February is the worst month. It seems to last forever, yet only 28 days show up on the calendar. Nowhere is this endless slump more apparent than in our schools: students are restless, faculty are exhausted, administrators are cranky. We have a short celebration of love in the middle of the month for Valentine’s Day, but it often comes on the heels of a board meeting, a cosmic cruelty too specific to be an accident.

In August, I wrote that fundraising is everyone’s job. To date, it’s the most popular thing I’ve written. If I were a betting woman, I would put money on the fact that its popularity was due largely to advancement teams feeling isolated from the rest of the school. Your thumbs and forefingers clicked eagerly on that blog post to gain insight about how to reach out from the advancement island to build the often-mythical two-way bridge between the external offices, and the academics and student life offices.

February (leading into March) is the time to resurface those ideas and reach out to the other side of the school. Everyone on your campus is eager for a pick-me-up, and it’s the right time of year to build bridges before the school year ends.

Here are tips and tricks to inspire you to make connections and reinforce the idea that advancement involves everyone in the community:

1. Leave thank you notes in faculty mailboxes. Create a quick infographic letting faculty members know where you are with the annual fund, campaign, project, etc. Tell them you’re 75 percent of the way to your goal, or that you’re 6 percent ahead of least year … whatever the pertinent update may be. Thank them for the amazing work they’re doing to contribute to those datapoints. Be specific with your examples, saying things like “every time you greet a donor on a tour, you increase our ability to complete the campaign.” Or try “each time you express deep care and concern for students and families, it creates a lasting tie to the school that will draw them back to our community as alumni.” And of course, if they’re also donors, thank them again for their gift.
2. Share the details. Building on your thank you notes, tell faculty what the numbers mean. Tell them how many new families are giving or are showing up to events. Tell them how many alumni are excited about the new strategic vision. Tell them what a 6 percent increase to unrestricted giving can mean for the budget. Your Head and CFO might be nervous about this. Work with them to alleviate their fears, because sharing more information with faculty is generally a better idea than sharing less. I know there are competing ideas about this, but in my experience, faculty can handle – and will appreciate – the details of what happens in the external offices and how they affect the budget and strategy of the school.
3. Exchange food for engagement and ideas. Whatever the layout of your campus and faculty workroom(s), there’s undoubtedly a table on which extra baked goods, random treats, and occasional bagels are deposited. Go to your nearest local bakery and order a tray of something delicious. Leave them on that table along with a suggestion box, indicating that the treats are free in exchange for one idea or one question for advancement. Faculty might have a great idea about a social media campaign; they may have seen something special their own alma mater did and want to pass it along to you; or perhaps they have always wondered why reunions happen in April. Whatever their thoughts or questions, use this method as a formative assessment: whatever goes into that box will help you assess how much your academic folks know and understand about advancement, and it can inform your strategy for engaging them in the future (and you might get good ideas, too).

Whatever your methodology to re-engage faculty during this drab-but-almost-hopeful time of year, deploy it now! The time is ripe for budding innovation. Everyone has a desperate need to shed February and move onto something else. Remind your teachers and other administrators of all the good things happening on the external front to solicit their future trust and investment in the process. It’s a good exercise for everyone involved and will pay for itself in good will and faculty involvement over time.