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How would your school district use an extra $1,850,000 in private support? Would you renovate a media center, create computer labs, improve sports facilities, and bring in extra resources to assist with early literacy efforts, or create a support system for graduating high school students to pursue post-secondary education?
Well, the $1.85 million was raised by the Williamsport Area School District Education Foundation in just 18 months and is only one success story of how education foundations are bringing in private resources to help their school districts. All the other possibilities are not theoretical; they are real life success stories which have played out over and over again across the country for the last 30 years that education foundations have been active. Collectively education foundations are bringing in tens of millions of dollars a year in support of public K-12 education.
Much like higher education began recruiting private resources to help with capital and program costs 50 plus years ago, education foundations are filling this role for K-12 school districts. And much like higher education, it’s not just the “big players” who are getting the big checks. Philanthropists recognize that investments in our youth are necessary for them to successfully matriculate to higher education. The public is realizing the economic impact which successful students can have and are looking for opportunities to provide structured support with education foundations filling this role.
What Makes an Education Foundation Successful?
The Southeast is home to many highly successful education foundations which provide millions of dollars of support to their districts. They share critical common success factors such as strong volunteer boards comprised of community leaders, professional staff (even if just a part time executive director) who are non-profit experts, and the active support of their superintendents. What is not needed for success is a large district, big city, or a high concentration of wealth. The perception that there are “no Zuckerbergs or Gates who will support us locally,” and therefore it’s not worth forming an education foundation, has kept many potential organizations from tapping the resources which are present in the community.
Community members, parents and people without students in the system want to support successful K-12 education, but are baffled when they try to help since the education system is foreign to them. They need to understand the case for providing support and to have a structured way to provide that support. An education foundation can make those connections between the private individuals, community organizations, or businesses and their local schools and districts. The results are as creative as each community is unique.
The key is the foundation’s leadership and their ability to make the community connections. Frankly, many underperforming education foundations appoint a school district employee to work part time coordinating the education foundation. While this “checks the box” of having someone in charge of the foundation, it rarely leads to the potential success the foundation could have. Just like only trained professional teachers should be in the classroom, trained professional fund raisers should be running the foundation.
What Does it Take to Get Started?
Interestingly, when starting an education foundation from scratch the most important success factor is the district’s leadership — school board and superintendent. There must be a commitment to engaging the community, not just providing a laundry list of needs. This means a willingness to communicate the needs of the education community, but just as importantly, to listen to the community’s thoughts and views. Many well intended efforts have failed because there has not been a match between the district’s needs and community’s willingness to support.
Having been in hundreds of meetings with potential donors, it’s become obvious that they don’t want to be considered simply a source of money. They want to be part of a solution for a problem, which they feel strongly about. When there is that magic intersection of the district’s needs and the donor’s desire to solve that problem there is often generous support.
Certainly other pieces of the puzzle must fall into place, such as the proper non-profit structure, the right volunteer foundation board members, appropriate programming, and a visionary strategic plan for the foundation. If a skilled non-profit professional leads the foundation, they can put these pieces together with proper assistance.
Is There Help Available?
The National School Foundations Association (NSFA) was founded 10 years ago to help the creation and development of local education foundations. It is also a non-profit and is committed to helping raise the entire industry through support of local education foundations. NSFA does this through training of foundation leadership, sharing and publication of best practices and its Certified Education Foundation Leader Program. A foundation executive director who has completed this certification program has the expertise necessary to successfully lead an education foundation.
Hundreds of foundation leaders (staff and board) have benefited from training provided through regional workshops, webinars, national conferences, and individualized training sessions. Fellow foundation leaders are often the source of the best ideas on how to more effectively bring in private resources to help local schools and districts. NSFA provides many opportunities for sharing of best practices and networking amongst professionals in the field.
More information on NSFA, its training opportunities and membership benefits can be found at www.schoolfoundations.org.
