Join the IDPE community 
The IDPE and Graham-Pelton Consulting's schools' alumni relations and fundraising benchmarking survey 
 
             
 

The third schools' development benchmarking survey will commence in November 2016 and will be essential reading for all schools, regardless of where they are in their development journey.  The report will publish trends and factors that affect outcomes and outline best practice that SMT and development professionals can apply to improve results.

'There are some important issues that have arisen from the IDPE’s Benchmarking Survey for the education sector.  Development is not a short-term activity or investment, but adequate early resourcing can pay great rewards within five years and made a tremendous difference to the bottom line'
                                                Tim Baines, Managing Director, Baines Cutler Solutions Ltd


Why is benchmarking so important?
The report will be a vital tool​ in enabling you to compare your performance against similar organisations and will help inform you about where you are succeeding and where your areas of growth are.


How can I get involved?
In order for the survey to be effective it requires the majority of IDPE members to participate, irrespective of where you are on your development journey or the type of school you work for. 

We will be sending the survey to all schools in November 2016 and you will need to collate various statistics about your development operation, including fundraising results, alumni relations activities and budgets. 


Need help preparing for the survey?
To help you prepare, please download a useful guide to preparing for the survey.

​A representative from either IDPE or Graham-Pelton Consulting will be visiting most regional meetings in the autumn term 2016 so that they can answer any questions you may have about the survey.  For those regions were a representative is unable to attend or if you can't attend your regional meeting and would like some help completing the survey, we will be hosting a webinar in the autumn term.  Details will follow shortly.
​
​Book your place at your next regional meeting.


When will the report be published?
The repor​​​t will be published by September 2017.  Bespoke reports will also be available which will enable you to compare your school's responses against the averages of a group of similar schools.  Bespoke reports will cost £500.


Key points to remember
​- Participation is open to everyone, not just IDPE members.  Every school is encouraged to take part event if you are focusing purely on alumni relations and not yet
  fundraising
​- It's free to participate and every participant will receive a hard copy of the published report
​- This third survey includes more segmentation by type of school e.g. girls', state, day and prep, ensuring that the data is meaningful to you

If you would like to find out more about how to get involved please contact call the IDPE office on 01225 829030 or email  info@idpe.org.uk. 

The 2012 and 2014 surveys
 

                               

Electronic copies of the 2012 and 2014 surveys are available free of charge, by contacting the IDPE office at  info@idpe.org.uk.


In 2011 Crowe Clark Whitehill, working with the IDPE launched the first detailed schools’ development benchmarking survey. The result was the ground-breaking 2012 National Fundraising and Development Survey in UK Schools Report.  This was followed in 2014 by the Fundraising and Development Benchmarking Survey of UK Schools, produced by Baines Cutler Solutions, in collaboration with IDPE.   These reports provide UK schools with key messages around:

  • the attitude and commitment of the Head being pivotal to the success of the Development office
  • the importance of keeping good data
  • building cooperative and collaborative relationships with the alumni society