Dalton Centennial Campaign

Done right, big-ticket fundraising is a collaborative sales job polished to a high shine. 

The mandate is clear and the metrics can be unforgiving. That’s even more true when your financial goals are ambitious to the point of possibly being unattainable. Fall short of them and you have a difficult message to deliver to your community, including the many who were inspired by the overarching vision of the campaign and donated accordingly.

As a Co-Chair and Communications Lead of a major fundraise at a leading New York City school, I led in developing the narrative to be deployed by the team. I created integrated and consistent messaging to reach our target internal audience. Not only did we reach our unheard-of goal of raising $100 million, we exceeded it– and did so despite pandemic-related interruptions to the educational experience that we were promoting.

Here are some key talking points from the Centennial Campaign.

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Talking Points:

• The last Dalton capital campaign netted $6 million over its target of $50 million, a remarkable display of generosity from our community.

• Left us well-poised to fulfill our mission at the time but not into perpetuity. That campaign is further in the rear view mirror than it may seem.

• With the passage of time, our needs and priorities have evolved. Our founding principles will always be our touchstone. However we have a responsibility to change with the changing world, following the directive of our founder almost 100 years ago…

• The upcoming 100-year anniversary of the school is an unprecedented opportunity to honor our past and write our future.

• To that end, we have an audacious goal: we are hoping to raise $100 million to ensure the sustainability and excellence of a Dalton education.

• It’s a lofty goal by which we model for our students the very motto of the school- to go forth unafraid.

• We will measure our success not just by individual donations but by broad participation across our engaged community. 

• Nothing about the Dalton experience should feel exclusive, which is why our campaign is intentionally adopting an inclusive approach. Every member of this community is invested in the character, growth and success of our students.

• We have dubbed this new campaign “Raise The Roof,” a nod to the two-story expansion that we envision for the historic building on 89th Street. In addition to the expansion, there will be a re-stack of the existing building and improvements made to the 91st Street building.

• This will be the largest single investment in the history of our school.

• It’s overdue. We have outgrown our physical footprint.

• Within the present-state constraints of a 500-square-foot classroom, our high school Robotics team has managed to become nationally-ranked. This is despite the fact that they must disassemble their creations to make room for daily instruction. What if our computer science classrooms were only bound by our students’ imaginations?

• We hope to re-envision our library, which currently optimizes for physical books. Reconceive it as a series of spaces for collaboration and community, maintaining a range of physical books while also shoring up our digital collections.

• We want to continue our emphasis on project-based learning with the addition of a top-floor teaching kitchen paired with a greenhouse. Facilitate the exploration of food networks and global cultures. It will be part of the interdisciplinary approach that is a hallmark of a Dalton education.

• We hope to build double-height, state-of-the-art dance studios for our renowned Dance Theatre Workshop.

• The campaign will also enable us to make a series of smart, strategic investments in our curricular offerings.

• We will establish a comprehensive service-learning program that will extend from kindergarten through 12th grade. There will be opportunities for specific outreach throughout every borough of New York City as well as projects with global reach. The program will be fully integrated into the Lower School curriculum, with activities tied to social studies, language, ethics and other learnings. There will be expanded opportunities for focused projects in the Middle and Upper School. Shapes our students as citizens of a larger society.

• The campaign will empower students of all financial backgrounds to fully participate in the life of the school.

• Teachers as the centerpiece of the Dalton Plan. With the campaign, we hope to deepen support for our teachers with milestone-based incentives for exemplary instructors. Provide more professional growth opportunities so our teachers can remain at the top of their game/iterate and innovate.

• We want to advance our Health and Wellness Program to help students navigate complex societal challenges. Foundational approach to well-being that addresses age-appropriate development and centers social-emotional balance.

• We hope to make significant investments in technology and innovation to accelerate learning across the entire K-12 Dalton experience.

• This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a physical environment that allows us to live out our values. Creates a setting for creativity, exploration and excellence. With this campaign we will grow curious, critical thinkers/develop doers/begin to chart our course for the next hundred years.