A Conversation With ... Natalie Murdock

You suceeded Jana Bachaus as director Jan. 5. What’s your main role?
We are looking to grow what we are doing and expand our reach. We are excited about a new and upcoming alumni program.

We have four employees; one is a part-time intern from Drury [University]. We also have a 21-person board of directors I work closely with. Our foundation is completely independent of the district. We have our own board, we are employees of the foundation, but we do work closely with the district.

What lessons are you applying from your previous role of development director?
Serving as development director for so long, you really get to see many sides of what we do. We are a smaller organization, so we really are a team. We don’t have a separate programs department and a separate fundraising department or event department. We do all of that in one. I was involved in the fundraising side and the program side through our Back to School program and some new things we started while I was development director. One of those was our Pick a Project program. It’s an online giving opportunity. Teachers can post their needs online, and donors can log on and pick the project they would like to fund. It’s very much like crowdfunding, but only for our teachers.

What are your goals as director?
My personal goal is to expand our donor base through utilizing our alumni. Not just our local alumni, but those who have moved on to bigger and better things. It’s exciting to have that opportunity because these are folks who are products of Springfield Public Schools. They have a lot to offer and a lot to give back. It’s sort of an untapped resource for us.

We are always looking to provide more resources for our students. We currently manage about 190 funds and just over $5 million in scholarships. That goes a long way to meet the needs, but there are always more needs and we find that every day. We are always looking for those folks who want a connection back to their school. We have a large database of alumni and through our website, we have offered a place where alumni can come back and tell us what they have been up to.

What’s the purpose of the foundation? Why is it needed?
The foundation’s mission is to raise, manage and distribute funds to benefit the teachers and students of SPS. We do that through the funds and scholarships we manage. Those are established by donors and have a set of guidelines. We manage endowments for all five high schools. We also provide resources through our grant programs. Our yearly Back to School program funded over $300,000 in requests last year. It provides additional resources teachers wouldn’t have otherwise.

What is the biggest need at SPS?
We see a lot of requests in the area of technology. Part of that is because it’s ever-changing. We try to fill that gap. But a lot of it is basic classroom needs for things like field trips. They don’t have resources for that anymore. We find students really connect to those experiences, and the teachers do a great job of tying those experiences back to the curriculum. We have seen a lot of need for mentoring programs, which teachers are starting to implement. The teachers are innovative and have lots of great ideas but don’t have the money in their budget.

With so much need, how do you choose where the money goes?
We had almost $1 million in requests through Back to School last year, and it grows every year. A lot of those were for technology. Those items are more and more expensive and teachers’ budgets haven’t gone up. We are seeing this program grow each year and it’s become the bread and butter of what we do. It is a tough decision. We have a committee of board members and donors that make those decisions. It is a competitive process. We provide a grant writing workshop any teacher is invited to. We also have a webinar that walks them through our grant application.[[In-content Ad]]