The New (Old) Frontier of Fundraising …. Public Education

I recently had one of those moments that many people have in their life. A déjà vu experience.

I was fortunate enough to recently speak at the Nebraska Association for Public Schools Foundation Annual Conference in Omaha. I spoke about the ability to manage up regarding superintendents, whom for the most part don't have a lot of experience in fundraising. I gave a second presentation on how boards can be best used to leverage relationship opportunities. Both presentations were fine and I hope helpful. But that wasn't the moment.

Before getting into healthcare philanthropy, I wrote extensively about the future of fundraising in public education. Papers, dissertation, serving on boards, authoring the certification program for best practices for those who are new to fundraising and overseeing a public school district foundation, etcetera. I was all in.

But when I moved into healthcare, I lost touch with this sector of the nonprofit world. For the past decade plus, I have immersed myself in, for the most part, healthcare with a little bit of Higher Ed on the side. And yet, I had a magnificent time challenging the status quo with these conference presentations, just trying to help them see a more advanced manner of fundraising... well past auctions and golf tournaments. I'd forgotten how much I miss being a trailblazer and challenging the status quo.

I said a decade and a half ago, on multiple occasions, both in writing and verbally, that the future of public education and fundraising is one of the great undiscovered lands of philanthropy. I find that it's still somewhat true today. While we see some school districts taking on capital campaigns and multi million-dollar efforts to support teachers and kids from kindergarten through senior year in high school, most are still slow in the evolutionary process. If we want great education and opportunities for our kids, we have to invest in it. I had forgotten how much I loved that concept in that simple axiom and how philanthropy could make a big difference for so many in our community.