School Development

School Development staff serve pastors, presidents, principals, development staff and volunteers in our Catholic elementary and high schools to assist them in setting goals and objectives for their fundraising program to support and advance the mission of their school.

Development is a specialized field in non-profit organizations that requires unique skills, knowledge and ability to communicate with your universe of donors.  It is broader than fundraising which is transactional with a singular purpose.  Development is relational and meets broader institutional goals.  A well planned and executed annual development program is based on a solid case for support of your school, builds loyal donor relationships and generates reliable annual support for the mission of your school. 

School Development staff at the Archdiocese of Milwaukee can assist schools in the following areas of their development program:

• Best practices for your school’s annual fund program – includes developing a timeline with multiple outreach strategies of personal visits, phone calls and letters; gift entry and acknowledgement
• Database management – improve and personalize your donor communication with a well-maintained list of donors and prospects with giving history
• Development assessment – conduct a 90 minute meeting with your development team that will help you dissect and assess your development program and identify areas of opportunity
• Development plan – receive written recommendations based on results of the development assessment
• Roles and responsibilities – review the roles of key contributors to the development plan including the school development committee, school committee or Board of Directors, the president, principal, and school development staff. 
• Donor relations – review your donor communications through the lens of donor-centered communication and the art and spirituality or donor stewardship; craft the case for support of your school in both oral and written communication
• Donor research – learn simple and advanced techniques to help you identify new donor prospects and increase giving from existing donors
• Planned giving – understand the basics of planned giving and ways to communicate with donors to encourage legacy gifts to your school, creation of a school endowment
• Third source funding – review and incorporate activities like benefit events, grant writing and fundraising sales into an overall development plan
• Catholic Schools Development Association – professional mentoring and networking with other school development leaders