Fostering A Culture of Philanthropy Through Community Engagement and Fun
Kelsey Schlarb, our Annual Giving Coordinator, and I recently gave a presentation at a regional independent school development conference at The Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. Our presentation was entitled Fostering A Culture of Philanthropy Through Community Engagement and Fun.
Last year, the development department adopted, “fostering a culture of philanthropy,” one of the tactics named in the 2015 Strategic Plan for long-term financial sustainability, as our guiding vision. We identified three objectives for realizing our vision:
- Create a spirit of giving through inclusivity, community orientation and fun
- Give our community a reason to give by providing numerous opportunities to make a difference and educating our community about how your gifts impact our students at The Orchard School on a daily basis.
- Encourage the habit of giving by recognizing each and every gift and its long-term impact for our school.
From this vision, we developed the “Be A Good Apple Campaign” in the fall and the Green and Gold Giving Day in the spring. Both of these giving opportunities were meant to be fun, community focused and inclusive. After successfully reaching our fall goal, our celebratory Apple Pie Eating Contest was watched live on Facebook and in person by many. Who could not have fun seeing Hal shovel the pie in while Nick took baby bites with a knife and fork. For Green and Gold Giving Day we again designed the giving opportunity to be fun, community oriented and inclusive as we celebrated our retiring teachers and named the gym in honor of long-time teacher and Athletic Director, Steve Thompson.
Both Campaigns were successful…we reached our donor goals and our dollar goals and we had a good time! Overall last year we engaged more donors than the year before in every category…parents, grandparents, alumni, parents emeriti and our faculty and staff!
We invite you to join us for another year of PHILANTRHOPIC FUN!
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