Coalition Recruitment in Harlem & The Bronx

Recruiting for a coalition of schools

The Challenge: With demographics changing across New York City, enrollment in charter schools has dropped in recent years. At the same time, an increasing number of children are moving from one charter school to another. In Harlem and the Bronx these enrollment shifts have been particularly persistent, so the New York Charter Schools Association (NYCSA) tapped us and our strategic partners at CK Collaborative to design a coalition-style recruitment strategy that would help multiple schools in each neighborhood improve their enrollment outcomes as one group.

Our Approach: We brought a coalition of charter schools located within a ten block radius of each other together to recruit in collaboration. We developed a digital marketing and canvassing approach to “build the pie” of charter families by conducting specific outreach to non-charter school families with messaging that focused on educating families about their education options. As we engaged with families, we briefed them on all options in their neighborhood and helped them apply to any/all schools for which they qualified.

The Results: In both Harlem and the Bronx we connected with thousands of families about the school options in their community, many of whom weren’t aware of some of the smaller charter schools in their neighborhood. More than a quarter of leads achieved through digital or canvassing outreach applied to at least one school in the coalition and we brought hundreds of new, high-quality applicants to participating schools. Finally, the overwhelming majority (up to 83%) of all applicants were students not currently enrolled in another charter school.  We conservatively estimate that our efforts contributed approximately $1M in new enrollment revenue for participating coalition schools.