Success Story - Eastbrook Academy
I started working with this amazing school in January. Eastbrook Academy, a ministry of Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee, supports families from diverse backgrounds in regards to ethnicity, socio-economics, and geography, they have been ranked #1 in Wisconsin on the High School Challenge Index and 100% of their high school graduates get accepted into college and receive a significant amount of grants and scholarships. This school has such an amazing story in my mind because families do NOT have to choose between diversity AND academic excellence - THEY GET BOTH!
Anyway, Eastbrook Academy hired me to take their small resource development program to the next level. Once I understood how amazing they were, I told them, "You are just shy." There are probably lots of organizations like Eastbrook Academy that do amazing quality work and envision delivering their mission to folks regardless of financial capacity, but don't know how to secure the resources they need to achieve this vision.
In my mind it really was about teaching the organization - especially the board members - how to embrace their role as ambassador and then to provide the coaching and tools needed for them to have the confidence to share the story and cultivate the relationships that were sure to result in the resources they needed.
So we got right to work implementing my infamous formula of STORY + DIRECTION + RELATIONSHIPS. The first step was to take the Eastbrook Academy story and articulate it in a professional case statement (click here for the first in a series of blog posts that describe how to develop your professional case statement). The board members and a core team of other organizational staff members began to get used to sharing the story in a consistent manner. The elevator pitch helped the core team and board members be more natural by sharing the story from the perspective of their passion (click here to read about the elevator pitch).
Then I worked with their fabulous fund development director to develop a compelling tour that incorporated my three magic questions, the answers to which would provide amazing opportunities for relationship cultivation. (click here to email me to get a sample compelling tour).
Immediate and Significant Results
Well, because this organization was so open to doing things in a new way, results came fast. We started by inviting current supporters and donors to take a compelling tour. In the first month, the first four tours resulted in three new donations! During the past six months, more than 10 additional tours have been conducted, resulting in more donations as well as more connections. Twenty more tours are scheduled to take place within the next two months. After hosting a a community session, two couples - already supporters - are making monthly donations. By simply doing a better job of sharing their story, welcoming people in for a tour and asking three simple questions, Eastbrook Academy is taking their development program to the next level.
Where Board Members and Volunteers Fit In
BEWARE! It is important that you realize all of this work is NOT being done solely by the fund development director. The key to a successful development program is seeing the role of the fund development director as DRIVER AND FACILITATOR of the plan. Ideally, the fund development director is empowering lots of other people to make connections and help cultivate relationships.
At Eastbrook Academy, board members and other volunteers have really stepped up, but before they could do that they had to know what to do, have tools to make it easy to do and get the training and support to have the confidence to go out and make new connections. Again, they've experienced immediate and significant results. Now, board members and the fund development director communicate on a weekly basis regarding which board members and volunteers will accompany visitors on tours or make connections out in the community. When it came to planning the invitation list for the community session, each board member had to contribute 10 names to the list and assign themselves to making personal invitations. But, again, they were offered tools and and training on exactly how to do that. The fund development director tracks all the relationships and supports the board members and volunteers. IT'S A REAL TEAM!
Try my approach and see what happens!
Deb
