Most schools believe word of mouth is what brings families and donors to their door, but far fewer can name what actually produces it. Families experience a school as one continuous relationship, while most schools organize their work, communications, and goals by team. Those gaps are where confusion, friction, and missed opportunities accumulate, and it is where word of mouth is built or lost. 
In this session, House of Hats Marketing and Shady Side Academy will share what happened when Marketing & Communications, Enrollment Management, and Alumni & Development came together to examine and reimagine the family experience—from early awareness through inquiry, enrollment, re-enrollment, giving, and alumni connection. 
Presenters will walk through the practical frameworks used to facilitate these conversations: lifecycle mapping, enrollment funnel analysis, and cross-functional meeting structures. 
Attendees will see where expectations are shaped earlier than teams realize, where families are left to connect the dots on their own, and where small shifts in timing, framing, and coordination can strengthen conversion and reduce friction. 
Presenters will also share what the conversations produced: specific commitments, owners, and next steps that became ongoing institutional work—and what it takes to sustain that momentum. 
This case study examines what it looks like to get three teams looking at the same picture, what actually earns a school its families and donors, and what to do next. 
Session participants will be able to: 

• Critically reflect on where their school believes its families and donors come from, and what actually drives those decisions
• Identify lifecycle stages where cross-functional alignment could reduce friction and strengthen confidence 
• Reframe enrollment funnel data as a window into family experience, not just a measure of output 
• Plan concrete next steps, using a take-home lifecycle worksheet, to facilitate a cross-departmental conversation at their own school