Campaign increases Catholic schools' enrollment

Intermountain Catholic

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Sister Genevra Rolf thanks Kirk Bengtzen, a parent from at St. Olaf School, Bountiful, for his donation to the ad campaign.IC photo by Chris Young

SALT LAKE CITY — "Catholic schools are one of the best kept secrets in Utah," said Molly Dumas. "Although, not any more."

Dumas, advancement director at Juan Diego Catholic High School, said a diocesan strategic plan identified the need to market the Catholic schools in our community. As a result of launching an advertising campaign during Catholic Schools Week running television commercials and putting up billboards, enrollment increased throughout the Diocese of Salt Lake. But most importantly, the Catholic schools became united in the effort and strengthened as a whole.

The strategic plan came about when Holy Cross Sister Genevra Rolf, associate superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Diocese of Salt Lake, approached the school board about putting together an ad hoc committee to look at framing some goals and objectives for marketing the schools.

"The Utah Catholic Schools marketing campaign began as part of the strategic plan the diocese was conducting in terms of both long- and short-term goals for Catholic schools," said Dumas. "The committee did a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and identified two goals."

The first goal was a need for recruitment. School enrollment had declined and waiting lists were depleting. Some schools had dropped enrollment by 25 percent, which impacted them financially.

The second goal was to help the schools become financially stable. Dumas said in order to tackle enrollment, the committee sent a survey to all the advancement directors to see what their enrollment numbers were, what recruitment tactics they were using, and what their budgets looked like.

"We found a strong correlation between those who had designated funds or activities for recruitment efforts and their enrollment," said Dumas. "So the committee took on a broad-based effort to raise awareness in Utah about Catholic schools."

The objective was to recruit enough students to fill the schools, reach those Catholic families with students in public schools, and reach other Christian families who were looking for a faith-based education for their children.

"We began a branding campaign with the tag line, "Utah Catholic Schools: Preparing Mind, Body, and Spirit," said Dumas. "First, we conducted some diocesan-led marketing. We put the branding message out there, developed a marketing plan, and we put a budget together for the diocese. The budget was meager at $10,000, but we thought we could recruit people and get donations."

Dumas said the second part of the strategy was to have a diocesan-wide marketing effort which engaged school participation. For example, every school was in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. There was also a Utah Catholic Schools booth staffed with volunteers at the post parade celebration with information from all of the schools.

Dumas said what made the campaign so successful was that there was participation from all of the schools at one level or another. Every school was invited to have a representative on the marketing committee. The committee was represented geographically, economically, and with schools that were doing well and those that were not doing well. The representatives were all parents who had children in Catholic schools.

The third part of the marketing strategy was to have tactics that were school centered such as brochures, an open house, or a neighborhood campaign. Some tactics cost money and some tactics did not.

"The one thing everybody did was improve their websites, and that was key," said Dumas. "We created a Utah Catholic Schools website that has a direct link to any one of the schools’ websites. The television commercial was really meant to drive traffic to the website. While the ad campaign was running, we noted the website received between 8,000 and 10,000 hits.

"We had corporate sponsors to help underwrite the costs, highlight the schools, and link their names to the campaign," said Dumas. "KUTV Channel 2 was an incredibly supportive entity. We also had sponsors from several of the schools, donated artwork, and 40 billboards from Provo to Ogden with the help of Reagan Outdoor Advertising. The Intermountain Catholic helped by promoting all the diocesan Catholic schools during Catholic Schools Week. We had committee members with incredible marketing experience, and if a school had full enrollment, they directed parents to a school that was not full. The campaign was made possible with a commitment from the diocese for a portion of the budget, and a small contribution from each of the Catholic schools."