Financial aid is the second line item on an independent school’s business office budget. The admission and enrollment function generates more than 80% of a school’s annual revenue. Together, our offices are tasked with ensuring the financial sustainability of independent schools.

A New Partnership

Cooperation between the enrollment and financial functions of a school is imperative for strategic enrollment success. To mirror this essential bond, EMA and the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) partnered to understand issues of affordability in PK-12 independent schools. Together we're examining the concerns of current and prospective families and putting a spotlight on innovations underway at schools addressing these challenges.

Our Goals

Both organizations will build resources on these topics through 2019, with an eye to creating blended perspectives infused with both enrollment and business expertise, and exploring ways to identify, secure, and utilize the resources an independent school needs to fulfill its mission and provide unparalleled education to its students. Our ultimate goal is to help schools achieve, maintain, and grow their enrollment of mission-aligned students and thrive in perpetuity as financially-sustainable institutions.

Building Your Resource Base

We will leverage our various platforms and deliver thought leadership and guidance through a series of programs and online and printed resources to help school leaders explore issues specifically related to financial aid, as well as current market conditions, pricing, enrollment, accessibility, and affordability trends to bring this predominant issue into the limelight so independent schools may identify their most viable path forward.

Planned collaborations include:

• A financial aid panel at EMA’s Annual Conference
• Qualitative financial aid survey launched September 2018
• Series of dedicated EMA podcasts on financial aid topics
• NBOA webinar – “Is Financial Aid Dead?” (access for NBOA members only)
• EMA Financial Aid Training Series, including a webinar with NBOA’s Jennifer Osland Hillen
• Full issue of Net Assets dedicated to financial aid issues
• Dedicated microsite
• Upcoming focus in The Yield
• March 3-6, 2019: Featured deep dive session at the NBOA 2019 Annual Meeting
• Research paper - Fall 2019

Resources to access now:

• + Podcasts
• Season 1, Episode 9: Pricing, Mergers, and More
• Season 1, Episode 13: Implementing a Flexible Tuition Program
  

• + Webinars
• The Business of Enrollment
• The Millennials are Coming
• Introduction to Net Revenue Management
  

• + Articles
• Data and Financial-Aid-Related Resources
  

• + Special Reports
• The Business of Enrollment
• 2017 The Ride to Independent Schools

For additional content from NBOA, including articles, presentations, and podcasts, visit NBOA.org and NBOAAnnualMeeting.org. Our friends at NBOA will post resources on their open web page for EMA members.

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