that be possible? Here's an example of that. I knew a school a few years ago that had a special event, and when they had this event, They put pledge cards on the tables.

~They gave a really nice speech. ~They gave a really riling appeal to everybody. And they asked everybody to fill out these appeal cards to consider making a contribution to the school. The problem was, they put limits on their gifts. So, if you capped off your gift at, say, 1, 000 and somebody was walking into the room with the capability or expectation of doing 5, 000, you undercut your efforts unintentionally.

So, when you're putting limits on your events, you're shooting too low. Your goal is too low in that regard. So, want to make sure that you're giving people the opportunity to exceed your expectations. Keeping realistic expectations, but also making sure that you're not setting your goal too [00:05:00] low. (ad spots)

3 Needed more time to prepare
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John Mihalyo: Number three One of the other reasons that I often see fundraising efforts come up short is that when a special event is held, the event just needed more time to be prepared properly. Oftentimes with fundraising and with advancement efforts, It's like watching little league soccer. Somebody has a great idea and let's all run to that.

Or we saw another school did this idea, so let's all ~run to the, ~run to the ball. When the ball goes over here to the right, all the little kids run to the right. And when the ball goes to the left, everybody runs to the left. Rather than developing plays to actually score a goal where the player might get open.

When we see a great idea, just natural inclination is, Ooh, we have to do that as well. But if we're not giving ourselves that proper preparation and that proper time to plan the event to make sure that it meets the expectations with realistic timelines, with realistic communication, we can tend to rush an event that needed more planning.

So if [00:06:00] you're going to plan an event, and this is why I always recommend to the schools I'm working with to have that advancement calendar planned out 18 months in advance, so that you can kind of see the whole field of what's coming up, making sure that you're communicating things in a timely manner, and making sure that you're giving yourself ~that, ~that proper and appropriate planning time.

to make sure that the event is a big success. Panic rarely works. When you're trying to rush something, it rarely works. Take your time, give yourself time to prepare that event properly, and watch your, whatever event, whether it's an annual fund, whether it's a special event, whether it's an outing. You're going to have a lot more success ~when the event, ~when the event is done slowly and the planning is done properly.

It's the law of the harvest, as Stephen Covey always talks about. If we just go out and plant our field today and expect that the crops are going to be there tomorrow, that's not going to work. We have to make sure that we're tending to the crops, we have to make sure that we're watering them, we have to make sure that we're caring for them.

And the law of the harvest says that, you [00:07:00] know, when the crop is ready for us to harvest it, the harvest will be plentiful. But if we try to rush it and do it in one day, it's the same thing as cramming for a test. ~Rarely, ~rarely is there going to be success with that.

4 More communication was needed
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John Mihalyo: Reason number 4, more communication was needed Maybe it was needed to promote the event. Maybe it was needed to talk about where the proceeds for the event were going. Maybe just you didn't give people enough warning of when the event was.

Any number of reasons will get things to misfire. Getting people excited about your event, getting that communication out ~months and ~months and months in advance, To build up that excitement for when the event is going to happen is only going to help your event be more successful. Think about what messaging you want and how far out in advance you want it.

If you're having a golf tournament in, I don't know, October, well maybe you want to start pumping that event out over the summer or even before the school year ends to get people excited that when they come back to school, that golf outing that your [00:08:00] school has every year is in October. And then when you come back in August or September, You start really hitting hard about what's coming up and where the proceeds are going and what's going to be happening and where the event is and who your sponsors are.

Really start getting that communication out and watch that event take off. Watch that particular fundraiser just take off for you. So communication is so big. Don't ever think you can over communicate something, especially when it comes to fundraising.

5 Sponsorships
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John Mihalyo: *Reason number five. Sponsorship needed to be improved or was lacking* Any special event that your school is going to have should be taking advantage of sponsorship and partnerships within your school community. When we had an event, our goal was to make sure that the event was paid for, and we were already in the black before the doors even opened on the event.

This happens with sponsorship opportunities. This comes with, ~uh, ~ticket sales. This comes with People buying a table instead of just buying a seat at the event. But [00:09:00] sponsorship opportunities are a big way to not only get money in before the event even starts, but it's also a great way to build partnerships with community businesses.

We're looking to support your school. So make sure that you're out there ~a ~developing those partnerships and ~be ~getting them involved with your events. I recently saw a school that had a matching gift for a special day that they were doing with a local business. They tracked it along the way to show.

how that matching gift was coming along from that particular business so that people could see it in real time. Gives the business great opportunity for advertising to show that they're supporting the school, while it also motivates people to support the school's efforts. Sponsorship is a great, great opportunity that a lot of schools don't take advantage of, or they don't maximize.

Get out there, build those partnerships, get them engaged with ~the school. at ~the school. I promise you're going to find something that they're interested in being part of. Obviously, you can't hit the same business up [00:10:00] every single time for sponsorship opportunities because they have limited resources.

Oftentimes, these are small businesses within your community. That are looking to grow their brand. And so by you helping them, them helping you, it's a win-win for everybody. Get out there, build those relationships, build those partnerships with small businesses and businesses within your community, and watch everything happen for you.

Watch everything happen for them.

I promise you that when you build those sponsorship and those partnership opportunities. When that event kicks off and those doors open, you'll be able to enjoy the event and watch the event taking place, not sweating, wondering, are we going to hit our goal this evening? Take the time to build those sponsorship opportunities, to build those partnerships, for sure.

6 Clearly Identify Where Proceeds are Going
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John Mihalyo: Reason number six. You didn't make it clear exactly where the proceeds would go If somebody wants to make an impact at the school, ~uh, ~or they want to donate something to the school, maybe they want to give [00:11:00] proceeds, ~uh, ~Simon Sinek, I hope I'm pronouncing that name correctly, did a great, great, ~uh,~ Ted talk a few years ago, starting with why, and he gives the example with Apple computers about how they market their devices versus say other computer companies.

And he starts with the why and works his way out to the how and then the what. And I think if your school does that same thing with where the proceeds are going to go. It's going to generate a lot more opportunities for giving and creating that culture of giving so think about this Hey, you want to donate some money to our school?

Yeah, maybe that moves the needle ~Maybe it doesn't ~but hey this year's annual fund is going to go to replace a hundred computers at our school They're outdated They're used by our students in grades You know one through three each and every day and we need to replace these hundred computers and our annual fund is going to go to support that Would you like to give to the school?

The second one is going to move the needle a lot more because people can specifically see where [00:12:00] their donation and where their gift is going. So the more that you can tell people specifically what your goals are, which again comes into your planning piece of things, to know exactly what it is that we're working toward this year, The more people are going to want to get involved with that culture of giving that you have at your school.

Now here's the flip side of that too, or I guess a little bit of an additional piece of that. If you say you're going to buy a hundred computers, you have to buy the hundred computers. And then you should be showing people through your communications, whether it be in your newsletters, Whether it be in your end of year magazines, whether it be in your annual wrap up to show your end of year report, let's call it, or whether it be on social media, whatever the case might be, ~Actually ~show that this is where the money went.

Nothing will burn donors quicker than if you say you're going to buy 100 computers and then you put in, I don't know, a new basketball floor. Nothing will make people more skeptical. So when you say, this is what we're going to use the [00:13:00] funds for, use the funds for that. Mean what you say, say what you mean, take that extra time because it's going to establish that credibility for your school the next time an ask happens.

7 Timing
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John Mihalyo: Reason number seven. Why did our efforts come up short? Timing, timing, timing. Your timing could have been better*.* The timing of an event or the timing of when you launch something is critical. If you live in an area where it snows a lot, you probably don't want to schedule your major fundraiser where you need to raise 300, 000 in the middle of the snow season.

You probably don't want to schedule it on a road where the snow gets covered and isn't plowed or whatever the case might be. Each of our respective areas has things that they have to worry about throughout the course of the year and the timing of an event is critical.

Think about it this way. If you're going to host your major fundraiser, and this is again when it comes into timing, you're going to host your major fundraiser of the year, and [00:14:00] that happens to be the night that the two big rival football teams are playing on that same night. Do you think a lot of people are going to come to your event?

We're going to go to that football game. And I guarantee if they come to your event, they're texting people saying what's the score of the game, or whatever the case might be. If you schedule something at the same time as the Super Bowl, that's going to create an issue, unless of course your event is surrounding the Super Bowl.

Making sure that ~that Proper timing that you're doing ~your event is in place. Can't be stressed enough. They always say about real estate, it's location, location, location. We're talking about a fundraising event, ~we're talking ~about kicking something off. Timing, timing, timing, and timing.

Let's look at another area of timing. When everybody comes back to school, whether it's August or September, your school year begins, everybody's excited that the school year is fresh, everybody's fresh and rested off the summer, they're motivated, they're excited, the new year is here, and they are [00:15:00] just, I guess the word is motivated to come out and be part of your school community.

April and May, on the other hand, people are tired. They can see the finish line of the school year in sight. Everybody's probably got vacation plans. If that's the time you're holding your biggest fundraiser of the year is at the end of the year, when people have been nickel and dime for fees here and there and everywhere, that fatigue is set in.

And it's my experience that your fundraising efforts are probably not going to have maximum success because people are tired. They're ready for the school year to be over, and they're looking forward to the summer months. So when we're talking about timing, think about every piece of the school gear.

(Insert the piece about timing here)

John Mihalyo: When we're talking about events needing more planning, the other side of that is, is that sometimes maybe we've run the same event over and over again, and the event has become stale. Nothing worse than having an event that's really good one year, not [00:16:00] so great the next year, and by the third year everybody's sick of it.

Now I know that there's those events out there. that everybody has that are traditions at your school. They're well attended. They're well supported. If you didn't do it, everybody would be disappointed. Those are not the events that I'm talking about right here. What I'm talking about is those events that they're just not being met with the same kind of enthusiasm as they were maybe the first time that you did them.

And if that's the case, finding some new ideas and getting some new ideas to bring into your school in terms of special events or programming. Uh, is something that I highly recommend. Great way to do that is through our Mastermind group that we do for our Advancement Officers. We do one for our Principals as well.

It's a great opportunity to exchange ideas with each other. Just take some new ideas that maybe folks are doing at their school and bring it back to your own school.

Look at your weather, look at your, what's up against you in terms of things that are important in your community. And look at the time of year. Beginning of the year, middle of the year, versus end of the year. I guarantee you that those things are going to play a big, big [00:17:00] factor in the success or lack of success that you're going to have at your particular fundraising event or your particular fundraising opportunity that you're giving people.

8 Did You Have What People Wanted?
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John Mihalyo: Reason number eight, did you have what people wanted? Now I'm going to specifically talk about events on this one because I recognize that your annual funds really going to be your big thing that should draw and that should support your school on a regular basis. But if we do have special events that are out there, I know a lot of the schools out there have auction items or they're going to raffle something off or things like that.

And one of the things that I always ask is, did you have what people wanted? Think about this story. A couple of years ago, we had a auction event and we were very excited because we had a couple of beach houses that we were going to ~raffle off, or not raffle off, but ~auction off. And they were nice. They were really in prime season.

They were in a great location. We had the right people in the room that we were expecting to bid on these things, and we were thrilled. As the event [00:18:00] kept going on, I kept seeing these particular items not being bid on. I was getting a little nervous, and I finally walked over to one of our major supporters, and I said, I don't know what's going on.

~I said the, ~None of the beach houses are getting any kind of bidding on them whatsoever, and he looked at me and said, John, that guy over there has seven beach houses that he rents out, that guy over there has ten, he has eleven, and he has fourteen. If we want to go to the beach, we're going to go to one of our own beach houses, not going to pay for one.

It was at that moment we realized we didn't have what people wanted. Next year, we brought back mountain houses. We brought things that people didn't have, and those items went through the roof. So making sure that what it is that you're offering is something that people actually want is a huge thing.

Now, in with that, one of the biggest things I have learned is people want experiences, not something they can buy at a big box store, a Walmart, or a Target, or anything like that. You can go out and buy something that has a price tag on it. [00:19:00] People want that experience, something that's a one of a kind, something that they can't just go out and get, but something that is unique, something that is invaluable, and honestly something that's going to give them time with their family, with their friends, with something that they can do together.

Those experiences make it huge. Think about this, you have people out there that have ~Uh, ~Airline Miles. Well, can you donate some of those to us? Get people out there with hotel points. Hey, can you donate some of those to us? ~Now, ~now, all of a sudden, we're going to put our airline miles together with our hotel points, and we're going to be able to send somebody somewhere for a couple of nights.

Now, if we can throw something else in, maybe it's Tickets to an event, maybe it's tickets to a show, maybe it's a dinner somewhere at a really nice restaurant there. You're suddenly putting a package together that is very interesting, intriguing for people, especially if it's in an area or if it's in a subject matter that has a lot of interest in your community.

So when you're~ when you're putting those things together, ~putting those packages together, whether it be for an [00:20:00] auction or whether it be for a sale, special event, ~uh, ~whatever it might be, have things that are gonna interest people. If you have things that interest people, I guarantee you they're going to be a ~lot, ~lot hotter of a topic and they're going to be a lot more, ~uh, ~opportunities out there for you to advertise.

And when you're communicating out what you have available at this particular event, you're going to build that excitement up in a big way.

9 The Event was Boring
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John Mihalyo: Reason number nine, the event was just plain boring*.* The next one is one that I know nobody wants to really admit or talk about, but usually it's the big pink elephant in the middle of the room, and that was that your event just wasn't very exciting. People like to go to exciting places, and if your event was not very exciting, It's going to probably lessen the chance that people are going to come back next year.

Making sure your event is something that's exciting, something that people want to be at, and something that people look forward to attending each and every year, or every other [00:21:00] year, whatever it might be. It's going to create a lot of conversation after the event ends, with people telling other people, who maybe didn't attend, how much fun they had, how much they can't wait for next year's.

So if the event was boring, stay tuned, we're going to give you some ways that maybe you can fix that for next year.

10 The Venue
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John Mihalyo: Reason number 10, you picked the wrong venue. One of the other reasons that I've seen is you pick the wrong venue. Now there's, as I said before, when it comes to real estate, location, location, location. And if you opted to hold your event at the wrong location, that can spell trouble.

So here's some things that I found that could create a problem when it comes to location. Number one, it's too far away. Nobody wants to drive 30 and 40 and even an hour to get to an event. Because then that means they gotta drive 30, 40, or an hour, minutes, home. And they start to watch the clock, rather than enjoying the time at your event.

Think about this, when people go out there, babysitting might [00:22:00] be, needs might be out there, that costs them money to come to the event before they've even stepped into the event. So making sure that the location that's picked is something that is, Attainable and reachable for everybody is one factor in making sure that your event is going to be a successful one.

Number two, the venue has too many distractions. A school I led once, we had an event at a large establishment with a casino in it. Now that was great because it was a draw. The bad news was it allowed our guests to go spend money elsewhere instead of just at the event itself. So that was a venue that, while it was great, didn't maximize our opportunities that we could do for our fundraising effort.

And the last one I see with this, and I see this a lot with golf tournaments particularly, It's an event that they could get. It's a venue they could go to anytime. Think about a public golf course. There's a lot of really nice public golf courses out there, but if somebody can go play that golf course anytime they want, why would [00:23:00] they spend a lot of money to come and support the school if it's not anything that they're really deeply invested in yet?

If you have an event at a private country club, or maybe for an event that's going to host a major golf tournament in the upcoming weeks, I guarantee you players are going to want to play that course while it's in prime condition as it gets ready for that big special event. Make sure that the event is exclusive and not something that just people can go to any day of the week.

You're offering people two things. You're offering them number one, an opportunity to be somewhere where they normally wouldn't be. But number two, they're offering you that opportunity to support your school. You sell out your event a whole lot faster that way if you give them the opportunity to do something that they can't do each and every day.

11 Failing to Recognize Donors
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Reason 11, you failed to recognize your donors. Let's talk about recognizing our sponsors and recognizing our donors. Thank you. Those two words right there can go a long [00:24:00] way to make or break the future of your school. Thank you. Nobody can say thank you enough, and I guarantee you, even if somebody says to you, ah, you don't have to thank me. Thank them.

John Mihalyo: Thank them. You can't say thank you enough and unless that donor wishes to remain anonymous and doesn't want to be recognized obviously you're going to respect those wishes but you can't ever say thank you enough and I guarantee you not thanking them appropriately or not thanking them enough it's going to lead to frustration and not make them as motivated to support your cause.

The next time it comes around. Several years ago, at one of our major fundraising events, I called everyone who came to that event, spoke with them personally, I left them a message, said, thank you so much for coming, whether they bid on something or not, and it went a long way in the community for future events in terms of engagement.

So, some people, hey, just a quick generic thank you in a newsletter, thank you for everybody for coming. But this community that I [00:25:00] was lead was really one that needed some engagement support and needed to kind of get revitalized. So I reached out to every person that came to the event and thanked them.

And it went a long way for future events. So take that time, recognize your sponsors, recognize your donors, and say thank you. Especially when it comes to Those who are supporting, because we want to make sure we're creating that culture of giving. We want to make sure that we're recognizing people and making sure that they know just how much we appreciate the support that they're giving.

12 Friendsraising vs. Fundraising
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John Mihalyo: Reason number 12. . Your school does too many fundraisers. Now here's a task, a little homework assignment that I'm going to give you. Get out a piece of paper. and maybe divide it into 12 different columns or you're going to fold it in half and create 12 little boxes in it.

And I want you to write down every time each month that you ask your parents or you ask families for money. So put each month at the top [00:26:00] of each column and I want you to ask how many times do we ask parents for money. Now I guarantee the first time you go through this you're going to go, oh well we only ask them four or five times a year.

But don't forget That an ask is things like school pictures, hot lunch, are you supporting a dress down day? Did we have like a restaurant night that we asked people to come to, a Chick fil A night, a McDonald's night, or whatever the case might be? Did you do a book fair at your school? All these little things start to add up.

So when you look at those things and you see just how many times we're asking people for money, If we're doing too many asks when we have our big things, such as our annual fund or a major event, you have donor fatigue amongst your parents and amongst your community. I told you earlier, I recommend to the schools I work with to create that advancement plan that looks 18 months out at when your next fundraising, or when you're going to start an annual fund, or when you're going to wrap up an annual [00:27:00] fund, when you're going to send out an annual fund request.

All those things, when you look out. will really help you be effective in terms of maximizing your asks to parents. Now think about this one too. I always considered our Chick fil a nights or whatever the night might be, never really considered those a fundraiser because I recognize that the restaurant that you're using will always give you back a small percentage of what's being raised on that particular night.

But as I always pointed out, If we got 15 percent of the funds, that means that the restaurant we were helping out, or we were holding the event at, was getting 85 percent of the funds. Now to me, that's doing a fundraiser for the restaurant, not necessarily for the school. So when you do those restaurant type nights, or whatever they might be, it's a great opportunity for friend raising.

But you're not going to make a multi million dollar budget within your school by making a couple hundred dollars off a restaurant night. Call those for what they are. They're friend raisers. They're community building events. Make a couple of dollars off of them. [00:28:00] Bring your community together. It's a great way to do things.

But don't bank on those to make your budget for the whole year. Speaking of budgets!

13 Budgeting
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John Mihalyo: Reason number 13, you could have done better with your budget for the event. People go out ~and they spend ~and they spend and they spend and Dave Ramsey always talks about his seven baby steps. Budgeting is one of the biggest things he does and when you're planning an event, that's no different.

If you're out ~spending and spending and ~spending and spending out of control, you're maybe costing 20 times, 30 times what it should cost to put something on. You're not maximizing donations that you could be asking for, your sponsorship opportunities. Please. It's cost versus value. What is it that we're budgeting?

How much do we have for advertising on this? How much do we have for food? What's the ticket price going to be? How much is that going to generate? What's our sponsorship opportunities? How much is that going to generate? Okay, what does that give us in terms of a budget for this? Decorations or mailings or whatever it might be.

Having that budget, and that's the purpose of it, is [00:29:00] a budget to keep you on track for your expenses for a particular event or a particular mailing or whatever the case might be. Be realistic, too. Don't just say, hey, we're going to spend 25 on decorations, because I assure you, you're going to spend a lot more than 25 on decorations.

But you also don't 25, 000 on decorations. Make sure that that budget is something that you're keeping track of. That's why it's great to have a committee together that can keep track of those things and allow your advancement director to really serve as a project manager, rather than having to be everywhere, every time.

Bonus: Post-Mortem
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John Mihalyo: Now I told you at the beginning, uh, a little bit ago that I was going to have a little bonus thing if your event was boring. And this was something that we always did. After every major event that ~we, ~we would do, ~uh, at, ~at all of my schools, we would bring our key leadership team members together, your chairs, those people who were involved with the planning, and we would ask a couple of questions.

What worked? What went well this year? [00:30:00] Why did it work? What didn't work? And why didn't that work? What are we gonna keep doing? What are we gonna stop doing? And what do we need to do differently if we're gonna do this event next year? A couple of things this does. Number one, it really allows people to reflect in real time what just happened at the event.

People are going to be honest with you. People will tell you what went well, people will tell you what didn't go well. Number two, that really sets the table for next year. Anytime I had an event, I always tried to have a chair for this year and next year working together. It was a two year commitment, so that that next year's chair could see things in real time.

and take things and run with them automatically rather than reinventing the wheel. So getting that group together, listening to what people have to say, listening to that feedback is only going to help an event, only going to help make things more successful for the future. Unfortunately, sometimes the feedback for an event is [00:31:00] We shouldn't be doing this event again.

Or, we should do this event every two years and not every year. Or, let's look at a different approach to this next year. This wasn't something that we should have done. Or, this didn't hit the mark that we thought it would. Have those open and honest conversations, but when you can create that dialogue, it's really going to help you in auditing an event to find out what went well and what didn't go well.

~There's so many factors that go into successful fundraising and advancement efforts at your school. For more information, visit www. FEMA. gov You're by eliminating as many things as possible to help the odds being on your side, creating that authentic culture of giving, is actually going to help you more accurately be able to budget.~

~What your advancement and fundraising expectations are going to be in the future. If you like this podcast and we can help you out in any way, please visit us at www. elementaryadvancement. com. We enjoy working with you directly to help you maximize your school's potential when it comes to advancement, enrollment, and leadership development.~

~We've got mastermind groups for advancement officers. We've got mastermind groups for funder or for school principals, aspiring school principals, and enrollment and recruitment officers.~

~I'm going to re record that last piece right there.~

~There's so many factors that go into a successful advancement effort at a school. And by eliminating as many things as possible that can help the odds be on your side, you're going to help create that authentic culture of giving at your school. This is going to allow you to more accurately predict your advancement budgets.~

~And also predict what your fundraising expectations should be for a year. Now one of the things we do here at Elementary Advancement is we help schools do just that. We work with you directly to help you with those advancement planning and advancement work. Think about it this way, if you go to the gym one time, and a personal trainer gives you all this attention and you work out and you go, Wow, that was great!~

~But then you don't go to the gym again, the success of that's going to be minimal. What we like to do is we work with you directly. We're going to work with you and walk with you. I'm going to record that again because I didn't like the way that was going. ~

As you can see, there's so many factors that go into a successful advancement plan and advancement effort for your school. And if you can eliminate as many things as possible, it helps the Osby on your side to create an authentic culture of giving. Once you do this, you can more accurately predict ~it.~

What your expectations are going to be for your advancement efforts for the year, which is going to help you look at your budgeting, which is going to help you look at what your goals could be in terms of what that money is going to go to support, which is only going to help your advancement office grow into the future.

(Call to action) Now here's an offer for everybody listening to this podcast. If you're [00:32:00] listening to this and you're hearing, yeah, that's our school, that problem there describes our school. You're hearing maybe more than just one or two of the things factoring in as to maybe why your school is not maximizing its fundraising efforts.

Give us a call. Let's schedule a time where we can sit down and talk about your school's fundraising and advancement plans. Happy to talk with you about your school's last big event. Maybe it's an annual fund. Maybe it's a special event that you had. Love to schedule a fun Consult with you free of charge to hear about what your goals were and maybe where some things maybe came up short.

Visit us at www. elementaryadvancement. com to schedule a time where we can sit down and hear about what your goals are to help you meet those goals and exceed them during the next school year I want to thank you so much for tuning into this podcast. If you like this podcast, please be sure to like, subscribe, share it with other leaders out there.

It's a great way for us to help continue to grow [00:33:00] Catholic schools, grow Catholic education, not just in the United States, but worldwide. And we'd be most appreciative If you go down in the comments section, leave us a nice review, share it with other Catholic school leaders, and let's keep growing Catholic education together.