Connecticut Meeting June 17, 2015

Today’s Agenda 8:45 am Opening Prayer & Welcome Introductions and Survey Responses 9:15 am Breakout Session I: Priorities and Challenges Trends in Advancement Trends in Enrollment & Marketing 10:15 am Break 10:30 am Reporting Out 11:00 am Breakout Session II: Priorities and Challenges Trends in Communications Annual Giving Retention 12:00 pm Reporting Out: 12:30 pm Lunch & Presentation

Who is in the room

Most effective marketing & communications strategies Facebook HSA Newsletter web Billboards, word of mouth word of mouth blog posts - driving traffic to our website events (i.e. open house) Telecounseling, s, Facebook, Website, Face-to-Face Word of mouth, social media. Website/Internet/word of mouth direct mail to targeted group, presence at local events Community school events which lead in word of mouth. Website searches. We show great improvement in social media Direct mailing to CCD and Preschool families, articles of student happenings in local papers, Social media and word of mouth. Having a table at a vendor/town event has had some feedback. Combination of traditional print and social media. Word of mouth Social Media Word of mouth! Having community events at the school that give exposure to people of all ages

Most significant challenges in Advancement 1. Financial cost for families 2. Retention for Kindergarten Screening of students - need to make easier and more welcoming 3. Establishing a planned giving initiative 4. Competing with top ranked public schools Increasing applicant pool with families who can afford our tuition 5. The economy and the understanding of Catholic education 6. The landscape of Catholic education has changed. Schools are struggling with enrollment. In turn, struggling with budgets. 7. Spreading the word to new territories, convincing students to take the jump to come here (parents often love the school, but they leave the decision for the students to make), competition from independent, non-Catholic schools 8. Increasing endowment, annual giving, volunteer base, engagement of alums 9. Time and Funds available 10. competing with magnet schools for enrollment, competing with other organizations for donations (including parish) 11. Getting the word out there about our school on a limited budget. Competing against other Catholic Schools. 12. Half of our student population comes from public school. It's difficult to fundraise with these folks. 13. competing with magnet school 14. Increasing Annual Fund. 15. Enrollment Management Annual Giving from younger alumni 16. Many do not even attempt to visit because they think tuition is too much, breaking stigma, and annual giving 17. Major gifts 18. Declining enrollments, poor economy, demographic trends, rising costs 19. Lack of financial aid available; old facility; new blood needed 20. Getting people to understand the importance of giving and the value of the education we give.

Most important Advancement priorities for next year 1. Setting a budget for school year 2. Focus on Pre-K to K retention 3. Increase out-of-town marketing efforts 4. Starting an advisory committee for planned giving; culling more info about our alumni 5. Increasing inquiry and applicant pool 6. Creating a parent admissions network 7. Growing Enrollment 8. Our school is celebrating its 100th Anniversary. I will be leading the year long celebration. 9. Keeping the experience personal, keeping students well informed and having fun, increasing the applicant pool, maintaining students throughout the process, outreach to Hispanic families 10. increased engagement of parents and alumnae, fundraising goals increased 11. Scheduling - covering events, assisting Admissions and Development (Advancement) 12. Enrollment, raising money to expand certain programs to become more competitive 13. Executing school/community events on a limited budget and keeping our numbers up with enrollment and finding a way to retain children who are moving out of town. 14. We are in the midst of a feasibility study and need to look to enter a campaign, which we haven't done for 14 years. 15. more recognition of the benefits of a Catholic School, and our school in particular. Pre-K 16. Raising more money than this year. 17. Enrollment 18. Annual Giving 19. Increasing enrollment 20. Increasing annual giving 21. meeting our matching challenge for HC Fund and transitioning a new President 22. marketing and personalization 23. Getting the word out that the school is responding to concerns and making changes without 'throwing anyone under the bus‘ 24. Communication and more volunteer involvement

What are your most successful events? 1. walkathon, golf outing 2. Open Houses 3. planned giving workshop 4. shadow days 5. Spring open house (marketed to 5-7th graders) 6. Fall open house 7. Family oriented events 8. Shadow days, athletic meeting for incoming students, summer programs for athletics, test prep 9. Homecoming Weekend, networking receptions, social events for all constituents, freshmen fun night, open house,,,, 10. For Marketing: Open House, Programs for Middle School Students, Shadow Days 11. local events (Shad Derby) 12. Alumni Dinners, Golf Tournaments, Wine Tasting events, Annual Church Feast. 13. Our auction is our flagship event, raising $150,000+ each year. We also run a successful open house, grandparents day and legacy mass. 14. Education raffle and auction K Road Race 16. Evening With Friends 17. Welcome Picnic to Kickoff a new year 18. Open House 19. Green & Gold Gala 20. Home Receptions, Open House 21. Friend-raisers! And our Open House is awesome 22. Wine Tasting, Ladies Luncheon

What new initiatives have you tried? 1. Changed format of Open House 2. Started Pre-K only Open House 3. Facebook push 4. Planned Giving is our newest initiative 5. adding bus routes to target areas/towns 6. marketing with an outside company 7. Since I am new, not much as of yet. 8. We have tried small programs where we invited 8th graders with certain interests to hang out with students during a club meeting. This was mildly successful. We also tried a test prep program and had many students attend. 9. several in marketing strategies for admissions and then in our events and alumnae relations areas 10. having a presence at local events is new (1st time this year participated in town game show to raise money and awareness) 11. Alumni reunions, Around the World Festivals, Newsletters, Advertisements. In school programs to help with attracting new students as well as retaining existing ones. 12. We tried a scholarship reception for those who give to named scholarships and it was not well received. 13. going to local events / vendor fairs is new 14. Annual Fund drive geared to young alumnae. Using social media to raise funds. 15. Digital Billboards 16. Alumni events Changing open house format 17. Legacy Receptions, CT Alumni Throwback Thursday, Volunteer Receptions and Wine Tasting 18. Home Receptions 19. Social events and trying to include the prospective students in everything - assume the sale! 20. None

Discontinuing anything? 1. Shortening time of Open House 2. no 3. I am starting with a clean slate. Hoping to win back some past donors. 4. No. We just keep adding on and increasing my work load. 5. looking to restructure alumnae board We will likely not do a Fall Open House tours - minimal attendance 7. Not at this time. We are continuing to try everything we can. 8. We re-vamped a few years ago with a change in leadership and discontinued events then. 9. No. 10. Less newspaper ads 11. I don't know 12. no 13. less newspaper advertising 14. The letters to the local churches' religious ed - better to visit and bring students with you 15. No

Has your strategy shifted, how so? 1. More flexible, more personal (trying to accommodate prospective families schedules to tour school) 2. no 3. We have become more strategic in terms of advertising and trying to promote more 4. yes - more focused, more looking at R.O.I., increases in fundraising goals 5. more social media 6. Yes. We find that we cannot just sit back and wait for students to find us. We need to find them. 7. Absolutely - we are working much harder to raise fundraising dollars and our admission team is working much harder to capture students. 8. More and more use of social media. 9. More outreach in the community More visibility with our students 10. This is my first year 11. Yes, trying to engage more people and getting more people involved in as many advancement aspects as possible 12. Definitely focusing more effort on social media 13. Yes - I have made a huge effort to make the whole admissions process more personal - we are 'competing' with large organizations and need to show that we are where your students will be watched over and treated as the individual they are 14. Not in my role

What are you hoping to take home from today? 1. new ideas 2. Best practices from other schools re: retention of Pre-K: also, how other schools do their screening 3. networking; learning about planned giving initiatives at other institutions. 4. Creating a Parent Admissions Network 5. Marketing to full pay families 6. Strategies for converting accepted students to enrolled students 7. Increasing the inquiry and applicant pool 8. Strategies for competing with top ranked public schools 9. New strategies for enrollment growth specifically enhancing the open house and visit days. 10. Ideas are where to take my department. 11. New ideas and insights into marketing in the digital age, networking with other schools from around the state, 12. meeting people/networking, listening to thoughts and ideas 13. New ideas and perspectives, new resources and connections, positive energy 14. New refreshing ideas and techniques that we may try to better our school. 15. I would like to hear ideas from other schools that face the reality that there are fewer students coming from Catholic feeder schools. 16. New and broader ideas for reaching our target market. How to better compete, particularly with 'free' schools (public, magnet). 17. New ideas and renewed energy and enthusiasm for task. 18. Any new initiatives in Marketing and Enrollment Management from the Admissions Side. 19. How to increase Annual Giving, Wealth Screening from the Advancement side. 20. Ways to improve enrollment and ways of increasing annual giving 21. Fresh ideas 22. Collaboration, a few new ideas or tactics 23. Ideas, ideas, ideas!!!

Lunch Presenter: Ed Brymer, Chief, Middletown Police (Retired) Chief Ed Brymer retired as Chief of the Middletown Police Department in Prior to that he served as the Deputy Chief of the East Hartford Police Department. Before that he had a long career with the Connecticut State Police Department, retiring in 1991 with the rank of Lieutenant after 28 years of service. Chief Brymer serves on many boards; including the Board of Directors at Xavier High School and the Chiefs of Police Association. He received his Bachelor's degree (magna cum laude) and Master's degrees from the University of Hartford. He is married to Atty. Gerri Roberts and has 2 children and 3 grandchildren. His granddaughter Sabrina graduated from the University of St. Joseph in 2014 with a BSW. His grandson, Jeff, is a 2011 graduate of Xavier High School and just received his Bachelor's degree from Salve Regina University in Newport.

ACAAP Save the dates! ACAAP Fall Conference Thursday, October 13, 2015 Holy Cross College Spring Conference: Thursday, March 10, 2016