How to Develop a Sustainable Annual Fund

Posted on by Paul Drake

Many schools’ annual fundraising efforts resemble running on a hamster wheel, with a lot of time and energy spent on fundraising activities, but not a lot of forward progress. They involve going from one event and “ask” to another all year long – creating donor, staff and volunteer fatigue. There is a better way! If you’d like to build a sustainable and predictable annual fund, come learn a more strategic and relational approach that minimizes fatigue and maximizes results. Time will be available to discuss attendees’ specific questions.

Brad Layland

Our presenter, Brad Layland is the CEO of The FOCUS Group. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida, where he is a founding parent and serves on the board of trustees for Veritas Classical School. In addition, he serves on the boards of directors for Young Life St. Augustine, Christian Surfers US, the Reid Saunders Association, and Young Life of Greater New York, and is an elder at Good News Church. Brad received his BA in Communications from the University of Florida and his MA in Theology from Fuller Seminary. For over 35 years, The FOCUS Group has helped nonprofits raise money more effectively through capital campaign counsel, major donor strategies, planned and estate gifts, and training. It currently serves over a dozen classical Christian schools across the United States.

The Keys to a Successful Capital Campaign

Posted on by Paul Drake

As the classical Christian education movement continues to flourish, many growing schools are ready to go to the next level by acquiring property, expanding their facilities or funding key strategic initiatives. If you are considering a capital campaign to fund these important projects, join us to learn when it’s appropriate to launch a capital campaign, and the key factors that will help your campaign to succeed. Time will be available to discuss attendees’ specific questions.

Brad Layland

Our presenter, Brad Layland is the CEO of The FOCUS Group. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida, where he is a founding parent and serves on the board of trustees for Veritas Classical School. In addition, he serves on the boards of directors for Young Life St. Augustine, Christian Surfers US, the Reid Saunders Association, and Young Life of Greater New York, and is an elder at Good News Church. Brad received his BA in Communications from the University of Florida and his MA in Theology from Fuller Seminary. For over 35 years, The FOCUS Group has helped nonprofits raise money more effectively through capital campaign counsel, major donor strategies, planned and estate gifts, and training. It currently serves over a dozen classical Christian schools across the United States.

Grant Writing Tips for Beginners in the Classical Realm

Posted on by Paul Drake

This workshop emphasizes first-hand practical experience aimed to teach skills, tips and tricks to help individuals successfully apply for grants. With grants becoming more competitive and difficult to attain, the goal is to gain knowledge on the best ways to get funds from many sources.

Sindy Beckerle

Sindy Beckerle is a grant administrator who focuses her work in the fields of Classical Christian education and crisis pregnancy centers. She has been writing grants for over 15 years. After homeschooling her two children for several years, her and a few friends began a homeschool coop called Grand County Home Educators in Colorado. The coop exploded in the small community and a desire for a Christian school was birthed. Through research and partnering with a local church who also had the desire to begin a Christian school, Sindy and her husband, Ed, with a group of excited parents and the local church began Winter Park Christian School. By the 2nd year of WPCS, they moved to the classical method with a strong biblical worldview. Sindy became the School Office Administrator at WPCS working closely with the Head of School. The need for funding for the school is what drove Sindy to learn about fundraising and grant writing. She began taking coursework and researching grant writing through local and state resources. As her skills developed, her success with grant writing improved. Her passion is to help others learn how to seek funding through grant writing. She desires to share her knowledge learned over years to help make others path smoother and more profitable. Having written and received over $1,000,000 in grants, she believes she uses the skills God has given her to put forth the request, but God gives all blessings.

The Hard Work of Cultivating Donors: Myths and Reality

Posted on by Paul Drake

Classical, Christian schools are fueled by two things: prayer and money. This session will leave the prayer part to you (keep doing it). This session might help you with the money part. It will explore the process of donor cultivation, but more importantly the core of why donors give, and how that affects everything from fundraising strategies, and where you as a Development Director, Head of School or Board Member spend your valuable time. This session will offer some theory, but also a great deal of practical direction, born out of 23 years of experience raising money for a single organization.

John Heaton

John Heaton is the second Headmaster of New Covenant Schools. He followed the founding Head, joining the school in its seventh year and has held this position since 1998. Now in its thirtieth year, the school has enjoyed steady growth with 450 students, five successful capital campaigns, and, most importantly, a strategic board. Long experience with one school has given him a unique perspective on the stages of school growth and governance. In addition, John is an ordained Anglican pastor and is the Associate Priest at All Saints Church in Lynchburg. He has been married to Heidi for 35 years and has four adopted children. When not at school John and Heidi enjoy being at their farm in Bedford County, Virginia.

Centralized Fundraising – Alleviate Donor Fatigue

Posted on by Paul Drake

Walter Kearns

Walter Kearns has a passion for helping nonprofits be truly sustainable. There is no formula to become healthy and here at The Champion Group we know this well. Walter's career has been spent directing or managing nonprofits across the country as they worked from survival to sustainability. He has overseen nonprofits with a budget smaller than $100,000 a year and some larger than $1,000,000. Every nonprofit is unique and here at The Champion Group we exist to help you overcome your financial barriers and enable you to work towards organizational effectiveness.

A Nimble Strategic Plan: Your Keys to Success

Posted on by Paul Drake

Scott Rodin

Dr. Scott Rodin, Senior Consultant & Chief Strategy Officer, has helped hundreds of organizations over four decades improve their effectiveness in leadership, fund development, strategic planning and board development. He currently serves as a Senior Fellow of the Association of Biblical Higher Education and as board chair for ChinaSource. In addition, Dr. Rodin is past president of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Christian Stewardship Association. Dr. Rodin holds Master of Theology and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Systematic Theology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He’s written fourteen books on stewardship and generosity, and speaks regularly at conferences, retreats and professional development events.

Fundraising During and After COVID-19

Posted on by Paul Drake
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted how you carry out your mission as a school, and it also impacts your fundraising. If you have been overly-dependent on events, you may be re-thinking your approach. Learn a more strategic, relational and sustainable framework for raising your annual fund, and transform donors into lifelong partners. Time will be available for Q&A.

Brad Layland

Brad Layland is the CEO of The FOCUS Group. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida, where he is a founding parent and serves on the board of trustees for Veritas Classical School. In addition, he serves on the boards of directors for Young Life St. Augustine, Christian Surfers US, the Reid Saunders Association, and Young Life of Greater New York, and is an elder at Good News Church. Brad received his BA in Communications from the University of Florida and his MA in Theology from Fuller Seminary. For over 35 years, The FOCUS Group has helped nonprofits raise money more effectively through capital campaign counsel, major donor strategies, planned and estate gifts, and training. It currently serves twelve classical Christian schools across the United States.

The Seven Secrets of Successful Capital Campaigns

Posted on by Paul Drake

Enrollment and Re-Recruitment: Why do students come to your school? More importantly, why do they stay? Do you know? Are you sure? If not, you are quite possibly jeopardizing your ability to deliver on your mission. Building on the data of the preceding session, we will explore management and teacher strategies that will make a difference in a family’s decision for classical Christian education.

Brad Layland

Brad Layland is the CEO of The FOCUS Group. He lives in St. Augustine, Florida, where he serves on the board of trustees for Veritas Classical School. In addition, he serves on the boards of Young Life St. Augustine, Christian Surfers US, the Reid Saunders Association and Young Life of Greater New York. Brad is an elder at Good News Church. He received his bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida and his master’s degee in theology from Fuller Seminary. For over 35 years, The FOCUS Group has helped nonpro ts raise money more effectively through capital campaign counsel, major donor strategies, planned and estate gifts and training. It currently serves seven classical Christian schools across the United States.

Fundamental Framework for Fundraising

Posted on by Paul Drake

Are you consistently meeting your annual fund goal, or do you find yourself falling short or just getting by? In this session, participants will learn the fundamentals of fundraising: articulating the case for giving, developing leadership, clarifying and growing a prospect list, developing strategies, and building a plan.

Steve Godfrey

Steve Godfrey and his co-presenter Brad Layland are experienced professionals who understand the dynamics of small classical Christian schools; Brad Layland serves on the board of St. Johns Academy in St. Augustine, FL and Steve Godfrey is a board member at Veritas School in Richmond.

Your Small School’s Development Shop

Posted on by Paul Drake

Schools with fewer than 500 students often have a dif cult time identifying and cultivating donors who can make transformative gifts. Conventional approaches to high capacity fundraising often assume large development budgets and layers of fundraising activities
that smaller schools simply can’t sustain. In this workshop, participants will discover how community alignment, hiring decisions, shared leadership and measuring performance can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your school’s small development shop. Participants will leave provoked yet encouraged with a fresh perspective of how to design and implement their development office.

Jason Lewis

Jason currently assists BetterSchools partner schools with increasing their fundraising capacity. Before joining the BetterSchools consulting team, Jason’s fundraising career included launching a nation-wide major gift initiative; leading previously stalled and mid-recession capital campaigns; and organizing high-profile, record-breaking special events. In 2008, Jason received his initial certification as a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) and in 2011 was recognized as a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Master Trainers.