Simple Is Hard: Finding the Three Things That Define Your School

This episode of the Independent School Moonshot Podcast is sponsored by Blackbaud.

Blackbaud helps independent schools unify admissions, advancement, academics, and finance so leaders spend less time chasing data and more time leading. Visit blackbaud.com to learn more.

Can a school truly shape its own word of mouth?

That's the challenge Head of School Torsie Judkins and strategist Barbara Egan (StoryScape) tackled at Wingra School in Madison, Wisconsin.

When enrollment lagged and perceptions didn't match campus reality, they partnered to uncover the real story the community needed to hear.

Through market research, thoughtful messaging, and disciplined storytelling, they distilled Wingra's essence into three clear, resonant ideas. These ideas empowered every stakeholder (teachers, trustees, and parents) to share a unified story.

This conversation reveals how message clarity transforms enrollment strategy, culture, and community confidence.

What You'll Learn from Barbara Egan and Torsie Judkins:

1. Treat enrollment like your primary revenue engine: Adopt business discipline in a nonprofit context. Put enrollment impact at the front of every programmatic decision.
2. Interdependence beats silos: Make CFO and enrollment leadership true partners. Strategic decisions should be cross-functional by design
3. Titles do not equal strategy: Shifting from admissions to enrollment management requires new responsibilities, decision rights, and data habits.
4. Pilot before you promise: Frame new initiatives as pre-launch pilots with clear thresholds for participation, dollars, and timeline. If thresholds are not met, sunset with transparency.
5. Clean data, longer horizon: Aim for five to seven years of usable enrollment data. Start where you are, improve data hygiene, and plan across multiple years, not just this cycle.

Recommended Next Steps

1. Convene the core trio: Schedule a working session with head, CFO, and enrollment lead to align on goals, roles, and nonnegotiables.
2. Run a program audit: Build a simple four-column sheet: program, revenue influence, expense, mission impact 1–10. Use it to surface what to keep, fix, or retire.
3. Design pilot criteria now: For any proposed program, set thresholds for enrollment lift, participation, cost, philanthropy, and decision date. Communicate them upfront.
4. Build three budget scenarios: Create best case, base case, and downside linked to enrollment targets and tuition outcomes. Share with the board and faculty.
5. Start the data clean-up: Commit to standard fields and definitions across systems. Backfill at least one prior year to begin a reliable five-year view.