Marketing grants to offer schools new opportunities

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Nov. 8, 2007

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Sioux City are being offered an opportunity to improve through marketing grants.

The Catholic School Foundation Board of Directors recently approved grants for each of the diocesan schools. Each school will have the opportunity to apply for $10,000 to enhance marketing efforts with the goal of increasing student enrollment.

Matt Greteman, chairman of the Catholic School Foundation, said it is good to provide this opportunity to schools because "we have an excellent message that doesn't always get the opportunity to be expressed because of limited resources."

"The marketing people in the schools will be allowed to evaluate the effectiveness of multiple approaches to increasing enrollment," he said. "As such, on a long-term basis, we will be able to spend marketing dollars more effectively."

The Catholic School Foundation decided to support the marketing grants because resources were available.

"It allows us to continue to spread our message on Catholic education," said Greteman.

When the Catholic School Foundation met a couple of months ago, Kristie Arlt, director of communications and stewardship for the diocese, proposed the grants to help assist all of the Catholic schools with enrollment.

"To help enrollment, it takes a lot of manpower, but it also takes money," said Arlt. "Our schools work hard to increase enrollment each year. I was trying to think of a way that would really help them come up with a marketing campaign. The Catholic School Foundation's mission is to help the schools so that is why they approved up to $10,000 for each school."

Each school can only be awarded the grant once and the money must be used exclusively for increasing student enrollment.

Grant applications must include the following information: statement of need, proposal on how the money will be used (marketing plan), statement of the projects specific measurable objectives and how the school will measure the success of the marketing plan, line-item project budget and explanation for each line-item and a timeline and work plan (who will do what and when).

"I, along with the Catholic School Foundation, want to help our Catholic schools as much as we can," said the director of communications. "The value of Catholic education is tough to measure because it is so awesome, it's so large. In order to spread the message of how valuable Catholic education is to our students, we need to help and lift up our schools as much as we can."

She mentioned that a lot of times the schools do not have a lot of extra money for marketing. The extra money goes to other things such as salaries, books and things the schools need.

"Sometimes marketing money is put on the back burner," said Arlt. "I am hoping that this grant will show the schools that it is important to have a working marketing document. Whether you have the funds or not, it is always good to have a marketing plan because there are things you can do that don't cost any money."

The committee that has been selected to review the marketing grant applications is made up of Kristie Arlt, director of communications and stewardship; Royce Ranniger, director of operations; Kevin Vickery, superintendent of Catholic Schools and Matt Greteman, chairman of the Catholic School Foundation.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to market your school, increase visibility, enrollment and bring recognition to the value of Catholic education," said Arlt.

The deadline for the first round of grant money is Dec. 21, 2007. Grant approvals will be awarded for the first round by Jan. 15, 2008. The money awarded must be used by Dec. 31, 2008. A second round of money will be awarded Dec. 19, 2008.

A follow-up letter must be submitted to the Catholic School Foundation Board by Jan. 31, 2009 outlining the results of the school's marketing plan. The follow-up plan should include samples of the project (direct mail piece, newspaper advertisements, radio and TV spots, etc.) Documentation of expenditures should also be included.

Grants need to be emailed to Kristie Arlt at kristiea@scdiocese.org or mailed to PO Box 3379, Sioux City, Iowa 51102 by Dec. 21 to be eligible for the first round of money.

Anyone with questions or in need of assistance with putting a grant application together, should contact Arlt at (712) 233-7513 or kristiea@scdiocese.org.

Katie LeFebvre can be reached at katiel@catholicglobe.org.

Sidebar box:

Grant applications must include the following information:

a) Statement of need

b) Proposal on how the money will be used (Marketing Plan)

c) State the projects specific measurable objectives and how you will measure the success of the marketing plan

d) Line-item project budget and explanation for each line-item

e) include a timeline and work plan (who will do what and when)

Deadline for 1st round of grants is December 21, 2007

Completed grants must me emailed to Kristie Arlt at kristiea@scdiocese.org or mailed to PO Box 3379, Sioux City, Iowa 51102.