This second system actually began to be examined before the other four were.
The site that I started and have administered for over 20 years is SchoolAdvancement.com. It started out as a discussion group for the Diocesan advancement directors and principals I worked with, but then people from all over the country started requesting to be part of the discussion group. It was created on “forum” software (if you remember that service before Facebook and LinkedIn groups emerged), and I used Blogger to create articles about Marketing, Enrollment and Development.
When I added Asset Management and Retention to those subjects, I realized I could create the acronym DREAM, as it was the dream of the people involved to move their school forward into the future where enrollment and revenues were stable.
It was then that a colleague suggested that since I knew how to create Web sites, I should create one to put all these elements together.
Some time ago, I met with a speaker and author at a local leadership conference for schools, and asked him for feedback on what I was doing. He said the concept was great – but the DREAM acronym didn’t work – because if the point was to help advance schools toward the vision the leadership has set for them, once the dream is achieved, it is no longer a dream, but a reality.
After some thought and prayer, I realized that I could rearrange the letters into ARMED after seeing a presentation which started out with a slide that stated, “The battle is real.” That immediately sent my mind to the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, which asks to protect us in battle, and to the book of Ephesians which advises to put on the armor of God.
On to the second system.
Last month, the first system of your school was defined as five elements that work together and identify your faith-based or private school as an educational environment. Those five elements are Faith Identity or Founder’s Heritage, Activities, Curriculum, Technology and Surroundings. It may help to think of these areas as associated with the “left side” of the brain, since they deal with the “factual” or logical elements that make a school, “a school.”
If we look at the “right side” of the brain, then, we can see there is a different system in place. The first letters of the five elements of this system create the ARMED acronym – Asset Management, Retention, Marketing, Enrollment and Development.
Here’s an interesting comparison to consider. In academics, the highest grade a student can receive, without extra credit points, is a score of 100%. In activities, there can be a championship level which teams strive for. It’s the goal of many schools today to have one-to-one technology programs in place so that every student has a piece of computer technology to assist them in performing tasks that make learning and collaboration possible in today’s classrooms and cloudspaces.
But in Development, how many dollars raised is considered “enough” to support this year’s budget? How many additional students are considered to be “enough” for the upcoming school year? How much marketing is “enough” before your constituent communities tire of hearing your message? With this system, and a nod to the movie “Mean Girls,” the limit does not exist.
Well, it does…but no Development Director would keep their job if they said, “I’ve raised my goal of $100,000, so I’ll take the next 3 months off.”
Further, the ARMED acronym reminds us that not only must we be prepared, but aligns the elements required for building a solid financial foundation for the school’s stabilization, growth and sustainability.
There are abundant articles on https://schooladvancement.com that show how these five elements interact with one another in a system essential to your school’s success. The problem is that schools continue to place their emphasis on the left side rather than giving equal status to the elements on the right side.
Isn’t it interesting that in education today, the emphasis continues to be on the academics and testing, and not so much on the creativity expressed on the right side of the brain, even though activities like music engage both sides of the brain and contribute to significant advancement relative to achievement. Perhaps one reason for this reality is that educators are experts in the aspects of pedagogy, scaffolding, and metacognition, and may receive one class (not course, but class) on budgeting, or, if they’re lucky, on the effects of the cohort-drop method of determining school enrollment.
Moreover, these classes may be part of a doctorate in educational leadership, and not part of a state’s school principal certification program.
It makes logical sense, then, that placing an equal importance on advancement will lead to greater achievements in the school, which will lead to greater engagement with donors and benefactors, which will lead to…you get the idea. Success indeed begets success. When the advancement side starts to deteriorate or is never optimized, then the educational program can suffer, as classrooms shrink and grade levels are combined, causing additional parents to seek an alternative educational environment, which erodes the advancement side further, perpetuating a downward spiraling vortex.
We really don’t need to do anything to make that happen since gravity does most of the work.
It stands to reason, then, if we don’t do anything to stabilize the situation by focusing on the ARMED side to make sure our schools are prepared for success, a school caught in the downward vortex will continue to deteriorate.
It is this system that is associated with the argument that a school is a business. Make no mistake, it IS a business, since if this system does not function properly, and all elements of the system are addressed, the school will continue to struggle, shrink, perhaps merge, and, as we see all to often today, close.
Next, we’ll look at the system that makes a faith-based school a ministry – in addition to being a business and a school.
© Michael V. Ziemski, STAFF Advancement, 2012-2026
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