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| Join a School Advisory Board |
| Patrons Program School Advisory Boards |
 The Patrons Program offers a hands-on opportunity to help individual inner-city elementary schools. Our Patrons “adopt” schools hard hit by declining resources and aid them in financial planning, capital improvements, enrichment programs and fund raising. Most “adopted” schools form an Advisory Board of volunteers that works closely with the school’s nuclear and extended communities to attract further educational, financial and community support.
You can and will make a difference to your “adopted” school as a volunteer board member participating at the grass-roots level. Here is how…
Our schools need bright and energetic individuals to devote their intelligence, skills, and connections to help our children thrive. Currently there are over 300 volunteers who have contributed their expertise in a variety of meaningful ways. Our Patrons and Board members inevitably find “school adoption” to be fun and rewarding. They enjoy working with groups and are delighted by the very visible impact they can make on their schools and their children.
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| What Advisory Board Members Do |
 Lend your expertise and resources to:
- Act as a judge for the speech/spelling bee or science fair
- Coach basketball or other sports teams
- Assist the school in the management of its finances and general administration
- Identify and reach out to community based organizations to raise the school’s visibility
- Review/produce school’s marketing materials, including advertising, brochures, signage and website
- Host a career day at the school or at your office
- Offer instrument lessons
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Donate new or used items (such as art supplies, learning manipulatives, books, toys, books on CD, tapes, etc.) for the school’s pre-K and Kindergarten classes
- Organize a book drive for the school library
- Help hang art work or help an art class with a project
Spend time with the students:
Assist with capital improvement projects:
- Organize a group of individuals to paint the classrooms, hallways or stairwells
- Help paint a mural inside or outside the school
- Assist with small physical plant improvments
Assist with fundraising:
- Invite friends/colleagues to fundraising events
- Donate or facilitate the donation of items for a silent auction
- Donate or facilitate the donation of food and drinks for fundraisers
- Help secure an event space
- Send fundraising materials (such as cards during a card drive) to friends and colleagues
- Sponsor a scholarship for a student or organize a scholarship drive among friends/colleague
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| Personal Characteristics Advisory Board Members |
- Willingness to prepare for and attend board and committee meetings, ask questions, take responsibility, and contribute personal and financial resources generously according to circumstances
- Ability or willingness to learn to solicit funds, recruit board members and volunteers, read financial statements, and keep up to date on issues pertaining to inner-city education
- Possession of honesty, sensitivity, tolerance, friendliness, and a sense of humor
Six Keys to Recruiting, Orienting, and Involving Nonprofit Board Members. The National Center for Nonprofit Boards
| Examples of Advisory Board Member Led Projects |
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Book Drive: A school in the Bronx built a new library and multimedia  center, but lacked the funds to fill all of the bookshelves. Two Advisory Board members stepped in to help.
The two board members reached out to their families, working with their daughters to run book drives at their respective independent schools in Connecticut. The school received 7,000 gently used books because of their efforts.
This donation also allowed the school to create individual classroom libraries. Each classroom will soon be stocked with age- and subject-appropriate books from the Connecticut book drive.
What a tremendous gift for the more than 350 students who didn’t have school and classroom libraries before September 2006.
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New Computer Lab: A school in Manhattan is currently enjoying a new computer lab that was purchased and installed by volunteers from an investment bank. Twenty of the firm’s technology experts set up 26 new computers in a lab and moved the old computers into the classrooms for use during in-class instruction.
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Tuition Management System: During an Advisory Board meeting, a school Principal expressed concern over the school’s growing amount of unpaid tuition and its inability to accurately track which families were overdue. An Advisory Board subsequently referred a computer programmer friend to the school to help it create a tuition management system. The new computer system holds all the student information and mails invoices to parents once a month. It tracks payments, adds on any late fees, and creates monthly reports to track any arrears.
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Silent Auction Donations: At a school in the Bronx, a new Advisory Board member made a significant impact by securing several incredible donations to the silent auction for the school’s annual benefit—including hotel stays, gift certificates to popular stores, and even airline tickets. The board member also brought a friend who works in marketing on board to help, and she is working on creating marketing materials for the school.
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Mock Trial Program: Advisory Board members with legal backgrounds started a Mock Trial program that is benefiting 8th graders at two Manhattan schools. Once a week, members of the mock trial teams are learning about our justice system from practicing attorneys before acting out a trial. In addition to mastering elements of the case and rules of evidence, the students will ultimately perform the trial at the US Court in Federal Plaza before a judge.
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