The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) is a national organization dedicated to supporting day schools as essential vehicles for fostering an engaged Jewish people for an enduring future. It focuses on three critical levers – professional leadership, board governance, and financial sustainability – at the local, regional, and national levels. Its website contains a variety of tools for dealing with new economic realities. This article is a collaborative effort from members of PEJE’s Financial Sustainability Team. Research and writing conducted by Stephane Acel, Sheila Remis Alexander, Casey Colahan, and Jennifer Weinstock. This article describes a new initiative to help major stakeholders in day schools work together to create strategic plans for increased financial sustainability.

When considering the well-documented financial challenges facing Jewish day schools, external factors such as the changing economy and evolving attitudes towards Jewish identity can make these very real challenges seem insurmountable and beyond the reach of school leaders. What is it that school leaders can actually do to confront their needs and position their schools for increased financial sustainability?

Clearly, the responsibility for a school’s financial health cuts across the school and requires coordinated efforts. Schools whose educational philosophy involves an integrated curriculum know how hard it can be to align efforts across academic disciplines – and how rewarding that kind of collaboration can be when successful. When real partnership occurs among the leaders of a school in the interest of financial sustainability, the outcomes can be dramatic. Beyond the classroom, recognition of the integrated nature of the work of the board and the school’s fundraising efforts can have a significant payoff.

PEJE’s 13 years of experience with day schools across North America has taught that successful fundraising extends far beyond the development professional. This specialist is the “quarterback” for a larger, team effort, and the most valuable players are the school’s board members. Jill Goldenberg, Board Leadership Strategy Manager at PEJE, explains:

The link between board leadership and fundraising is who is on your board. Board members should be fiduciarily responsible, not only by approving a multi-year budget, but also by making it a reality. If boards are governing strategically, they’re raising money to achieve their vision. Visionary leaders must make the school sustainable – they hold the school in trust for their students’ future grandchildren.

To this end, schools must have a high-functioning, “strategic board” that takes a long-term, vision-based approach to governance. Board members should be “resourced” (have the means to donate generously) or “networked” (have contacts with the means to donate generously) – ideally both. They should also be good school ambassadors.

The above represents an innovative approach to how schools should think about and execute fundraising. To present and promote this to Jewish day schools, PEJE developed the Leadership and Fundraising Academy (LFA). Piloted in New York during 2008–2009 with the generous funding of UJA-Federation of New York, the LFA makes the powerful connection between good governance and fundraising success. Conceived as a premier training program for successful financial resource development, the LFA aims to strengthen schools’ governance, professional leadership, and fundraising practices. An updated, expanded version of the LFA will launch in Los Angeles in 2010.

Program Design

PEJE has learned that school interventions with maximum impact require engagement by all key players at a school. This key to success is at the core of the LFA. By bringing together board leaders, development professionals, and heads of school, the LFA draws an explicit connection between a school’s board governance and its ability to raise funds. Marcy Balogh, LFA coach and Executive Director of Ba-Lo Consulting, affirms, “Every day, in schools that are thriving, I see boards that clearly demonstrate good governance in their capacity to both give and get funds.”

Full-day workshops for school professional and volunteer teams, along with individualized coaching, are the basic elements of the LFA program. The workshops, led by renowned experts in development and board governance, offer unparalleled exposure to best practice and cutting-edge strategies, while coaching supports school leaders as they translate this knowledge into action.

School Teams

PEJE’s experience has repeatedly demonstrated that programs geared separately for day school professionals and trustees do not provide the same opportunity for behavior change as those subscribing to a full-team approach. In envisioning and designing the LFA, PEJE drew from the concept of “collaborative leadership” presented in GEO’s Investing in Leadership by Kathleen Enright:

Collective leadership is based on the premise that leadership is the product of groups rather than individuals. It is a form of leadership that makes a distinction between leadership and formal authority. In other words, leadership can come from many places in an organization or a community; where it comes from may actually shift depending on the situation (15).

The LFA unites the head of school, development director, board chair, and chair of the board’s development committee as a “development quartet.” In order to be accepted into the program, each school must have these roles filled, and each team member must commit to active participation. Rae Ringel, New York LFA facilitator and President of The Ringel Group, believes in the value of tackling development as a team:

One of the things I appreciate about the work of the LFA is its holistic approach to the school. Working with lay leaders and professionals together really affirms and supports that critical partnership. The program not only dives into strategies and tactics around development and organizational advancement, but really looks at the culture of the institution and the critical roles of the stakeholders. It is not just about the development professional or the head of school; the curriculum takes into consideration the myriad of people involved in a school community.

By offering support and capacity-building around the specific skills each team member needs, the LFA ensures that participating schools have a key team in place to secure renewable and sustainable income.

Applicant Selection

The selectivity of the LFA significantly contributes to the likelihood that participants will benefit from the program. Participating schools must demonstrate openness to learning and embracing new fundraising practices. In addition, they must not be in the midst of a major transition, such as a move to a new site or the loss of a head of school.

Because program success relies on effective work with a coach, preference is given to schools that have previously worked with a management consultant or coach. In the New York pilot, each school was asked to perform a board assessment through the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) prior to the first workshop. Building reflectivity into the project also enabled schools to measure change over time.

Curriculum

In the New York pilot, participating schools were required to attend five LFA workshops and work with an assigned coach for up to 40 hours (five days) over the course of the school year. The LFA curriculum addresses the need for school teams to focus on both creating sophisticated development plans and fully engaging board members in the fiscal future of their school. They learn to create a vision-based, rather than deficit-based, development plan in the context of their school’s multi-year financial plan.

Schools’ fundraising too often centers on “transactional” events, such as annual dinners, auctions, and ad books. The LFA curriculum refocuses the efforts of professionals and board members on relationship-based fundraising that can lead to larger and more sustainable gifts. Amy Eagle, a New York LFA participant and President of Westchester Day School, notes:

PEJE and the LFA helped us understand the critical need to move away from an event-centered fundraising platform to one of donor cultivation and stewardship. The seminars, coupled with the direction of our PEJE coach, refined our focus and taught us how to use our resources, professional and lay, to identify and create fundraising opportunities outside of our parent body which will strengthen our school.

In addition to providing the opportunity to learn from experts, LFA workshops enable participants to put the skills they learn into practice. Doris Feinberg, President of the Prospero Group, led the New York LFA leadership teams in a solicitation training focused on the objections most often voiced by prospective donors. During role-play, participants gained the confidence and skills to manage these objections, as well as the tools to pass on the training to the rest of their board members.

Jennifer Weinstock, Financial Sustainability Team Program Manager at PEJE, was largely responsible for the LFA’s concept and plan and explains the curriculum methodology:

In developing the five-workshop curriculum, we collaborated with the PEJE coaches and the schools themselves to move schools forward with their development efforts. We wanted the workshops to be an opportunity for the school teams to think about integrating their learning into their roles at school – whether that meant practicing a solicitation and gaining the confidence to participate as a solicitor, or understanding the board’s role and then planning a board retreat or training.

Coaching

Twenty hours of individualized coaching before, during, and after the LFA workshops ensures that leaders and their schools have the guidance and support to translate their learning into more conscious decision making and action plans. Because each school’s situation is unique, this individualized component of the programs helps schools tailor their learning and follow-up. As Russell Willis Taylor of National Arts Strategies explains, “Contextualizing leadership training for [organizations] is important because it provides an appropriate filter, while making the learning more personalized and immediately relevant” (Enright 24).

Kim Hirsh, LFA coach and Development Officer at the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, NJ, relates her positive experience translating the workshops into practice while working with Hannah Senesh Community Day School:

It was inspiring to see the schools ‘soak in’ the lessons from workshops. But the real work begins back in the school community – in the development office, the head of school office, the Board of Trustees meeting room, and, of course, ‘out in the field’ speaking to and working with various constituencies. That’s where the consultant-day school relationship was key. We had to keep asking: how do we adapt and apply these lessons to this school? That’s the challenge – and that’s the really exciting part, when the lessons come alive through actual change within the school community.

As Pearl Kane, LFA coach and President of PLK Consulting Group, testifies about the New York program:

Combining a course of study with ongoing coaching resulted in increased learning and an increased ability to sustain the knowledge gained. The LFA was an effective marriage of concept learning integrated into field practice.

Maximizing Impact

To shift from reactionary fundraising to strategic financial planning, each LFA school, with expert and peer support, establishes its own goals and determines the requisite steps to reach these goals. The LFA aims to advance each school at least one step along its chosen path. For example, during the New York pilot one school identified the need for an annual fund apart from the annual dinner; another school wanted to establish a board committee on development.

Mid-year, each LFA school submits a narrative report and participates in a three-way call with its coach and PEJE to review and discuss its progress toward its goals. PEJE staff also conduct informal touch-base conversations with school contacts at least monthly, and with coaches at least bimonthly, to make midcourse changes to the school’s plan. LFA participants are asked to evaluate each individual workshop in writing. A more formal participant survey is conducted several months after the final workshop. Coaches are given the opportunity to dialogue with one another, share ideas, and engage in joint problem solving via a coach Google Group.

Working within one community means there is an immediate peer network for the LFA’s school teams. Often, working within a school one can feel isolated. Not only is each day school unique in its operation, but in most communities there are no opportunities for professionals and volunteer school leaders to connect with and learn from their colleagues in other schools, even within the same zip code. The LFA creates a community of learners, and the successes of one school team inspire other teams to challenge their systems without generating competition.

Outcomes

Ongoing coaching has enabled New York pilot schools to set and reach individualized, measurable goals. Achieving success is a long-term process, and PEJE is still collecting data about outcomes. Based on results to date, we have found that eight of the eleven schools have made significant strides with their coaches. Some of their achievements include creating an 18-month development plan, establishing or activating a development committee of the board, creating contracts and a transition plan for the board, conducting a board training, and participating in face-to-face solicitations.

Schools made marked advancements in increasing board involvement and gifts raised, with six raising more money than they did during the previous year. One school launched its first-ever annual fund and reached its $100,000 goal. Another school set a goal to receive full participation from board members in its capital campaign; it was successful in soliciting eight new board member gifts and increasing five others. Solicitation training helped one school increase the money raised through face-to-face solicitations from $20,000 to $160,000. A third school had never closed a seven-figure gift or solicited donors who live across the country. With training in high-level solicitation from its coach, a school team traveled to the West Coast to solicit five $1,000,000 gifts, and two pledges were committed.

School teams brought their learning back to their schools and full boards, opening channels of communication to improve their governance and fundraising practices. This information sharing has promoted a new, whole-school approach to fundraising. For development professionals, it has lessened feelings of isolation and relieved the pressure to shoulder the entire fundraising mission. Participants have reported that these communication channels will remain open. Elaine Suchow, Director of Development at Solomon Schechter School of Queens, found this LFA benefit particularly valuable:

Fundraising is not just about asking for money – it’s about creating a family, a team of people that love the school. It’s the parents that recruit other parents by having wonderful things to say about the school. A lot of people thought they were going to hire a fundraiser and that’s how the school would get more money. People now realize that they themselves need to help with fundraising.

Program Modifications for Los Angeles

The LFA pilot confirmed PEJE’s hypothesis about the link between fundraising and governance and pushed us to create new tools with which schools can assess themselves and make a comprehensive financial plan for the future. As we prepare to re-launch LFA in Los Angeles with the generous support of Program Partners Janine and Peter Lowy, PEJE and the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education are already refining its design. For instance, the program will now span 18 months with six workshops offered. All Los Angeles Jewish day schools invited to apply to the LFA will be required to complete PEJE’s new Board Excellence Measurement Tool (BEMT), an Excel-based self-assessment tool, prior to acceptance into the program. PEJE staff or coaches will also visit accepted schools in advance of the program.

The PEJE Day School Peer Yardstick® Strategic Financial Modeling Tool (SFMT), an interactive, versatile software program designed to help schools achieve financial sustainability, has been added to the LFA curriculum. Enabling a school to plan for its financial future, the SFMT offers a flexible model that can meet individual school needs. Participating school teams will be provided with 20 hours of financial modeling consultation to help develop a financial plan for presentation to their boards. The consultation will be scheduled when school leaders, the assigned development coach, PEJE, and the BJE agree that the school has capacity to proceed. A case-by-case approach will determine whether schools have the sophistication to utilize SFMT or whether a simpler tool would be a better match.

PEJE’s Development CoP professionals have repeatedly affirmed that they are hungry for connection. They want to network with their colleagues at other schools who are succeeding, surviving, and struggling. This peer contact, along with support and collaboration from experts, is a winning combination. School-to-school networking will remain an integral element of the LFA.

Summary

Considering that the LFA launched during the onset of the economic downturn in fall 2008, the program seemed particularly timely. The fundraising methods imparted by the LFA work no matter the economic climate. Miriam Prum Hess, Director of Day School Operations at the BJE in Los Angeles, describes how the LFA principles will benefit the schools in the Los Angeles community:

We are very excited about bringing the LFA to LA. We look forward to working in partnership with PEJE to adapt the model to the 10 LA schools that will be selected for participation. We believe that the LFA structure, which couples training with coaching and brings together a school team of professional and lay leaders, is a critical model in creating real change. That structure combined with the flexibility to create training modules that address local needs can truly strengthen our schools.

There is no doubt that financial realities will continue to challenge leaders of Jewish day schools. PEJE’s experience with the LFA reinforces our belief that an appropriate, actionable, and necessary response – in any economy – is to strengthen and leverage the connection between governance and fundraising. Creating a development team of board leaders and professionals helps Jewish day schools to become financially sustainable institutions, ensuring they will continue to inspire and educate students to embrace a lifelong connection to their Jewish heritage.