Key Takeaways

from the 2022 Benchmarking Report

Schools’

Annual income rose from £82,853,873 in 2018/19 to £99,539,163 in 2020/21 and in supporting their senior development professional. Fundraising should always be a team effort.

Development can drive a whole-school strategy

An urgent and compelling case for support will inspire prospects to give, so it stands to reason that the views of the person who knows your prospects best, who is most likely to know what capacity prospects have and what will most likely motivate them to give, should be asked to contribute to the development of the wholeschool strategy. In 57% of schools raising the most money, the senior development professional sits on the senior management team, and in 70% of this same group, the senior development professional has an input into the whole-school strategy.

of schools are raising funds for bursaries (up by 19% from 2018)

The more proactively involved the head, the more money will be raised

Fundraising takes time: the more established your development office the greater the ROI

The data confirms that bursary fundraising across the independent sector has risen from 66% of schools in 2018 to 85% of schools in 2021. There is also an increasing focus on raising funds for transformational bursaries of 110%+ or 100%, with 62% of schools raising funds for 110%+ bursaries and 80% raising funds for 100% bursaries, showing a definitive commitment from the sector to do more to drive forward social mobility.

Successful fundraising needs active leadership

Even the most experienced and skilful development directors need strong support, not only from their development staff, but just as importantly from those in leadership positions. Those who represent the school have significant roles to play – as ambassadors, cultivators, introducers and askers. Those at the helm have the most important role of all. The data shows that while the majority of heads are involved in development activities, in the group of schools raising the most, 74% of heads are proactively involved in development, both in cultivating and securing major gifts,

Don’t stop (or delay starting) your development journey

The pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis can all be perceived as reasons for either delaying or stopping your school’s fundraising. However, the need for philanthropic income doesn’t stop!

During the pandemic, many development offices furloughed staff, events moved online and in some cases fundraising was paused, but the data shows that the majority of schools both continued to raise funds, and that the sector has recovered strongly – with total philanthropic income in 2020/21, £99,539,163 compared with £82,853,873 in 2018/19.

Why benchmarking schools’ development matters

Benchmarking enables schools to compare and contrast their performance against similar types of schools, highlighting strengths, as well as identifying opportunities to enhance fundraising and engagement performance. Whilst every school is different, and every school’s development journey unique, the benchmarking survey does enable us to share emerging best practice, highlight the factors which can influence success, and encourage more schools to start or accelerate their development programmes.

What is once more confirmed in the latest benchmarking report is that, if schools are prepared to make an investment of time, energy and money, all schools can achieve fundraising success... and we look forward to supporting you on your development journey. b