Optimism and opportunity: creating an income generation culture

Top takeaways

• Culture and leadership matter. If school leaders and governors are on board, everything else becomes easier. Success starts with buy-in and belief at the top.
• Build your wishlist from your mission, values and priorities. Link income generation to your development objectives and goals to make it meaningful and manageable. 
• It’s tough out there – but opportunities are available. Be creative, be open to possibilities and remember: people want to help – but you have to ask.
• Cash isn’t the only win. Income generation includes donations, partnerships, skills, volunteer time – even getting someone to lend you equipment.
• It’s all about relationships. From parents to alumni to suppliers, people give when they care. Build connections, understand motivations, and let others feel part of the school’s success story.

Listen to the recording (37 minutes) or read an edited version below.

Justin Smith was a senior leader in schools, utilising his marketing and business development expertise. He now runs Chameleon Consultancy & Training, which provides specialist income generation services for schools. 

Liz: Justin, one of the things you do is help schools generate additional funds through activities such as bid writing, donations and sponsorship. So today we want to talk about creating the conditions that support income generation – but I think it makes sense to start with the why. Why do you believe income generation is a relevant activity for schools to be engaging with? 

A learning journey – and a tougher landscape

Justin: Well, I guess it's my business, so I would say it's important for schools to generate income, and I work with lots of schools and multi academy trusts around the country to do that. 

When I first started working in a school, 20 odd years ago, one of my roles was to generate income for the school. And it was something that they hadn't really done much of at that point. It was a secondary school, in a deprived part of the country, in Suffolk. 

So I had to learn – pretty quickly! Often it was the hard way by getting it wrong but there’s no shame in that: we make mistakes and we learn from them. 

I learned how to write funding bids and engage with communities, mostly talking to people. There's business opportunities there, partnership opportunities. There's all sorts of things that I hadn't actually considered. 

I remember beginning with some sort of business plan. And of course I thought I knew it all, but that plan changed within the first few weeks because there were things that cropped up that I hadn't possibly imagined or foreseen.

Equally there were things that I thought might happen that didn't, for all sorts of reasons that I didn't understand at that point. Fast forward to today, it's even more important than ever because funding is tighter. 

It's a struggle for many schools to pay for the core costs, let alone the added value, extracurricular things. However, I’m a born optimist, and I do like to think there's also more opportunity now than ever.

I'm a strong believer in partnerships, working together, collaboration, and we see more and more of that now. There's some great opportunities for secondary schools to work with feeder primaries and vice versa. I'm involved in a project at the moment where we've got a local six form college supporting some rural primary schools that are nearby and it’s a win-win for everybody. 

So, I think the opportunities are there, but it's a tougher landscape, because generating and accessing grant funding is harder now than it used to be.

It takes a lot of time to put together a grant application, and while you can shortcut that to a certain extent (I run training courses to help schools do that), the reality is there's no silver bullet. There's no guarantee. 

So we have to be quite creative these days. I think the landscape is facilitating that; there’s an enterprise that I see amongst colleagues, which is really positive. I think a lot of that comes down to the leadership of our schools and trusts – it’s about culture and how we set ourselves up to enable us to access some of the opportunities that are there. 

But the reality is that the biggest barriers are always time and capacity, and we don't have those in our teams, in schools, do we? So that's a challenge.

Bringing in skills, benefits and expertise

Liz: Based on some of the examples and things you've just mentioned, when you think of income generation, it's not necessarily always raising cash. It could be benefits in kind: bringing in expertise or skills maybe, like with the sixth form and primary school project you mentioned. Is that right? 

Justin: Yes, although of course in reality, schools want the hard cash, but you make a really good point.

Interestingly, if you look at the heritage lottery funds, for example, they put a monetary value on volunteer time. Depending on the level of volunteer that you have working in your school on a particular project, they can be graded in terms of their capability of supporting you – and that can act as your contribution in kind to your grant application.

And remember: the biggest income generator for any school is having a full role. It's bums on seats. It's the marketing side. 

There are lots of factors that affect that, some that you cannot possibly control. There's a falling demographic at the moment, and that's having an impact on our primary schools initially. But there are things that we can do and do better to try to attract children and parents to our school. 

The relationship that you have with different people can generate income. There’s volunteer time, there’s having experts come in and giving career talks to the children, for example. It doesn't always have to be about the cash. And we sometimes forget about the experiences and expertise our governors might have and how they can support what we do. Parents too – and that's where PTAs are really important. 

Creative thinking – and reluctant fundraising

I've got this concept called the Wheel of Fortune, which is the nine ways that schools generate funds. It's not complicated. It's ways that people are familiar with, from crowdfunding through to alumni engagement, gift aid donations, engaging with business.

So there's lots of ways that we can think: we just have to be creative and allow ourselves the time and the space to do it. And that's probably the biggest barrier. 

But if we regard this as a strategic imperative for our school or our trust, then we have to build the space into the system to allow us to think and to maximize the opportunity. Otherwise there's always a ceiling, a limiting factor. 

Some of those barriers will include culture: the way that we perceive, the way we approach income generation and fundraising. There's this phrase, ‘reluctant fundraising', which is, ‘well, we sort of know we should, but we're not sure if we can, and, and even if we want to, how is that perceived by our community? Because we don't want to go cap in hand. It's a little bit embarrassing. Does it look bad for the school?’

You know, these are real life issues. So it's about squaring that in our heads and phrasing it in the right way, and then positioning it to people so that they are motivated to support us.

Liz: If we're thinking about culture, what about the barrier of feeling like this isn't something we should be doing? What would you say to the person who says, ‘I don't think we should have to be trying to generate income. I think it's the government's role to provide funding’?

Justin: You'd agree, wouldn't you? You'd say: ‘you're too right – you shouldn't have to. It shouldn't have to be a competitive marketplace. There's one and a half billion pounds of grant funding available for schools and charities, but you're having to fight for every penny and put forward your case, and for every winner there's a loser. 

We shouldn't have to be in this position. But we don't live in a utopian world. The reality is that this is the situation we are in. We have to deal with it and accept it. I'd love to change things, but I don't have a magic wand and can't do it.

The value of social impact

Liz: But would you say as well, Justin, that these activities – getting students, staff and parents involved – bring other benefits too, don't they? It's an opportunity for children or young people to make a change in their environment and see that in action, or undertake a project?

Justin: Yes – social impact. I’ve got two girls, they’re 18 and 16 at the moment, and social change, doing good, being involved in social-related projects is more on their radar and more important to them than it was when I was 18 or 16. 

We are raising an extraordinary amount of money in this country every year for charities, which is tremendous. And it's great to see young people get involved and do these things. They want to be involved in projects that have social impact, projects that see and make a tangible difference. So they value these interactions and these relationships with third parties. 

We also know, having somebody else stand in front of them doing an assembly, having somebody come and talk to them or deliver some training, is seen differently to your classroom teacher doing it. It's a fresh face. There's a huge value there. 

The paradox here is that in engaging in relationships like these, that are not there on the face of it to generate income, ultimately actually might, and that's a positive, useful spinoff that in some cases we hadn't seen coming. 

I've been involved in situations in schools that I've worked in, where I'm having conversations with somebody about a project we're doing, say developing a sensory garden in the school. I'm working with a horticultural company to do that. And they're doing a project with the children and it leads onto something completely different that you hadn't considered, because that guy who's running that company is actually involved in something else too, or his wife does this or they've got relations that do that. 

So it’s having those relationships, building that sense of community, and that engagement can offer win-win. The whole purpose of what we're talking about here is to support the outcomes of our kids in school. And yes it’s about the academic stuff, but also, are our children happy? Are they managing to get something from their education that's beyond the exams? What opportunities are being presented to them? How do they see the world and how is that shaping their perceptions?

That's a huge job. And some of the things we're talking about now can help support that and feed into it. 

Impact, need and delivering on core values

Liz: And I feel like that helps with that problem of time and capacity. Because if you can tie it into your core mission, values, and what you want to achieve for your children, and find projects and activities that link to those objectives, that might help you get the approval from governors, or find the staff time, or get it agreed as a priority. 

Justin: I agree. And I think that the UKSSN – the sustainable schools network  – is doing some super work there. There are targets and aims that the government is pushing onto schools in the coming years, which is absolutely right. Funding some of that is really difficult. 

But it’s funding something that not only is positive for our environment and our planet, but actually brings down costs, very real energy costs for the school. And if you can reduce those costs, then suddenly other people are sitting upright and listening too.

We know grant funders look at two things. They look at the outcomes or impact of the project, and what's the need of the project. 

So how can you demonstrate clearly that this is needed? There's lots of different ways that we can try to do that. The best way is the voice of the student, our children shaping the project. The National Lottery talks about beneficiary-shaped projects. So how have the beneficiaries, the children in our school, shaped this project and made it happen?

If we can show that there's a financial gain from this work, plus of course we're delivering on what's really important, our core values, then it becomes quite a compelling argument, doesn't it?

Where do you start?

Liz: Absolutely. So if I was someone in a leadership role, getting excited about income generation or partnership building opportunities, any advice on how you work out where to start? 

Justin: That's a great question. Where do we begin? The first thing I would do is congratulate them for the fact that we're having the conversation, because if that conversation is happening at leadership level, there's loads of research to show that’s a positive. 

The Institute of Development Professionals in Education, IDPE, puts out a benchmark report every year. They confirmed again that the average gift size to a school more than doubled when the head teacher was involved in the ask. 

So in other words, we talk about culture. We talk about leading from the front. That doesn't mean the head has to be out there with the bucket on Children in Need day, although actually that might help! But joking aside, if we've got the support of our senior leaders, so we're talking governors, principals, the head of school, whatever it might be, CEO of the trust, if it's buy-in at that level, it makes the rest of what everybody else does so much easier.

What’s on your wishlist?

So there's that belief, there's that engagement right from the very beginning. Then it's the wishlist. What are we doing this for? You know, if you look at our school development plan or improvement plan, there are going to be aspirations there. Some of those are funded, some are not. How do we fund the unfunded ones? 

The wishlist being driven by the school development plan is really important. So then you've got a list. Next: getting people on board. And when I say people, initially it's our own people,  it's our staff and our children.

Getting those guys on board is the most important thing because they can be great ambassadors. They can also do a lot of the work for us and support what we do. So that's the staff room conversation, standing up, talking, the assemblies. It's getting people involved, engaged and excited.

I worked with a school once where we had two or three projects and we weren't sure which way to go. And you can only really go forward with one, so let's put it out there and see what people want to do. Then there's a little bit of pre-project launch marketing there, isn't there? Because you've gone out to the community to ask them to choose which one is the most important to fundraise for. 

Easy, quick wins are important because that builds momentum and it builds belief in those organising it and managing the campaign. Belief that we can do this is important.

Then there's the longer term. Having a plan is really important, and I've got a simple template that you can just populate yourself, for your school (download from school resources).

The first fundraising plan I put together was about 40 pages thick, and nobody read that, did they?! It was like some sort of doctrine that was never gonna happen. So, lesson learned, and it’s now about 10 pages. 

Build up your stakeholder analysis, which isn't as fancy or as complicated as it sounds. It's who can we work with, how can they contribute and what can we give them. 

Donor motivation is a big deal. What do people expect from us? If we’re asking them to support us and help fund projects, what are we giving back in return? 

Liz: It just strikes me, listening to you here, that a lot of what we’re talking about is building relationships, finding the thing that’s going to motivate people, and communicating messages. Talking about it and getting people on board. 

So I guess it’s going to help if you’ve got a culture where you communicate with your stakeholders anyway, and you’ve got that kind of openness? 

Building relationships and motivation

Justin: Suppliers are a great example. So we have a transactional relationship with suppliers. It's a commercial relationship that's selling us stuff and services. But there's a different kind of relationship that you might be able to have with some of them. Say, can you sponsor something? Can you support our art production? Can you give your time? Can we borrow your equipment? 

Motivation is key. Why would anybody want to give their time, their money, their support, their expertise, their care, their attention to us? And of course there's 101 different reasons. There are emotional reasons, there are rational reasons, and we have to understand what they are.

So maybe that person used to come to our school, so there's a connection. That family has their children at this school – that's a different kind of relationship. That guy over there sells us products. There’s the guy who’s lived around the corner for 50 years and he's got a different kind of relationship with us again. 

So if we’re going to engage in those kinds of partnerships, we’ve got to think about it from the other person's perspective. We call it perceptual positioning. It's putting yourself in their shoes. What do they want from this? What do they expect from this relationship? Some will expect nothing at all, and they just want to give to a good cause. For others, it’s about corporate social responsibility – it’s a business relationship. 

Understand it clearly: what does that other individual, that other organisation, want in return? Is it their name on a donations board outside the new play park? Is it something on the website? Is it all of those plus an invitation to the launch event? Or is it none of those? Do they just want to be a quiet donor? 

I've had experience with all of those. The most extraordinary was where we had a family give the school I was working at a significant amount of money, tens of thousands of pounds. What prompted the family to do this? They said that actually, it was the first time the school had really given them something to support and presented a clear opportunity. 

You have to be pretty affluent to give that sort of money. But the point is, they've not done it before and something triggered that, and it was a project that they emotionally engaged with. So having that emotional engagement is really, really important. And then it's a case of presenting it in a way that is attractive and accessible to people. You never know what's out there until you try. 

Interestingly, I was reading some research recently which found that the largest donations happen when a peer asks directly for support. So somebody that the donor already knows and is connected to closely, asks on behalf of the school. And if you've got a relationship with an organisation or an individual or even a grant funder, they're more likely to give again, if you play your part in this deal. 

Optimism, resilience, and making the most of opportunities

Liz: You said earlier that you're a born optimist. Do you think part of the culture that supports income generation is about having an optimistic outlook?

Justin: I'm putting a brave face on it sometimes! It's a tough gig, that's for sure. You can spend a long time putting together a sponsorship appeal, a campaign, a grant application, and it gets thrown back. Sometimes for reasons that you can't understand, and they’re  reluctant to give you the reasons. 

It's tough to pick yourself up and go again, isn't it? You get recognized for the successes, not for the failures, but it takes just as much time to put the failures together as it does the success.

So, to answer your question, you have to approach this from the perspective that people will want to help you, and it's our job to enable them to see that. We've got so many great things that go on in our schools. It's remiss of us to not share that with people and allow them to get involved and play a part.

My two kids went to a particular primary school that's near to us, and my wife worked there at the time. So when they were fundraising for an outdoor gym, guess what? I got involved. 

I had an emotional connection because it was my children that would be playing on the play equipment if we could get the funding. So, there are different things that motivate people. We just have to allow ourselves the time and the space so that the people that are out there who want to support us are given the opportunity to do so.

Now, I'm not being naive. There are many that can't, and that's particularly so now with the cost of living crisis. We have to be really sensitive about how we approach people and how we position the ask. But equally, there are people out there that still have the capacity to give. And as we said at the start, it's not always about the money anyway. 

Before I set Chameleon up, I took a job in a college. In September, before I began officially in the new job, I was walking around the playing field. And I was approached by two guys who used to go to the school, many years ago. They wanted to give something back. They knew my job had just been invented. 

They wanted to give money and time to help support a specific thing that was close to their heart, even though they left the school years before. And it's then thinking, ok, how can I maximise that opportunity?

We're talking about being proactive and making things happen, but sometimes stuff happens anyway and you have to be in a position to then do something with it. Not just take the money and run, but think, how can I use this to create something that's lasting? 

With that particular project, it’s gone on to something much bigger than when I was there. I was there at the beginning to get the thing moving. There was luck involved – but going back to being positive and optimistic – you also have to look at things and think, how can I make the most of this opportunity? How can we do something with this that might make sustainable change over a longer term? 

Where to find out more

Liz: To finish, it would be great to hear any recommended reads or listens you have, for people who want to know more about this topic? 

Justin: One book I’ve referenced a lot is Molloy and Day’s Capital Fundraising in the UK. It’s not school specific, it's just about fundraising for capital projects. I learned from that and found the donor motivation stuff especially interesting. 

I love the work of Matthew Syed, especially around marketing, constructive dissent and how we develop that for high performing, psychologically safe teams. And Simon Sinek too – Start With Why. 

I've also learned a lot from my peers, actually – the people in the industry that have been doing this for a long time, like Ryan Green. And there’s some really good practice that goes on in our schools by people that don't shout about it, don't get much of the limelight.

They're too busy doing what they would regard as their day job, balancing the budget and organising the estates team and sorting out IT and everything else. But in the background they're also generating income with their PTAs and doing really good work. In the SBM community, there's a load of good stuff that's going on, which is great to see. And I'm really lucky because I get to see it!