Mission ADVANCEMENT

Development Associates is a Washington, D.C.-area based consultancy that began operations in 2002 and specializes in helping schools identify and develop alternate sources of income. From corporate and foundation grants to individual donations to lifting schools’ enrollment through placing stories in the local media and creating effective annual reports and newsletters, we’re able to augment significantly the abilities of schools and their boards to support the institutions. 

 Development Associates got its start in 2002 when William A. Murray, a journalist, wrote two stories about two Catholic elementary schools in Atlanta struggling to remain open. Parents, parishioners and friends of one of the schools rallied and raised $600,000 in three months to try to save their school.

Murray could see that many Catholic elementary schools serving mid-to-low income families needed to develop alternate sources of support. They needed organized development initiatives. He became the development director at St. Anthony’s School in Washington, D.C., and became the first development director to raise money over expenses there after a handful of predecessors had worked hard to develop support for the school.

In 2002, Murray decided to incorporate Catholic School Development Associates, L.L.C. in Maryland, using the doing business as name of Development Associates. As a former journalist, he understood how to place good stories about his clients in the media and how to produce cost-effective but attractive and informative newsletters and annual reports. With time, he came to understand how to effectively solicit in-kind and cash donations from corporations and individuals, and his outreach to foundations also began to bear fruit. In 2007, Development Associates, expanded its work to include public charter schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, in addition to the Catholic and independent schools it had worked with.

We’ve worked with charter, private and religious schools in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia since 2002 and offered them the following services:

• Planning and implementing annual giving fund programs to help schools increase individual and major donor giving.
• Earning corporate and foundation grants to help schools fulfill their missions and to increase their resources.
• Finding in-kind donation opportunities.
• Creating newsletters, e-newsletters, and annual reports to help connect schools with alumni, alumni parents,  parents and friends.
• Creating advertising, videos, direct mail to help schools effectively market their services.
• Website design and maintenance.
• Finding alumni and alumni parents and helping to plan events to reconnect them to the school through all-school and class reunions.
• Developing workplace giving opportunities and implementing cost-effective means to increase CFC participation by alumni, parents and friends.