Here's a quick list to put some detail around a central belief we have at The Gowan Group:  great Directors of Development kill it over the summer so that once families return to campus in the fall, they can devote themselves to the most important part of their work: building relationships.

• Create calendars for all Development activities, layered together, to insure there are no collisions

• Construct Annual Report

• Finalize your own evaluation, that of your team and establish new yearly goals cascading from the Head's goals

• Create yearly Development Plan 

• Write (and hound delegate writers for) all Annual Giving communications

• Meet with Director of Enrollment to review new families

• Update alumni information with high school and college graduations

• Rough out themes and content for alumni publications and other periodicals

• Distant horizon planning: e.g. imminent capital campaign, event sunsetting, personnel change

• Map out Development Committee agendas w/ Chair

• Meet with Head and Facilities Director to review capital needs of school

• Clean up:  set summer goals for database manager, toss obsolete materials, archive important work from last year

• Thank/celebrate admin peers and your team

• Review Development budget with Dir. of Business

• Take a real break

Failure to complete these summer projects sets off an avalanche of unhappy consequences: the development team bunkered in the office through September and October unavailable to families and colleagues, hurriedly compiling the Annual Report (with donor-irking errors and impact-reducing delay), issuing spastic Annual Giving communications, some of them stepping on other key school initiatives.  As a result, continuing families re-confirm their perceptions of the school's development efforts as immature and aggravating, and new parents feel confused. Conversely, the Director of Development who has checked off most of this list starts the school year with momentum having built the time to personally welcome new families and continue stewarding continuing families. 

Written by:
Mike Vachow
Managing Director, The Gowan Group