Your K12 Fundraising Coach

You’re not raising as much as you could be if you haven’t “normalized” talking about money and the importance of giving generously in your school. Intentionally building a culture that places a high value on generously giving time and resources is the key to raising more money.    Yet, defining and clearly describing a Culture of Generosity is rarely discussed. Even more rarely described: EXACTLY HOW TO BUILD ONE. Until now. This is the first of a four part series on exactly how you can go about building a Culture of Generosity in your K12 school.   Resources: Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Generis.  Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjennings Access free fundraising resources for your Christian school at www.kimtjennings.com and https://blog.generis.com/blog You CAN craft a culture of generosity and build a sustainable pipeline of givers. Learn more about my digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity  SCHEDULE A FREE CALL and read more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools! Visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com    00:58//Introduction 02:09//Importance of intentionality in creating a Culture of Generosity  03:19//Why normalizing talking about money is crucial 05:22/Defining a Culture of Generosity 06:46//Describing the hallmarks of a Culture of Generosity looks like 10:36//Importance of intentionally building a culture you want 11:46//The four steps to build a Culture of Generosity 12:23//Step One: Align to your North Star 15:02//My mantra: We will not sacrifice tomorrow’s culture for today’s transaction. 16:38//Importance of reflecting on your journey of generosity 19:03//Your homework for this week on aligning to your north star

“Offering meaningful information only to donors who give generously keeps donor attrition, high gift values low and makes fundraising unnecessarily expensive,” wrote Penelope Burk in her research-backed book, Donor-centered Fundraising. Too many schools only communicate (some) gift impact with “big” donors and not "small" ones, if the school communicates at all. We’re making our fundraising work so much harder than it could be!  In this episode, I’m going over WHY you need to be regularly communicating, WHO you’re going to communicate with and WHAT they need to hear…and then I’m giving you step by step instructions on HOW to create an effective, regular cadence of communications. Tell your givers what they've made possible in mission-centered language (NOT project-focused or transactional)! And inspire your future givers to make their gift – because they already know more about what gifts do at your school.  Let’s build relationships at scale! That requires communication. Regular dialogue. This is one method that I’ve used with schools and I promise that if you follow the steps, it will help YOU build stronger relationships with your givers and future givers.    Resources: The Five Stages of Parent Tenure and additional information on parent giving: www.kimtjennings.com/parents  My free guide on communicating in K12 school development more effectively: www.kimtjennings.com/greatcommunication    Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.  Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre Access free fundraising resources for your Christian school at www.kimtjennings.com and https://blog.generis.com/blog You CAN craft a culture of generosity and build a sustainable pipeline of givers. Learn more about my digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity  SCHEDULE A FREE CALL and read more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools! Visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com

What are the two *most* critical factors for success for your K12 school’s capital campaign and what can you do *right now* to strengthen your position in those two areas?  It's 2023 and Christian schools are bursting at the seams! Leaders are constantly reaching out, asking great questions about how to get the millions of dollars they need to address their space issues. In today’s episode I’ll briefly discuss some questions before offering practical ways to know if you're rock solid in the two MOST CRITICAL FACTORS for school campaign success.  You MUST evaluate your status in these two areas and prioritize strengthening them (now), regardless of when your quiet phase launches – next month or next year! Of all the success factors (and there are many), the most fundamentally critical to your campaign’s success are: 1) your orientation and fidelity to prioritizing donor relationships, and 2) the health and alignment of your Board and Head of School as a team. And if you’re coming up short in either area, you *must* start addressing that deficit ASAP.  It’s better to get re-oriented late (i.e. while IN the campaign) than not at all!  And if you’re being proactive – kudos to you!! You’ll be equipped to diagnose areas of anemia early! Your campaign is MUCH more likely to thrive when you’ve focused on your health early.   Resources: FREE ASSESSMENT for understanding the status of alignment across your Board and with your Head of School. In just four minutes, get the data points you need to start a productive conversation and get moving to a better aligned leadership team.   Helpful books: Board Member Orientation: The Concise and Complete Guide to Nonprofit Board Service (Michael E. Batts) Comprehensive Fundraising Campaigns: A Guide for Presidents and Boards (James M. Langley) Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.  Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre Access free fundraising resources for your Christian school at www.kimtjennings.com and https://blog.generis.com/blog You CAN craft a culture of generosity and build a sustainable pipeline of givers. Learn more about my digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity  SCHEDULE A FREE CALL and read more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools! Visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com 

Fundraising can be complicated when a school and a church are intertwined. The church + school combo often means you have two communities under “one roof.” Church members/families and school families might overlap but that doesn’t guarantee everyone will be on the same page when it comes to vision or fundraising for that vision.   My guest this week is Jennifer Perrow, CFRE, a Senior Generosity Strategist at Generis whose long list of skills and experience includes fundraising within the niche of church + school campaigns. Based in Seattle, Jennifer is an experienced coach and consultant to faith-based organizations across the US, helping ministries articulate vision, communicate mission, and raise abundant funds to advance Kingdom priorities.    In this episode, we discuss:  The purpose of an Annual Fund for a school that’s within a church and its role in overall Capital Campaign Readiness for the entire organization  What we see as the ingredients to success in a church + school fundraising campaign (annual fund and/or capital campaign)  How and when to communicate with the two different sets of families (church and schools) A way to organize how you run a combined church + school campaign  What a comprehensive campaign is, and how it can work within the context of a church + school campaign to raise more money for both budgets What to do when you’re a church or school leader whose facing a very full (even overwhelming) task list and need to raise money At the end of the episode, I revisit two items from our conversation, offering you practical applications to enhance your everyday work in development. Let me know what you find most helpful by leaving me a review and rating my podcast!   Resources: Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.  Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre To learn more about Jennifer Perrow, CFRE and to contact her visit www.generis.com/jennifer-perrow  Access free fundraising resources for your Christian school at www.kimtjennings.com and https://blog.generis.com/blog You CAN craft a culture of generosity and build a sustainable pipeline of givers. Learn more about my digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity  For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com

Fundraising can flourish in healthy, tight-knit cultures. So it makes sense to devote a portion of our limited bandwidth on optimizing our culture – for better fundraising results and for many other reasons! But, how do we create and nurture this critical success factor? This week’s episode talks about how one Texas school has begun to accomplish this.    My guest this week is Julie Ambler, Head of School at The Woodlands Christian School and current chairperson of CESA, the Council of Educational Standards and Accountability.    Five years ago, Julie designed and introduced a year-long class to train her school’s emerging leaders on the school’s history, culture and operations. In my estimation, it’s a fabulous tribute to: the importance of mentors and  the success that comes when we’re INTENTIONAL about leadership development. With each successive cohort, Julie is strategically growing culture organically throughout her faculty / staff team. Does this create an environment in which healthy teams can flourish? Yes! Does it build trust and a common core experience? YES! And does it ALSO serve as an example of how we can effectively grow cultures of generosity within our school communities? Also, YES!   You’ll find my conversation with Julie insightful about 1) identifying and developing future leaders, 2) the value and wisdom in establishing and nurturing culture throughout your organization, and 3) how to use both of those methods to grow a culture of generosity - starting with some of the most influential members of your community, your faculty and staff, and then applying those concepts to your parents and beyond.   At the end of the conversation, I offer you a couple of practical applications based on what Julie’s shared with us to enhance your everyday work in development. Let me know what you find most helpful by leaving me a review and rating my podcast!   Resources: Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.  Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre Access free fundraising resources for your Christian school at www.kimtjennings.com and https://blog.generis.com/blog   You CAN craft a culture of generosity and build a sustainable pipeline of givers. Learn more about my digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity    For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com 

Every school possesses a unique culture, its DNA. Instilling that DNA in each member of our community creates an environment that’s conducive to nurturing generosity. Your school very likely has a warm and wonderful community. As a consultant, I hear this all the time in feasibility study interviews – so many parents deeply value and love their school’s community! But my question to you is: what if the folks you look to as leaders in your culture, the ones you use as a gauge for the health of your cultural DNA, are outliers? What if they’re not the best yardstick for how much your families are internalizing your DNA? It’s very possible that more people than you realize do NOT, in fact, understand how to thrive in your community. And since your school’s DNA is your strongest tool for cultivating generosity, it’s pretty important that you know how to articulate and then wield this tool! Before we can design more effective ways to help our community internalize our DNA, it must be identified. In this episode, I walk you through how to pinpoint and then articulate the deeper cultural markers of your school. Once we’ve identified our DNA, then we can instill it in every member – starting with our new parents and our faculty & staff. I’ll share with you several ways to do this effectively. It *is* possible to be strategic in creating an environment where generosity can flourish. And your DNA is the key ingredient for that! Let’s talk about how to use your DNA to foster a culture of generosity at your Christian school. Resources: Learn more and sign up for Kim’s digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity  Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre   Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.    For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com

Join me as I sit down with my friend and colleague, Dr. R. Mark Dillon, Executive Vice President and Founder of Total Advancement Solutions, the division of Generis that focuses solely on serving Christian schools, universities, and nonprofits (the division I serve with, too).   In this episode, Mark and I discuss his book, Giving and Getting in the Kingdom, A Field Guide, which is considered to be a standard guide for fundraising in the Christian realm.   We discuss the four “types” of givers that he's seen in his 25+ years in our business, and which of the types are in our schools and how we can best reach them. At its core, fundraising is about *relationships*. Mark shares with us what he’s learned about people and wealth and what they really want. Mark and I also discuss specifics about how to best build relationships in a messy K12 context and what every Head of School should be doing to get your donors’ “best” gift.   At the end of the episode, I take some of Mark's concepts and break them down into application in our K12 school context, so stay tuned for the entire episode.   After leading successful fundraising teams for more than two decades and helping to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Christ and His Kingdom, Mark has a calm confidence about him that I have always found reassuring. I always learn something from Mark when we meet – and I’m excited to introduce you to him and give you access to a bit of his wisdom.   I highly recommend his book if you’re responsible for fundraising in any way at a Christian school or organization. Whether you’re a development officer, a Head of School, or board member, you’ll find this book incredibly useful as a foundational understanding of “giving and getting” in the Kingdom.   Mark mentions both feasibility studies and coaching – two key aspects of our services at Total Advancement Solutions/Generis. If you’re a Christian school leader seeking information in either of these areas (or other aspects of development or communications), contact me at [email protected].    Resources: Giving and Getting in the Kingdom: A Field Guide by Dr. R. Mark Dillon https://www.amazon.com/Giving-Getting-Kingdom-Field-Guide/dp/0802405924   About Dr. R. Mark Dillon: www.generis.com/Mark-Dillon    Learn more and sign up for Kim’s digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity    Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre   Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the full-time consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.    For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com 

Communication is a key aspect of fundraising. Unfortunately, the nature of schools means they say A LOT but often aren’t really communicating…   If donors complain they only hear from you when you’re asking for money, or your donors are giving once or twice and then disappearing…it’s not their problem. It’s yours. They haven’t left YOU. You’ve left THEM. In the dark, that is.   In this episode, I’ll provide examples of solid communication plans and suggest tools that will help you communicate well in your fundraising efforts. Without strategic communication, the other major components of your development plan - clarity and community - will suffer. And your results will be significantly diminished.   In the words of author Penelope Burk, “Communication is the ask.” If this is the case, how you communicate and what you communicate can make or break your fundraising. Don’t let poor communication hurt your efforts.    This is the last of the three-episode series on the Critical Components of a K12 Development Plan.   Resources: Free guide on communicating more effectively to cut through the noise and raise more money: www.kimtjennings.com/greatcommunication    Learn more and sign up for Kim’s digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity    Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjennings   Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.    For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com    Sources mentioned in this episode: Penelope Burk - Donor-Centered Fundraising On Copywriting: https://www.youtube.com/c/kopywriting - Neville Medhoura A Self-Help Guide for Copywriters - Dan Nelken Interesting writers on LinkedIn to follow: Rachel Botsman Jan Abernathy Jack Hall david phu Evan Cox (evancox1) Dave Harland (note: I can’t vouch for his language…)

I’m going into detail in this episode on the second of the “3 C’s” of an effective K12 development plan: Community. I’m sharing ways to create a true, authentic community within your school, starting with the parent-school relationship. Parents aren’t another tool to be managed, another check box on a to-do list. They want to belong and to be integrated in the life of your school. And they should be. They need to be your partners.    In this episode I describe the three key characteristics I’ve seen in great schools across the US. How do great schools effectively create partnership and true community? I’m diving into transparency, mutual respect, and intentionality - and examples of what each looks like and how you can develop them.   “Community” is the second critical element of a K12 development plan and this is the second episode of a three part series. Resources: Free guide on building up Community and create an environment that amplifies your efforts in development: www.kimtjennings.com/buildcommunity     Learn more and sign up for Kim’s digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity    Kim’s Stages of Parent Tenure - www.kimtjennings.com/parents    Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre   Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.    For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com    Samples of online Annual Reports: A wealth of examples of Annual Reports from wonderful organizations exist online. Some of my favorites: Charity:Water and Compassion International and World Relief.  Don’t let these three organizations’ size and resources intimidate you! Organizations of all sizes can put to good use the concepts and formatting they’ve employed.

Of all the important elements of a K12 development plan to focus on, how do you choose the three most critical ones? Which ones will really make your work stronger? In this first episode of a 3 part series, I’m answering that question, introducing what I call the “3 C’s”: Clarity, Community, and Communication before unpacking "Clarity."   A goal or a project is necessary for fundraising, of course, but they’re woefully inadequate as the basis for a real plan, in my experience. Clarity in your purpose and plan should come first. Do you have a stated, overarching PURPOSE and written, organized PLAN for your school’s fundraising efforts? Let's cover how to get that clarity!   Episode 002 is part one of a series about the 3 C’s for a strong K12 Development Plan: Clarity, Community, and Communication. Catch Episodes 003 and 004 to understand the other two critical elements and how mastering all three is necessary to get the fundraising results you really want.    Resources: Free guide on gaining Clarity in your development work: www.kimtjennings.com/getclarity    Learn more and sign up for Kim’s digital course, Onboarding New Parents with Purpose: A Proven Plan for Increasing Generosity at www.kimtjennings.com/cultureofgenerosity    Follow Kim on Instagram and FB @yourk12fundraisingcoach  and on LinkedIn at kimtjenningscfre   Kim Jennings is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and a member of the consultant team at Total Advancement Solutions by Generis.    For more information on Kim’s services as a coach and consultant to leaders and K12 Christian schools visit www.generis.com/Kim-Jennings and www.kimtjennings.com