InspirED School Marketers SPARKCAST

Megan Cartier leads the most important and exciting initiative in the history of The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS)—the North American Boarding Initiative (NABI)—which aims to increase boarding enrollment by 10% over five years. Under Megan's leadership, the TABS team will develop and share relevant market data, insights, tools, resources, and programs that can be utilized by participating...

Joy Gendusa is the Founder and CEO of PostcardMania, a marketing company specializing in lead generation for businesses of all sizes. With only a phone, a computer and postcard marketing, Joy has grown PostcardMania into an industry leader generating more than $49 million in annual revenue and employing more than 200 people in the Tampa Bay, FL area. In this episode of the  Sparkcast,  we discover...

Risa Engel is Director of Communications at Stuart Country Day School, a PS-12 girls' independent private day school in Princeton, NJ and part of the Sacred Heart Network of Schools. Risa joined Stuart in the fall of 2010 with over 15 years of marketing communications experience in both non-profit organizations and corporate business. On April 8, 2017, Stuart hosted its first #LEADLIKEAGIRL: A Con...

Peter Gow was not only was born into a family of educators, he grew up on a boarding school campus, The Gow School in South Wales, NY, a school founded by his grandfather. In his 40 years of working at independent schools Peter has accumulated knowledge and experience about a wide range of issues, and it's his ability to connect these diverse subjects like curriculum, marketing, branding, admissio...

This podcast is Part 3 of a series entitled "Maximizing Your Relationship with a Professional Photographer."  Scroll down to learn about Part 1 and Part 2.  Michael Branscom is a Philadelphia-based photographer who specializes in independent school still photography and film. Michael and I have worked together for the benefit of schools for over a decade. The fact that he was a journalism major in...

Janice Crampton is Executive Director of AISAP, the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals, the primary resource and leading advocate for the community of independent school admission and enrollment management professionals. We are delighted to have Janice as our guest on the Sparkcast where she talks about the critical role these professionals have in the health and longevity o...

With Baby Boomers set for retirement, where will the next generation of independent school leadership come from? Our guest for this episode is Earl Ball, Ed. D., a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the School Leadership Program (SLP), a Masters degree program in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, that brings together aspiring leaders from independent, public, and ch...

With the face of the Director of Marketing and Communications changing so rapidly over the last decade, InspirED wanted to know what impact this has had on hiring for independent schools and where individuals for this position are coming from. We sit down with Jane Armstrong, Managing Partner of Independent Thinking, an executive search firm based in Boston that works exclusively with independent...

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 65% of today's grade school kids will end up in a job that hasn't been invented yet. Ed Glassman is Executive Director of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy's Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership where they have developed a program that takes on this paradigm and "embodies a bold and innovative vision that challenges the constraints of traditional ed...

Private school administrators often ask, "How can we get faculty to be active marketers for the school?" Mike Connor, president of Connor Associates, is our guest for this episode of the Sparkcast and explains how to get faculty to be not only willing but enthusiastic participants in marketing your school. Mike has spent nearly 30 years in public, charter, and independent K-12 schools and colleges...

Our guest for this episode is Andrew T. Weller, Director of Admissions for Avenues: The World School in Manhattan which was recently featured in the HBO documentary Class Divide.  We dig into the concept of institution-wide branding, the benefits it brings to enrollment and development, how roles of enrollment and development are more similar than they are different, and how school leadership stil...

Jack Rogers knows how to achieve and sustain fundraising success at a private school. As Chief Development Officer at William Penn Charter School, a Quaker school in Philadelphia, Jack's is approach involves stewarding donors over time by combining his school's mission, ethos and institutional goals with the goals of the donors. One of the keys to success, Jack believes, is exhibiting patient enga...

Cami Colarrosi knows that a private school marketer's job is significantly easier and more effective if her colleagues collaborate with her. As Director of Communications at Notre Dame Preparatory School, a girls Catholic school, Cami accomplished this by proving her department's worth and giving her colleagues a sense of pride that makes them want to be a part of her work in the future. For show...

Jennie Winton knows independent school branding and the positive impact it has on enrollment and development. As founder of Mission-Minded, a branding agency that focuses on non-profits, higher ed and independent schools, Jennie talks about how great branding gives a school new ways to about itself as well as focuses and improves its marketing and communications. With valuable takeaways, she expla...

Finally understand what private school inbound marketing is all about and how to start an inbound effort to improve enrollment and communications. In this episode, we talk to Bart Caylor, President and Owner of Caylor Solutions , an Indianapolis-based marketing agency working with colleges, universities, K-12, and education organizations to improve communication, enrollment and development efforts...

What happens when you put 35 private school administrators in a room to share their favorite marketing ideas? Magic. For the second year, InspirED organized the MarCom track at the AISAP Institute which was held in Fort Worth in July. Listen to what they shared. Some of the sparks include: Putting students in charge of making annual fund appeal videos A social action event aimed at preschool famil...

Jeff Shields, President and CEO of NBOA, takes a deep dive into the effect that the 2008 economic downturn had on virtually ever facet of operation of independent schools, especially the marketing office. Challenges are many: the effect rising tuition, ever-expanding facilities, increasing sophistication of both the business offices and the MarCom offices, and virtual schools. What you'll learn… T...

Autumn Graves, Head of Girls Preparatory School, Atlanta, knows that very independent school's dream is to get on the map as the school for [fill in the blank] to boost their brand recognition. You can do the hard work of branding and marketing (and you should), but you can also get creative and think outside the box. Autumn created  Mad, Bad and Dangerous,  a conference on entrepreneurship for gi...

Caitlin Garzi knows how easy it is for Directors of Marketing and Communications at private schools to get buried in the avalanche of jobs that come across their desk on a given day. From the simplest post on the website to an entire website redesign, the quantity of jobs can be astounding. Keeping track of them is like herding cats. In this episode, Caitlin, Associate Director of Digital Marketin...

Simon Hepburn, founder of Marketing Advice for Schools , makes a great case for looking to corporate transfers when private schools need to fill seats late in the admissions cycle. Simon shares how to do that successfully with tried and true methods and little known tricks that might surprise you.  Simon's website marketingadviceforschools.com offers free, relevant advice for school marketers. He...

If you need to convince someone that marketing for your private school is worth it, listen to Brad Rogers, Headmaster at The Gow School, discuss his decision to commit to marketing and branding for the long-term and the benefits that the school has realized.   For show notes and more brilliant ideas and brain food for school MarCom, go to http://www.inspiredsm.com/podcasts/. While there, sign up f...

Doreen Rice, Director of Advancement at Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City, shares how her school developed a culture of philanthropy that not only surpassed campaign and annual giving goals but also resulted in a record number of estate gifts.    For show notes and more brilliant ideas and brain food for school MarCom, go to http://www.inspiredsm.com/podcasts/. While there, sign up for our newsl...

Break through the clutter and reach prospective and current parents by podcasting. Learn how Mike Hatfield, Director of Admissions (and de facto Director of Marketing Communications) at Powhatan School, a K-8 private school in Virginia does it. We'll show that small doesn't mean limited as Mike talks about how he created a popular and effective podcast with a lot of trial and error but little to n...