Time is a Thief: Why We Need Focus on Funding and Students in Catholic School Advancement

William J. Acton, Senior Partner at Advancement Partners

Why do schools not get busy and get at the stuff that really, truly matters?

"Time is a thief."

No truer statement has ever been uttered, in many and sundry forms.

"Who knows where the time goes,” crooned Judy Collins in a very wistful late 1960s ballad. It is a try-not-to-cry song emblematic of that era and genre, but it's honestly perfectly apropos for today.

Time IS a thief that we too often fail to recognize until, gulp, it’s too late and whatever it was that we were meant to cherish is now taken from us and tossed into our rear-view mirror or beyond.

"You can't get time back," my long-time business partner Terry Fairholm is fond of saying. But no matter how many times he tells that to Catholic school leaders, they don't seem to believe him. They too often see time as a limitless resource that will keep renewing itself as it marches forward. What's the hurry? Too many school leaders seem to be saying. We've got other things to do first.

Well, here's the hurry: Catholic schools are perilously navigating some very turbulent seas in today's world. Change is happening – fast and furious. Some change is welcome and provides opportunity. Vouchers and school choice have helped countless schools across many parts of the country, for example. But some changes foretell serious headwinds for today and for years in the future. Consider:

• In the geographic region served by the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the number of children born this year – not just Catholics, mind you, but all children – has decreased by over 34% since 2007. There are currently 30,000 fewer 3-year-olds today than there were in 2007 – in this one geographic market which is, in many ways, a reflection of areas across the country. There are WAAAY fewer children today than there were years ago and this steady downward march shows no sign of ending.

• The percentage of Catholic school students currently receiving some level of reduced tuition/financial aid has been steadily, dramatically trending upward for the past 10+ years. It shows no sign of slowing. Meanwhile, the “gap” that exists between what schools charge in tuition and the real cost of educating each student has NEVER been greater. That, too, shows no sign of slowing down. Together, these two realities lead us to a frightening, simple conclusion: the current operating funding model for nearly every Catholic school is unsustainable.

• There is a clamoring teenage interest in curricula that is experiential, “hands on” and post-high-school-employment oriented as opposed to the more traditional, college-prep curricula that most Catholic high schools embrace. Classes in things like personal finance, the trades and cyber technology, along with internships and “beyond the schoolhouse” learning opportunities are in growing demand. Classes like Latin III and Trigonometry…not so much.

• Catholic schools are facing a massive challenge with respect to attracting and retaining competent faculty and staff. The classroom talent-drain post-COVID has left countless Catholic schools across the country reeling – trying to find a competent language or chemistry or engineering teacher.

• The need for facility improvements is exploding. In some cases, these upgrades needed to be done a generation or two ago – places like bathrooms and libraries and cafeterias and classrooms. Sometimes it's invisible stuff like HVAC and tuckpointing. Other times it's building innovation labs and student commons. But while generations before often kicked the facility improvements down the road – or invested in things like turf fields or media centers – the time has come where there is just massive, massive investment required. And our fundraising activities barely generate enough operating income to fund our annual operations – there is NOTHING left for capital improvements.

And so we ask… with all of the above and many other realities blowing full-force gale directly into our schools…why do we, in so many Catholic schools, not treat time like a thief? Why do schools not get busy and get at the stuff that really, truly matters? Often, it's because there are the endless committee meetings and in-service days to plan and attend. Or else we put off things like conducting electronic wealth research on our database because we've got too much going on with the upcoming golf outing…or the spring musical. We can't roll out a planned giving program now, what with our annual Cookies with Santa event scheduled in three months – think of the hours upon hours required to pull off all these things? Where does the time go??

And that's when we know…the time thief is real. There's nothing wrong with a golf outing or a school play or even Cookies with Santa. It's just that…they really don’t make the school better. They don't bring prospects closer to your mission. They don't generate significant (or any) revenue and they don't grow your tuition-paying enrollment. They burn out staff and increase blood sugar levels and steal business from the local mall Santa operation. They are a waste of so much precious time and we can't get that back, can we, Terry?

Over the years we've known too many schools that closed because, well, they did not spend their time and resources wisely. Here's a quick two examples. There was the school that won seven state football championships in a row…that's right, seven in a row. The school then closed its doors just two years after title #7 because, well, football championships do not equal long-term sustainability. Turns out you need other things like high-quality academics and funding and lots of full-tuition paying students. Somebody needed to spend more time on those things and less time organizing the Booster Club and holding fundraisers for new equipment.

And then there were the two separate schools – one all-boys, the other all-girls – whose buildings were separated only by their shared parking lot. With both schools facing serious enrollment and financial challenges, they couldn't (or wouldn't) find a way to work together to create a unified (single) strong school. Instead…they kept their distance, fought over the parking lot and clung ferociously to their separate missions. The boys' school tossed in the towel first and the girls’ school promptly announced it was going coed. Ah, so that was the plan!! Wait ‘em out! Well, it did work for a few years, but as it turns out, simply “going coed” – just like winning sports championships – isn't enough of a plan for sustainability. And so they, too, were forced to close.

Now, just because I believe that time is our most precious asset, does not mean I believe in rushing things or skipping steps or anything like that. In fact, I prefer the opposite. But if your pants are on fire, yes, you need to stop whatever you are doing and focus on nothing else except putting that fire out. After that, you can think about what to make for dinner or heading out to the health club.

So…what is it we are supposed to be doing as Catholic school advancement leaders if we can't do those other things? The answer is simple: we need funding and we need students. Anything we do in our job should be focused on maximizing those two things. Period.

We need funding for today – to pay bills and recruit strong staff and fix buildings – and for tomorrow – to take the pressure off tuition and operational fundraising (that's called endowment). Organizing the athletics concession stand, coaching the soccer team “part time,” leading the senior retreat program…sorry, these don't fit the job. Running reunions and alum parties that are completely geared to getting alums to connect with each other…sorry, they don’t fit either. Writing, designing printing an alumni magazine that is chockfull of school news and alumni weddings and job promotions…isn’t that what Facebook is for?

Please know: none of these are bad things! They just don't make the cut in Catholic school advancement anymore, given our very limited, very precious time.

All the time you allot to those things…is time stolen. It's time you could have spent pursuing major gifts that, honestly, are your school's best plan for sustainability. The time and money you spend on buying cookies and hot chocolate, setting up the gym, organizing volunteers, sending out Cookies with Santa e-Vites and promotions…yep, stolen. That was time and money you could have spent traveling to visit that out-of-town alum with a researched net worth of $10 million+ and a professed love of your school.

The full force gale we face in Catholic education will continue to increase – even if we reorganize ourselves and realign our time to execute those things that will have the greatest positive impact on our school. Even if we commit ourselves to conducting 12 major gift solicitations each month. Or personally sit down with 10 prospective full-tuition paying families each month to answer their questions and “sell” them on our school. And yes, even if we make the bold decision to borrow money to implement badly needed facility improvements – betting on ourselves that we will in fact raise the money we need to service that debt once we truly we focus on major gifts.

We can’t stop the headwinds and we can’t stop the march of time. But with time and attention devoted to things like major gifts and enrollment…we will have a better school, a stronger school, the school we were meant to have given the realities of today.

So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again
I do not fear the time

We all need to be singing from the Judy Collins songbook. Let’s get going!

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Posted on: February 18, 2024

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