Sandy Springs Going After $25M in Grants As the Solution?

[Anonymous]

He’s probably doing this on a contingency fee basis—and filling a gap the school can’t afford to staff. This is fairly normal.

[Anonymous]

I agree that it’s likely on contingency, but bloviating about a projected yield of $25M is patently absurd and even more discrediting than the obvious fact that this is a guy trying to start a business after parting ways with his family security firm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope Jeff shuts this down because this is just another attempt to defame this school for doing something totally normal, which is fundraising. These are not even people associated with the school.

For your info, we decided not to return because my DS isn't wonderful with change. We were afraid we'd have to look elsewhere for the year after next and honestly, this weird grant consultant agreement is making me so glad we decided not to return. However, I ABSOLUTELY with the best for SSFS. We became good friends with other families and care a lot about the teachers my son had. So, we are "associated" with the school. In fact, we paid full tuition for 5 years so I think it is acceptable for me to comment, as I have before on this thread.

Anyone who understands anything about "fundraising," however, will have concerns about the direction SSFS is going in. Because I care about the school, I don't like this thread either. But I'm not posting just to tear SSFS down or create drama. The move feels very amateurish and the company they chose to align with appears to be a very odd choice. That is concerning and worth commenting on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that it’s likely on contingency, but bloviating about a projected yield of $25M is patently absurd and even more discrediting than the obvious fact that this is a guy trying to start a business after parting ways with his family security firm.

Does this guy or his family have a connection to the school? Or a connection to someone at the school? Or the Quaker community?

There might be some background here that people aren’t aware of (eg, family/community contact propping up this effort with a major donor waiting in the wings to propel this forward).

Fwiw, I know of a successful effort where a group of affluent families banded together to build and endow a residential school for their children with severe disabilities (think: kids who would need significant medical care and lifetime guardians). They had an arrangement with a somewhat similar consultant who worked on contingency and ultimately delivered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all of you so desperately hoping that a nice school like Sandy Spring fails? I don’t get it.

I was the PP and as I said, I hope I'm wrong. I really want Sandy Spring to succeed. That means doing this the hard, proven way. Get a great fundraiser as a head and invest in a solid advancement and communications team stocked with veterans. Get the best CFO to structure your debt, manage your endowment investments, and find new sources of auxiliary income. Build out your alumni program so that graduates will feel pride and be inspired to give back. Any money they gave this consultant would have been better spent on these investments.

A message for Sandy Spring donors: Do you love your school? There are no secret, magical institutional grantmakers out there who will give so that you don't have to. They are busy saving PUBLIC schools. Your school has to depend on your consistent, generous, and growing support. So make a multi-year pledge. Don't wait until the school is desperate again.

Yeah right. You are a nice person and you really want the school to succeed, which is why you posted this on this message board, so that you could still seem important and knowledgeable and trash the school for news that they recently shared which is positive. You are awesome.

Entering into a contract is not positive news. Winning a grant is positive news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all of you so desperately hoping that a nice school like Sandy Spring fails? I don’t get it.

I was the PP and as I said, I hope I'm wrong. I really want Sandy Spring to succeed. That means doing this the hard, proven way. Get a great fundraiser as a head and invest in a solid advancement and communications team stocked with veterans. Get the best CFO to structure your debt, manage your endowment investments, and find new sources of auxiliary income. Build out your alumni program so that graduates will feel pride and be inspired to give back. Any money they gave this consultant would have been better spent on these investments.

A message for Sandy Spring donors: Do you love your school? There are no secret, magical institutional grantmakers out there who will give so that you don't have to. They are busy saving PUBLIC schools. Your school has to depend on your consistent, generous, and growing support. So make a multi-year pledge. Don't wait until the school is desperate again.

Yeah right. You are a nice person and you really want the school to succeed, which is why you posted this on this message board, so that you could still seem important and knowledgeable and trash the school for news that they recently shared which is positive. You are awesome.

Entering into a contract is not positive news. Winning a grant is positive news.

I would assume that the guy who runs the firm has some connection to the school - there is literally no way they would have otherwise selected a random, unproven company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that it’s likely on contingency, but bloviating about a projected yield of $25M is patently absurd and even more discrediting than the obvious fact that this is a guy trying to start a business after parting ways with his family security firm.

Is this the same guy whose family firm provided the “extra security services” on campus? I don’t know if they do anymore but there was a family hired to do that who used to park his car often on the field on the left when you first entered school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all of you so desperately hoping that a nice school like Sandy Spring fails? I don’t get it.

I was the PP and as I said, I hope I'm wrong. I really want Sandy Spring to succeed. That means doing this the hard, proven way. Get a great fundraiser as a head and invest in a solid advancement and communications team stocked with veterans. Get the best CFO to structure your debt, manage your endowment investments, and find new sources of auxiliary income. Build out your alumni program so that graduates will feel pride and be inspired to give back. Any money they gave this consultant would have been better spent on these investments.

A message for Sandy Spring donors: Do you love your school? There are no secret, magical institutional grantmakers out there who will give so that you don't have to. They are busy saving PUBLIC schools. Your school has to depend on your consistent, generous, and growing support. So make a multi-year pledge. Don't wait until the school is desperate again.

Yeah right. You are a nice person and you really want the school to succeed, which is why you posted this on this message board, so that you could still seem important and knowledgeable and trash the school for news that they recently shared which is positive. You are awesome.

Entering into a contract is not positive news. Winning a grant is positive news.

I would assume that the guy who runs the firm has some connection to the school - there is literally no way they would have otherwise selected a random, unproven company.

I assumed that the school would never abruptly shut its doors, notifying teachers just 15 minutes prior to the announcement. But, they did. So, MAYBE you are giving them too much credit?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree that it’s likely on contingency, but bloviating about a projected yield of $25M is patently absurd and even more discrediting than the obvious fact that this is a guy trying to start a business after parting ways with his family security firm.

Is this the same guy whose family firm provided the “extra security services” on campus? I don’t know if they do anymore but there was a family hired to do that who used to park his car often on the field on the left when you first entered school.

I wondered that, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all of you so desperately hoping that a nice school like Sandy Spring fails? I don’t get it.

I was the PP and as I said, I hope I'm wrong. I really want Sandy Spring to succeed. That means doing this the hard, proven way. Get a great fundraiser as a head and invest in a solid advancement and communications team stocked with veterans. Get the best CFO to structure your debt, manage your endowment investments, and find new sources of auxiliary income. Build out your alumni program so that graduates will feel pride and be inspired to give back. Any money they gave this consultant would have been better spent on these investments.

A message for Sandy Spring donors: Do you love your school? There are no secret, magical institutional grantmakers out there who will give so that you don't have to. They are busy saving PUBLIC schools. Your school has to depend on your consistent, generous, and growing support. So make a multi-year pledge. Don't wait until the school is desperate again.

Yeah right. You are a nice person and you really want the school to succeed, which is why you posted this on this message board, so that you could still seem important and knowledgeable and trash the school for news that they recently shared which is positive. You are awesome.

Entering into a contract is not positive news. Winning a grant is positive news.

I would assume that the guy who runs the firm has some connection to the school - there is literally no way they would have otherwise selected a random, unproven company.

I know there are those who get upset with questions like this and want to close down any discussion threads where they come up. But I have to ask - how do you conclude that the admin/board of this school will always make decisions that are well thought out and turn out for the best. What do you base that faith on?

[Anonymous]

In this particular case, I can’t imagine that the two parties (the board/school and the “consultant”) would have come across each other if there hadn’t been some previous connection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In this particular case, I can’t imagine that the two parties (the board/school and the “consultant”) would have come across each other if there hadn’t been some previous connection.

Maybe he’s the guy they hired for security?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is up with all of you so desperately hoping that a nice school like Sandy Spring fails? I don’t get it.

I was the PP and as I said, I hope I'm wrong. I really want Sandy Spring to succeed. That means doing this the hard, proven way. Get a great fundraiser as a head and invest in a solid advancement and communications team stocked with veterans. Get the best CFO to structure your debt, manage your endowment investments, and find new sources of auxiliary income. Build out your alumni program so that graduates will feel pride and be inspired to give back. Any money they gave this consultant would have been better spent on these investments.

A message for Sandy Spring donors: Do you love your school? There are no secret, magical institutional grantmakers out there who will give so that you don't have to. They are busy saving PUBLIC schools. Your school has to depend on your consistent, generous, and growing support. So make a multi-year pledge. Don't wait until the school is desperate again.

Yeah right. You are a nice person and you really want the school to succeed, which is why you posted this on this message board, so that you could still seem important and knowledgeable and trash the school for news that they recently shared which is positive. You are awesome.

I'm an anonymous poster so offering these opinions can't possible make me feel important. I have no other way of advising this community and I thought it was important to say what I said. It's based on decades of experience. This was a big error, and, I'm sorry, an obvious one. They need to get out of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s probably doing this on a contingency fee basis—and filling a gap the school can’t afford to staff. This is fairly normal.

Not in fundraising though. I worked in this field for years and contingency fees, finders fees, etc. weren’t (and aren’t) allowed in the professional association’s code. It’s considered unethical and bad practice. I have no idea if that’s the case here, but it shouldn’t be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He’s probably doing this on a contingency fee basis—and filling a gap the school can’t afford to staff. This is fairly normal.

The school can’t “afford” to staff? The school staffs a head of school, cfo, marketing director, advancement director, alumni relations director - you’re saying none of these staffed people know how to bring in money for the school? Or can figure it out? What are we paying them for? To forecast the weather?