Lea Walker-Franks talks about Educate Plus Alumni and Fundraising

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School alumni and fundraising expert, and Educate Plus Queensland Chapter President, Lea Walker-Franks talked with trueAU.NEWS about school community engagement, alumni, and fundraising approaches and opportunities.

Educate Plus is the only Australasian organisation for professionals in the education sector, Educate Plus is run largely by volunteers who are passionate about supporting individuals in advancement roles.

Lea Walker-Franks took the time to dispel some myths around school fundraising.

“The other thing too, a misconception, is that it’s the alumni that always give big, and it’s the alumni that are the ones that give regularly, not current parents,” Lea Walker-Franks said in the podcast interview above.

“That’s not in my experience.

“It is the current parents that are your largest body of donors, stakeholder group.

“They’ve got a vested interest in seeing these things happen while their children are there, or purely philanthropically, say towards the bursary program, to really leave a legacy and enable students to attend who, without financial assistance, wouldn’t be able to.”

Further, Lea Walker-Franks talked about alumni fundraising and engagement strategies.

“It’s the alumni that, when you actually gently make it clear exactly what level of support is there, because they presume that, ‘Oh, every other old boy is giving a big gift, they don’t need mine,’ and across all the schools I’ve worked in, boys and girls, single sex schools, that’s been the case,”

“Once you wake up the sleeping giant too, that, ‘Thank you for this level of support from this level of donors,’ they’re usually quite shocked.”

This podcast publication is part of the Education Vision 2020 series.