Smart Solutions 4 | Page 7

Getting Mountain Prep families to sign up for the next year was difficult. As the school board looked at the problem, they realized their school wasn’t sticky. In other words, students and families coming into the school found it easy to separate from it. The school struggled to convince the students and families to “stick” around for another year. This worsened as students approached high school; many left for better sports programs or what sounded like better academics. Growing Mountain Prep’s high school seemed like an impossible task. As headmaster, Mike saw the need in the community to grow Mountain Prep. He started asking, “How can we make our school sticky enough to build a stronger high school?” This type of continuity is missing in many private schools. You want your school to develop relationships with students that is such a deep bond that it lasts a lifetime. Is it possible to make your school this sticky? This concept of stickiness was developed by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point. It describes how organizations Stickiness can make their brand “stick” powers the in the minds of the people they serve so they never leave long-term or forget the brand. growth of the brand – your school. So how can you make your school sticky? It’s the question every school must answer. How can you develop an organization and a tradition that delights families year after year, and develops them into a long-term part of your community? How can schools turn alumni into long-term fans who become regular donors? Stickiness powers the long-term growth of the brand – your school. What can you do to make your school sticky? This is one of the many questions Blackbaud tries to answer at its annual User Conference. It’s through this conference that you can improve the way you and your school uses Blackbaud software, making your school that much more relevant to your students and your families. The conference includes tons of training and best practice sessions designed specifically for K-12 schools! QuickBooks credit card processing If your school uses Intuit QuickBooks merchant services for credit card processing services, you may be paying premium rates. Intuit assumes people are willing to pay expensive tiered rates to use their software. QuickBooks may not be the online payment solution for your school as you may be paying higher fees. Smart Tuition integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks and offers premium service without premium fees.. 7