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----------- The mission of AdvanceChistianSchools.com is to develop biblical approaches to development and advancement in the Christian school industry. Vision ---------- The vision is to train a new generation of leaders who will lead their schools to set new standards of biblical stewardship so that Christian schools simultaneously grow stronger (both relationally and financially) and glorify God, who gave them their original mission. Executive Summary ----------------------- Christian schools have very limited knowledge and resources to advance their institutions. Advancement is defined as financial development (AKA fund raising), community and public relations, and recruiting and marketing. They need full-time work done in these areas, but have only part-time resources and funding. ACS will be a communications and coaching resource that would provide schools with outstanding expertise in these areas. Support would include static web pages, on-line webinars, telephone and email support, and personal consulting and coaching (mentoring). The desired result would be make Christian schools excellent in these area so that they are worthy of excellent support from donors and the community. This means a Biblical approach to development and support. Background ---------------- The average Christian school in America has an enrollment of 100-200 students. There are 7,000 of these and most do not full-time people in the development, admissions and communications areas. The independent Christian school movement is in trouble. It enjoyed meteoric growth and prosperity from the 50's through the 70's. In the 80's, home schools and church-based schools grew and the traditional "independent" school found itself having to compete. Some schools did not fare well and the overall movement peaked and stalled by 1990. Since then, there has been a slow decline. ACSI reports that they have lost 150 schools per year for the past seven years and the prognosis is not good. Though secularism is growing stronger, and we would think and hope that Christian schools would prosper - they haven't. Christian schools are poor at marketing and making the case for Christian school. They never had to; Christians just did the right thing. In addition to the marketing of Christian education, Christian schools overall have done a poor job in another area of their enterprise; again, because they never had to do this before. That area is advancement, which includes fund-raising and development. Many schools have tried fund-raisers, which are still good for community building, but they did not (and do not) raise sufficient funds. Therefore, Christian schools continue to pay sub-par wages and cut staff, because cost-cutting seems to be the easiest path. So, Christian school emulate secular institutions because they buy into technique and methods, and miss the fact that we have the best product to sell, lives changed by the Holy Spirit. We try to Christianize secular techniques and wonder why we aren't blessed financially. These techniques are annual funds, capital campaigns, planned giving, etc. So, Christian school emulate secular institutions because they buy into technique and methods and miss the fact that we have the best product to sell, lives changed by the Holy Spirit. We try to "Christianize" secular techniques and wonder why we aren't blessed financially. This is annual fund, capital campaigns, planned giving, etc. The hard work of training in biblical stewardship needs to be done and Christian schools need constant training and encouragement to graduate from candy sales. We also need each other and must drop the protectionist tendencies and work like the Body of Christ. Rather than follow what appears to be working we should be about setting a new standard of excellence, forging premier schools that the secular ones follow because we are actually ministering to our donors, not just “making nice” until we get a gift and then forgetting them. Currently, fundraising is the most regular activity and usually involves volunteers organizing sales programs that yield cents on the dollar for many hours of work. There are no development or communications plans. Schools hope that their stakeholders, the childrens' parents (past and present) believe in the school enough to give some extra to make up the gap between tuition and the cost of operations. Many (most) schools have web sites, but they are primarily used for parent communications, whether prospective or current. An apologetic section for Christian education does not appear on the web site, but www.DiscoverChristianSchools.com is now used by many schools that recognize the value of making the case for Christian education to parents in a web-based format. Discover Christian Schools offers a high-quality biblical approach to the subject of Christian education. Parents are the target market and the children are the beneficiaries. This resource has been developed to educate today’s parents about the vital importance of Christian education in today’s culture. Proposed Solution --------------------------------- Develop a web site and suite of services that can be accessed for a nominal monthly fee. Allow school personnel to be educated and give them the framework and tools to become excellent in the advancement of their schools. In this way, they will honor the Lord with excellence and garner support from His people and others in the community. This is not just a book of form letters to get donations or grants, but an approach that looks at the whole process with a Kingdom purpose. Features --------------
Harold Naylor, Jr. Director of Institutional Advancement The Christian Academy phone (toll free): 1-866-TCA-5080 fax: 610-876-2173 For more information email: harold@advancechristianschools.com |