When ImpactTulsa crunched the numbers to gauge what it meant that 48 percent of high school grads in the county were not completing the FAFSA, Nichols and his colleagues were stunned. The collaborative\u2019s research showed that the 2014 graduating class was missing out on at least $15 million in financial aid that would be available if everyone filled out the application.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone came to town offering that much scholarship money to people, they would be an instant hero. But we\u2019re leaving that much on the table every year,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Armed with the data, ImpactTulsa started reaching out to partners to explore launching a countywide campaign to get more students to complete the FAFSA. The proposed focus of the campaign was organizing \u201cFAFSA Nights\u201d at high schools where students and their families could find support and encouragement to complete their forms. Before long, ImpactTulsa built a roster of partners that included the local school districts, Tulsa Community College, the local state university (Rogers State) and more.<\/p>\n

Stand for Children signed on to lead the outreach effort for the FAFSA nights at two schools in Tulsa\u2019s urban core. Under Abdo\u2019s leadership, the organization approached the work like it was a classic political or advocacy campaign. Two weeks before the February FAFSA nights at each of the two schools, Stand for Children sent out a direct mail flyer to the households of all seniors advertising the event. Then, parent volunteers staffed phone banks and went door-to-door throughout the targeted neighborhoods providing additional literature and information.<\/p>\n

To make sure they were reaching the large Latino population at the two schools, the campaign included Spanish-language materials and telephone and community outreach by bilingual parent volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cStand for Children was really an amazing partner,\u201d said Nichols. \u201cThe bottom line is they got people to show up and made sure the resources were there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first FAFSA night at one of the schools, Stand\u2019s goal was to get 25 students and their families to show up out of a graduating class of 178. The total turnout was 40 students, or more than one in five seniors. With a school population that is more than three-quarters students of color and with more than 60 percent of students on free or reduced lunch, this school was an important focus for the countywide campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a pretty typical urban high school and one where getting more students to complete the FAFSA can make a huge difference,\u201d said Abdo.<\/p>\n

Turnout wasn\u2019t as strong at the second high school. Twenty-two students showed up, three short of the organizers\u2019 goal. But administrators and faculty at the school, which has a significant number of English language learners (20 percent) and students on free and reduced lunch (87 percent), told Abdo that the turnout was impressive just the same.<\/p>\n

Abdo noted that Stand had more cooperation and buy-in from school leaders at the first school in comparison to the second. She said her organization\u2019s intensive outreach to the first school\u2019s students and families complemented a range of in-school activities promoting FAFSA completion and the FAFSA night \u2014 such as counselors talking to students about it, the football coach making a pitch to his players and teachers using class time to get seniors to sign up for their federal student aid identification number.<\/p>\n

A wide-ranging campaign<\/h3>\n

At each FAFSA night, college admissions representatives and others were available to talk with students and families about the FAFSA and to guide them through the process of completing the application. In all, there were FAFSA nights at 17 of the 23 schools in Tulsa County in early 2016. The partnership also launched a high-profile media campaign that included TV advertising, web ads, flyers and more. In addition to the FAFSA nights, ImpactTulsa teamed up with a local TV station to host an event, heavily promoted on the station\u2019s evening news, where students and families could call in with questions about the FAFSA; college admissions representatives staffed the phones.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes families may not need or want to come out to an event, and they just want some quick questions answered about the FAFSA,\u201d said Nichols in explaining the purpose of the call-in event.<\/p>\n

The overall goal for the campaign was to have 60 percent of county students complete the FAFSA in 2016, up from the 52-percent total recorded in 2014. In the end, the campaign fell short of its countywide goal of 3,645 FAFSA completions by a little more than 300 students (see graphic and results box). However, nine of the county\u2019s 23 schools had completion rates that were higher than their 2015 numbers, and seven of those nine schools met or beat the campaign\u2019s goal by increasing their completion rates by 8 percentage points or more. Among those seven schools, five were part of Tulsa Public Schools, the county\u2019s highest-need district.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thanks to Stand for Children\u2019s work, the two high schools where it focused its work both exceeded their campaign goals. In fact, among all schools in the county, those that showed the highest year-over-year increase in FAFSA completions were schools where ImpactTulsa and its partners played an active role in promoting and coordinating the events. In contrast, the numbers tended to lag the countywide average at schools that organized events largely on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a classic case of collective impact getting better results,\u201d said Nichols. \u201cWhen people and organizations work with the schools on issues like this, we see bigger impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lessons in engagement<\/h3>\n

Abdo offered another lesson from the success of her organization\u2019s partnership with ImpactTulsa and the schools. She said that engaging parent volunteers as front-line campaigners for FAFSA completion was key to the effort\u2019s success. \u201cWhat this work says is that when there is an intentional effort to include and involve parents and get them talking to other parents, then we have a real opportunity to move the needle for kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Abdo\u2019s belief in parent engagement and activism dates back to her own children\u2019s earliest years in school. When her oldest daughter started school in a suburban Tulsa district, Abdo was concerned about the large size of the kindergarten class. In her efforts to get to the bottom of the problem, she eventually found herself in conversations with state lawmakers \u2014 and ultimately running for the legislature herself. Her campaign was unsuccessful, but she subsequently was elected to the school board in her children\u2019s school district and took the Stand for Children job so she could have a voice in improving education in Tulsa and beyond.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Abdo said her experience as a partner in the FAFSA campaign this year convinced her once and for all that one parent or one organization can only make a difference as part of a broader collaborative effort. \u201cWe all have limits on our resources and on our time, and so the only way to make real change happen is to come together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n