In Short

In reviewing this extraordinary data set, it’s clear that there’s good news for day schools.

As a data-informed organization, Prizmah invests considerable time and resources uncovering the trends and best practices in the Jewish day school world. Our newly released Development Pulse Survey Report is the most recent collection of data from the field to help day school leaders and philanthropists make informed decisions that are based on facts and measurable outcomes.

From our network of 305 Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America, we received 118 responses to our survey, representing a diversity of school sizes, geographies, and religious affiliations. In reviewing this extraordinary data set, it’s clear that there’s good news for day schools.

Here are three things I learned about day schools:

1. The results from this survey portray a shift from reactionary fundraising early in the pandemic to resiliency and future-focused philanthropy. 

In the early days of the pandemic, many Jewish communal organizations went into crisis mode. How will we meet our mission at a six-foot distance? What will it take to ensure that we can continue to serve the families who rely on us? In day schools in particular, this meant a huge investment in technology and infrastructure to be able to serve students in virtual classrooms and socially-distanced in-person classrooms. The immediate need to upgrade technology, refurbish air filtration systems, invest in cleaning and maintenance staff, hang plastic dividers, and build outdoor learning environments seemed overwhelming. But with the support of generous donors, emergency resources, and reserves, schools were able to put in place the systems necessary to continue the teaching and learning. In fact, for many, day schools became hallmarks of successful pandemic experiences, thinking creatively to ensure that their missions were met even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Now, as we move beyond the acute stresses and change created by the pandemic, schools feel buoyed by the relationships they created in their crisis mode. Rather than an emergency need, schools are talking to their communities about the kinds of support that will help them serve their students in the long-term, and endowment funds are finding their way to the top of that priority list. Seventy-eight percent of respondents, representing 92 schools, reported that their school has an endowment fund. Of the 27 schools that reported not having an endowment, nearly 50% are planning to launch an endowment campaign in the next five years, while an additional 41% are interested in doing so in the future.

Endowment valuations have increased significantly from last year. This is the result of both strong stock market performance and schools securing additional endowment funds. Reporting schools raised approximately $26,638,000 in new endowment gifts in FY21*, gifts which fund categories like scholarships for families, salaries and professional development for faculty, technology, innovation, expanded learning programs, and school facilities upkeep. Endowment funds are the very definition of future-focused philanthropy;like retirement funds, an investment in the present ensures that long-term planning is supported and that the financial health of schools is on track.

2. Donors are maintaining (if not increasing) their gifts to schools, helping schools to more confidently raise funds. 

There are many models through which schools set their budgeted income for fundraising each year. Throughout the pandemic, development professionals worked together through weekly meet-ups facilitated by Prizmah to learn from and with each other in setting metrics and building campaign plans. What could we expect in such an unpredictable year? Could schools rely on donors to come out of the woodwork? Could they build new relationships or expand on existing ones if they couldn’t meet in person?

In the end, more than half of schools reported increasing their annual campaign goals from FY21* to FY22*. Thirty percent of schools kept their goal at the same level as FY21 and 14%, representing 17 schools, decreased their goal. When asked this question last year, 43% of schools had reported decreasing their annual campaign goal from FY20* to FY21*. It seems that after choosing the safest path for school sustainability in a turbulent FY21*, schools were able to use the lessons they learned and the successes they modeled to lean into their fundraising for FY22*.

Eighty-one percent of respondents reported that they project their schools will meet or exceed FY22* fundraising goals. When comparing responses to this time last year, there is a five percent increase in schools that projected they would meet their fundraising goals. At the same time last year, 20% of schools reported they were unsure if they would meet their fundraising goal, while now only 13% of schools aren’t sure, a decrease of seven percent.

Given the circumstances of the pandemic and the way donors saw schools respond to student need, it wasn’t surprising that just under 75% of respondents reported that parent participation has either remained steady or increased compared to FY21*. A quarter of respondents even indicated that the number of parents participating in their annual campaign has increased by over 10% since the last fiscal year. With a growing base of donors and dollars, development departments are working overtime to strengthen those relationships and build long-term support.

3. More schools are beginning to think on systems and communal levels to address financial sustainability and affordability.

The affordability of Jewish life is a regular topic of conversation amongst communal leaders. Day schools are better able to tackle affordability and sustainability issues when communities work together to address the holistic needs of families.

A communal endowment fund, defined as an endowment for the benefit of two or more schools in a community, allows families a greater choice in selecting a school that meets the needs of their individual students. At least 25% of schools solicited for and/or received funds from a communal endowment in FY21*. This number may be underrepresented due to how various communities define a communal endowment and how schools attribute their revenue, but that number is growing. Schools that reported being part of a communal endowment fund are located in nine regions across the United States and Canada.

Beyond the bounds of the survey, Prizmah is also working with more and more funders and community leaders to design communal affordability models. Be it middle income tuition models or Jewish communal professionals discounts, endowment campaigns or cost savings measures across multiple schools, more and more voices are being raised to understand the work that’s being done across North America that could address some of day schools’—and the Jewish community’s—most pressing needs.

With these learnings in hand, along with the findings from Prizmah’s most recent Enrollment Pulse Survey Report, it’s fair to say that Jewish day schools are trending positive. Through growth in admissions and development and continued focus on meeting the needs of the whole student in the classroom and beyond, day schools have proven that a period of challenge and can indeed lead to a strengthening of the Jewish future.

*Throughout the report we use the abbreviation FY to refer to the 12-month period of the school fiscal year.

I used to joke with my friend in school that once I wrote the first paragraph of a paper, the paper was done. The first paragraph is the summary—it announces what’s coming, where you can expect to go, and the general conclusion you’ll reach. In 4-6 simple sentences, the paragraph wrote the paper. She’d ask, “Did you finish that 10-page paper?” And I’d say, “No, but I wrote the first paragraph, so basically.”

The same is true of an annual development plan. Write the plan, the rest will come.

The planning phase of development work is one which is easy to skip. We have work to do now. There are grants due next week. Donors to speak to tomorrow. How can I spend weeks or months honing a plan talking about 10 months from now?

The answer is that the plan is worth the effort. The plan is the conductor of the symphony, guiding the simultaneous performances of a variety of instruments. Here is where foundations come in. Then we bring in events. In the background, digital campaigns. And then, the violins, er, major gifts.

The plan is also the math—we are raising $X this year: $Y will come from here; $Z comes from here by this date; and so on. I like to think of the plan as the point where art and math meet. It describes how to use the art to make the math whole.

Here are 10 tips to make the plan count:

1. Plan for a full fiscal year. Make it align with your budget.
2. Use your plan from last year as a starting point.
3. It should make sense from a micro and macro level. You can have 12 great tactics, but they shouldn’t all happen in the same week in January.
4. Make it measurable. What good is a plan if you don’t have a way of knowing if it’s working?
5. Make it add up. Your plan should clearly tell you where all the revenue for your operating budget is coming from.
6. Plan to plan—build it into your plan to start planning for the next year. (I know, this one really risks revealing an obsession for planning, but it is valuable.)
7. Get your team on board. Not every staff member holds every piece of work, but it benefits everyone to understand the full vision.
8. Don’t stress about the format. It just needs to be clear to you and your team. It doesn’t have to be presentable at the Smithsonian. (Unless you fundraise for the Smithsonian.)
9. Look at it regularly to make sure you are on track.
10. I cannot emphasize this enough—change the plan when you need to.

This last point is important; it is the elephant in the planning room. What if something small or major happens that disrupts the plan? What if, say, in the middle of the year, all of your events have to suddenly go virtual? Well, here is the beauty of the plan: it should change. And you are less shaken by singular issues, large or small, when you have a solid grounding in a larger strategy. 

And this confidence is critical. We operate in a profession tied to unknowns—variables in the economy, the desires and interests of donors, and a world of extenuating circumstances. But if you write a good plan, you can control your strategy, you can determine which tactics work, and you can know when you need to adjust.

There are more than a couple idioms about what happens when man plans—I have heard them, too. Pave your plans with more than good intentions—with data, strategy, and benchmarks—and you’ll thank yourself later.

As development professionals, we’re professional contortionists. Constantly pulled in a thousand different directions, we learn to be graceful and prioritize what matters most.

But, our profession is in crisis. Our peers are constantly overworked, undervalued, and stressed beyond measure. In a culture that values metrics and data, we are losing the human element of what we do. While many of us accept the reality that the average turnover for a development director is 18-months¹, enough is enough.

A culture shift of this magnitude may seem like a lot of hard work, but what I’m proposing is the exact opposite.

Did you know that “play” is one of the keys to both personal and professional success? Yet, our lives are not always built this way. Brene Brown², esteemed researcher and storyteller, shares that: “Play—doing things just because they’re fun and not because they’ll help achieve a goal—is vital to human development.” In a world where we are taught to value discomfort and hard work as proof of success, this goes against everything we have been taught.

Yet, there can be gain without pain. In their book “Primed to Perform,” Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor unpack the key to motivation³ and the secrets behind well-performing companies and teams. They write, “you’re most likely to… succeed in any other endeavor when your motivation is play. Play is the most direct and most powerful driver of high performance.” Now, think back to your most motivated and successful team. In what ways were you encouraged to play?

My development colleagues are the most creative and high-achieving people I have ever met. Yet, when we are placed in environments lacking opportunities to collaborate, brainstorm, and ideate – we accomplish only a fraction of their potential.

It may be easier than you think to find “play” at work when “fun” is literally in your job description! Here are my tips for infusing joy and bringing play into everything you do:

• Surround yourself with positive people, starting with you! Positivity is infectious, and teams that operate with optimism are not only more likable, which boosts productivity, but also more successful.⁴ In fact, highly optimistic people are 103% more inspired to do their best work.⁵ We’ve all been there: you’re trapped, talking to someone who drones on and on about everything wrong with the world. That energy attaches to you and you spend the rest of your day feeling lethargic, grouchy, and pessimistic. As fundraisers, we only have a short window of time to make a good impression with our potential donors. When we bring value to our relationships through positive energy and an optimistic outlook, we expand our networks and build donor-centric relationships with ease. If this seems daunting, start with your body language: uncross your arms, try a more uplifting expression, and approach your conversations with physical openness. It all starts by saying yes!
• Find the humor in everything! I can’t think of a funnier profession than fundraising. Our days are filled with awkward pauses during donor meetings and solicitations, presentations with rebellious technology, and interactions with opinionated and sometimes eccentric individuals. Humor is the best way to get through those tough days. Odds are there’s at least one person that you can make laugh. If not, maybe try making new friends! Laughter literally changes your brain chemistry to improve your health and wellbeing.⁶ When you cultivate an environment where mistakes, courage, and humor are valued, you also encourage creativity, play, and openness. Now, you don’t have to be the funny one to make humor happen; but, you do need to welcome the curious, the weird, and the odd to cultivate an environment where humor can thrive. Don’t know where to start? It may be out of your comfort zone but try enrolling in an improvisational comedy class to learn the secrets of collaboration, confidence, and teamwork that will not only make you a better fundraiser but also a better and more well-rounded you.

• Lead with vulnerability! Vulnerability is a buzzword these days for a reason. When you fully express yourself personally and professionally, your energy becomes magnetic. When you draw others in with whatever makes you unique, you build trust, authenticity, and likeability. Embrace it! By just being you, your relationships with existing and prospective donors will become deeper and more meaningful. By expressing yourself by leaning into who you are, you strengthen both yourself and those around you. A fundraiser is nothing without a network, so make sure your network knows the real you!

There’s a culture shift happening in Fundraising and I believe these three tips are the foundation. What did I miss – how do you put the Fun in Fundraising?

 

Works Cited

1. “Shutting the Revolving Door of Development Turnover -.” Philanthropy Daily, 3 Feb. 2020, www.philanthropydaily.com/shutting-door-development-turnover/.
2. “Brené Brown: The Very Best Resolution You Can Make This Year.” Oprah.com, www.oprah.com/omagazine/best-resolution-have-a-happy-year.
3. Doshi, Neel, and Lindsay Mcgregor. Primed to Perform : How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures through the Science of Total Motivation. New York, Harper Business, An Imprint Of Harpercollins Publishers, 2015.
4. “Are Optimistic Employees More Successful?” Management Consulted, 23 June 2021, managementconsulted.com/are-optimistic-employees-more-successful/.
5. Murphy, Mark. “Optimistic Employees Are 103% More Inspired to Give Their Best Effort at Work, New Data Reveals.” Forbes, www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2020/02/26/optimistic-employees-are-103-more-inspired-to-give-their-best-effort-at-work-new-data-reveals/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2022.
6. “The Natural High of Laughter.” Psychology Today, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/high-octane-women/201111/the-natural-high-laughter.

Being a fundraiser often feels like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up an endless mountain without ever reaching a plateau. Even when we are successful, our reward is often more of it. Sometimes, only a very fine line can be drawn between a task that is possible to complete and a task that is impossible to complete. It’s a grueling job often without much merit, and little time is taken to celebrate the plateaus we do achieve. But the truth is, we are the backbone of the non-profit world and need to relish in our wins, creating a source for inspiration. 

All too often, fundraisers, myself included, achieve a milestone and shrug it off as part of the job. There is a momentary rush of dopamine of course when that grant comes in or a major gift gets signed, but then it is off to the next prospect. As the Dlead team knows, not exactly the best model for job satisfaction, and a stressful one at that. It is time to break the cycle; we must pause and relish in the achievement of our efforts, recognize and applaud those involved with the accomplishment, and reflect and learn from its success. 

Coming off a record year in fundraising, it would have been easy for me to enter the new year with a blank slate and move right into my 2022 plan. In past years I might have done just that, but not now and never again. At a time of great uncertainty, negative news, and general anxiety, pausing to reflect is a healthy and welcome change. This milestone is cause for celebration, it is an opportunity to recognize all the people (lay and pro) who have helped get us to this moment – this includes shout outs to key team members at staff meetings, phone calls by our fundraising committee chair to key volunteers, and a virtual happy hour for my team. People like to be recognized and complimented, it is human nature. It doesn’t take much to show appreciation for the efforts of all involved, and it will go a long way in improving staff satisfaction and individual well-being. 

In addition to showing gratitude and appreciation and celebrating milestones and successes, it is also critical to reflect on them to learn from them. Our tradition offers many examples of the importance of reflection from Yom Kippur to Counting the Omer to reciting the Silent Amidah each day. It is in our nature and it is necessary for growth. Therefore, it is equally important to take time to reflect on our success and to understand what led to the achievement in order to build upon it: What worked well? What challenges were overcome? What would you have done differently to ease the way for next time? What trends might you notice? How can you repeat the success? What do next action steps need to happen? How have you recorded this to build institutional memory? 

When I first got into the field of fundraising, no one told me how stressful it was and the pressure I would feel to perform. Moreover, no one role modeled for me what celebrating success could look and feel like. Perhaps if we took the time to savor our victories and gain insights into the path that lead us there, then our job satisfaction and that of our team members would be higher and future successes would come more easily. 

Put the boulder aside for a moment, and share it with a colleague. And if you are not sure who to share this with, DLEAD is a network of like-minded professionals who can help validate and celebrate your success.  Breathe and take strength from your wins. 

Three years ago, I left my job as a reporter at a local news organization and made a career pivot to grant writing. I’ve found that my journalism experience is very relevant to my work with grants. Both professions emphasize deep research, asking thoughtful questions, writing clearly and concisely, and meeting deadlines – lots of deadlines!

Anyone beginning their career as a grant professional will face a significant learning curve, regardless of their background. Here are three tips that will help new and growing grant professionals have a strong start in these important roles.

• Become an expert on your organization’s mission and programs.

My number-one piece of advice for grant writers is to be genuinely interested in your organization and its work. This curiosity will fill your brain with great details and insights that you can share with funders. Your colleagues in other departments will be pleased to see how much you care about and appreciate their work. And you will feel more confident and motivated to do your own job.

It’s essential for grant writers to understand their organization’s mission and strategic plan inside and out. Talk with your executive director or other decision-makers at your organization to make sure you always have good answers to these questions:

• What are your organization’s current priorities? 
• What are your organization’s greatest challenges?
• How does your organization measure success?
• What new projects and ideas are in the pipeline?
• Are any projects being phased out, or put on the back burner?

In addition to that high-level strategy, you should also try to get a close-up view of your organization’s programs and services in action. Hopefully, this observation and learning will be a part of your onboarding when you start a new job. Ideally, it should be an ongoing, daily process. This has been critical for my work as the grants manager at the Forward, a fast-moving digital news organization that publishes hundreds of articles every month. To stay up-to-date with what we’re doing, I scan the Forward’s email newsletters every day and make sure to read our best and most impactful articles. I try to learn a little Yiddish from the Forverts’ excellent videos on YouTube and TikTok. And I love chatting with our editors and writers –  on Slack or at the office – and learning about how they cover the issues, ideas and institutions that matter to American Jews.

You don’t have to get too deep in the weeds of various programs and operations — your colleagues in other departments should handle that. But you should do your best to develop broad expertise in what your organization does, why, and how. 

• Absorb. Master. Improve.

As you build your broad interdepartmental knowledge of your organization, you also will be immersed in the day-to-day work of fundraising. Every organization has its own systems for record-keeping, tracking grant deadlines, donor stewardship, and other crucial tasks. When you start a new job, you should focus on absorbing and mastering the systems that are already in place. 

Once you understand those, you can look for ways that these systems might be improved. Maybe it’s time to write some new copy for your acknowledgement letters, or to move your paper filing system into the cloud. Maybe some of those lapsed donors in your database deserve a second look. Make sure you have buy-in from colleagues before really shaking things up – especially in areas that affect how others do their jobs. But don’t underestimate the power of viewing your organization and your job with fresh eyes. You might see opportunities for improvement that your colleagues and predecessors have overlooked.

• You’ll need to ask your colleagues for help. Plan ahead.

You will become a more efficient, effective, and independent grant writer with every proposal and report that you complete. But there will always be work that you simply can’t do on your own. Grant documents sometimes require complex subject-matter expertise, detailed budgets, or insight into the accomplishments and goals of a program that only certain staff can provide. You need to gather all of this information from colleagues who are already busy, sometimes overwhelmed by their regular job responsibilities.

This is one of many reasons why it’s so important to have a comprehensive calendar for tracking your grant deadlines. Whenever possible, you should look ahead to upcoming deadlines (and vacation plans) and provide your colleagues with more than enough lead time to get you what you need. Keeping them in the loop and respecting their time makes your working relationships stronger, and sets up everyone to succeed.

***

A colleague once told me that grant professional are like the hub of a wheel, with spokes that connect to every department of the organization and keep everything in motion. The metaphor also speaks to another aspect of our work: grant applications are complex projects, with many moving parts to keep track of. If you fully understand your organization’s mission and programs, master your systems and processes for fundraising, and proactively communicate with your colleagues, you’ll be able to stay ahead of your deadlines and thrive in your new job as a grant professional. 

One of my oldest Jewish memories is of the tzedakah box at Sunday school, a blue box with illustrated images of the old city of Jerusalem. I remember the conversations about where we would give and voting on how to distribute what we raised. I also remember the notion, even more broadly than tzedakah, that giving back to others was a foundational aspect of being part of a Jewish community.

When I began my fundraising career and started working with donors who were participating in this essential tradition in an even larger way, I thought about others before me who did this work. And before them. And before them?

With so many years of Jewish history, I wanted to know – what does Jewish text have to say about fundraisers? Not just about giving, but about those of us who help steward and solicit the givers?

Turns out, quite a lot. Here’s a sampling:

First, between 1170 and 1180 CE, Maimonides wrote the following in his code of Rabbinic Jewish Law, the Mishneh Torah:

Any city in which there is a Jewish community is obligated to raise up collectors of tzedakah, people who are well-known and trustworthy, to go door-to-door among the people. (Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 9:1)

What does this mean? The role of fundraising was already a communal obligation nearly 1,000 years ago in Maimonides’s time and beyond. Jewish communal work and “trustworthy collectors of tzedakah” in particular have been critical components of a strong Jewish community for generations. What’s more, there was even a proscribed way in Halacha (Jewish law) as to how to fundraise.

While we might have swapped door knocking out in favor of coffee meetings, myself and my colleagues in DLead are part of an age-old tradition. DLead has connected us to each other in new ways, too, allowing us to learn and grow from one another. In my experience, fundraisers across communal organizations often don’t work closely with each other, and one thing we’ve learned by our involvement in DLead so far is there’s significant value in fundraisers working together.

The Babylonian Talmud (3rd Century AD) suggests it’s a good idea to stick together, too:

Charity collectors may not separate from each other, each one collecting in a different place; but in a place where the two can see each other, one collector may separate from the other. (Bava Batra 8b:16-17)

I love the visual of this: two Jewish communal fundraisers walking through an open market or busy street talking to their donors and beneficiaries so many years ago. Collaborating on Zoom is a little different, but just as it was in the 3rd Century, when fundraisers help each other and learn from each other, it benefits the global Jewish world.