Ari Betof

Bennett College’s Viral Fundraising Campaign Avoids Event Horizon

Fundraising volunteers Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash

Based in Boston, Dr. Ari Betof is the president and founder of Organizational Sustainability Consulting, a company that works with educational and nonprofit organizations to optimize operational efficiency. Dr. Ari Betof works to ensure financial sustainability, consistent revenue growth, and effective public relations.

In the 2019 Medium article “#StandWithBennett: A Real-Time Case Study in Avoiding the Event Horizon,” Dr. Betof examined Bennett College’s successful efforts to meet a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) fundraising goal of $5 million.

Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, stands as one of only two historically black colleges nationwide that serve an all-women student body. After struggling with financial insolvency issues, the college was placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 2016. In late 2018, SACSCOC took a vote that threatened to end Bennett’s accreditation in two months.

With only 50 days until a February deadline, Bennett College effectively launched a #StandWithBennett campaign that went viral and was jump-started by a pair of half-million-dollar gifts from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Papa John’s Foundation. With four days to go, $3 million was still needed, yet a late flurry of contributions led to the college raising $8.2 million by the deadline. In this way, an institution that fulfills a vital societal function was able to push back a looming “event horizon” and regain fiscal solvency. Betof notes that whether this progress will be a short-term repreave or a path forward to ongoing organizational health is yet to be determined.

Good First Impressions Are Important for Organizations

First Impressions
Image: entrepreneur.com

The founder and president of Organizational Sustainability Consulting, Dr. Ari Betof advises senior nonprofit executives on institutional effectiveness. Recently, Dr. Ari Betof published an article that discusses the importance of first impressions from an organization point of view.

First impressions matter. This applies to interactions between humans and interactions between a human and an organization. From the moment a client begins interacting with an organization, he or she forms an impression of it.

Large institutions may have difficulty cultivating positive first impressions between their employees and clients. However, the Boston College (BC) Cadigan Alumni Center has excelled at creating good first impressions.

When people enter the alumni center, the first person they meet is Maureen McGrail, BC’s Director of First Impressions. McGrail’s title is the result of the college’s intentions to build a joyful work culture that recognizes employees and builds engagement. This environment helps create a positive first impression of BC.

Private Schools and Antitrust Laws

Dr. Ari Betof is the president and owner of Organizational Sustainability Consulting. An advisor to senior professionals in education and the nonprofit sector, Dr. Ari Betof provides consultancy services on governance and operations issues, such as his recent work with NJAIS on antitrust laws.

Antitrust laws apply to educational nonprofits just as they apply to businesses but with some exceptions. Recently, there has been a renewed focus on antitrust law violations in education, especially regarding independent schools and private colleges. These investigations focus on agreements between institutions to fix tuition prices, boycott competitors or suppliers, divvy up markets, or share data outside the allowed framework.

However, this heightened attention should not scare colleges, universities, and independent schools into isolation. Engagement among educational institutions, when done correctly and within the law, builds synergy and can boost performance that is good for students as customers and the educational institutions.

Antitrust laws, therefore, should not be used to prevent or punish appropriate engagement. A healthy balance that fosters free-market competition and allows value-added collaborations should be encouraged.

This can be achieved by training trustees and staff members on antitrust laws. In particular, the training should explain which interactions are proper and which are not.

Importance of Antitrust Training Among Private Education Institutions

An established Boston professional, Ari Betof (Ed.D.) leads Organizational Sustainability Consulting, LLC, and works collaboratively with board members and leaders of independent membership organizations and colleges. In a recent Medium article, Dr. Ari Betof described his experience attending the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools (NJAIS) Finance Officers Conference and taking part in the “Doing Business in an Increasingly Competitive Marketplace” panel.

One aspect of the discussion was on ways in which independent schools can better respond to dynamic market pressures. A core foundation is the concept that private colleges and independent schools benefit from existing within a free market system.

At the same time, antitrust law training is a major concern, with a focus on preventing price fixing within competitive markets. In early 2018, the Justice Department initiated investigation on whether federal antitrust law had been violated by the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

The renewed focus by antitrust authorities on colleges raises awareness about issues created when leaders across institutions discuss topics such as financial aid packages and tuition rates. Without proper training, trustees and employees can engage in “well-intentioned grassroots data collection initiatives” that bring them and the larger institution into conflict with antitrust laws.