FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES FOR EDUCATION

FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES FOR EDUCATION There are two problems facing national education, namely the problem of equal quality and equal access to education. Responding to these problems, the government then issued policies, one of which was to provide School Operational Assistance (BOS) to schools/madrasahs. However, this government assistance cannot meet all school operational needs. According to calculations by Decentralized Basic Education (DBE) USAID, the operational needs of elementary school students per month are Rp 1,109,000 and junior high school students Rp 1,595,000. In 2009, BOS per year increased by 50%. Elementary school became Rp 397,000 in districts and Rp 400,000 in cities. Junior high schools and equivalent became Rp 570,000 in districts and Rp 575,000 in cities. Based on their calculations, BOS can only meet around 36% of school operational needs. The limited national education budget, even though it has been increased to 20% of the total national budget, and the large number of schools/madrasahs in the country as mentioned above, shows that the government has not been able to fully overcome the national education problem, especially related to the budget. In this context, the government hopes for community participation, especially private schools/madrasahs to proactively educate the nation. In the context of the school fundraising budget, the government has issued education policies, one of which is related to the education budget, the government has increased the education budget to 20% of the total national budget. This budget is used not only to improve the quality of national education, but also to increase the number of community school participation. The limited national education budget, even though it has been increased to 20% of the total national budget, and the large number of schools/madrasahs in the country as mentioned above, shows that the government has not been able to fully overcome the national education problem, especially related to the budget. In this context, the government hopes for community participation, especially private schools/madrasahs to proactively educate the nation. The party that faces the most funding challenges is private schools/madrasahs. Compared to state schools, private schools/madrasahs are required to be more creative and innovative in raising funds to meet the needs of quality education. For state schools/madrasahs, financing and funding of education is almost not a problem, because most sources of education funds come from the central and regional governments. Meanwhile, sources of funds from the community are only a small part. However, for private schools/madrasahs, this is certainly a problem in itself. Different from state schools, the sources of private schools/madrasahs actually mostly come from the community. They are required to be more creative and innovative in overcoming the problem of costs and funding for their education. Local fundraising can increase the income received by schools from the government. In the government's view, schools that are considered quality must meet the National Education Standards (SNP) including: a). Graduates, b). Curriculum, c). Learning process, d). Assessment, e). teachers and education personnel, f) facilities and infrastructure, g) management, h). financing. Quality in the world of education includes 3 stages based on SNP consisting of input, process, and output. (Novita, 2017: 4). In order to realize an effective and efficient educational institution, it can be seen from the quality of the graduates produced. One indicator of the quality of graduates of an educational institution is their acceptance in society. To achieve several indicators of success in the quality of graduates, educational institutions must also carry out systematic management activities in implementing their education. There are several components to achieving quality graduates. Starting from the fulfillment of educational facilities and infrastructure, both physical and non-physical, educators and education personnel, and the most dominant is financing. (Novita, 2017: 7). When examined, the root cause of this problem is related to unstable funding. Schools are too dependent on BOS (School Operational Assistance) funds in school funding activities. This will have a negative impact that disrupts the stability of school funding when BOS funds cannot be obtained according to the planned date. Due to the difficulties in funding education, finally the organizers of elementary education units try to cover all operational needs starting from collecting or asking for help from the school committee to raise education funds. Therefore, schools must conduct local fundraising that can increase the income received by schools from the government. Perhaps more importantly, this kind of activity brings schools and their communities closer together, they create the critical partnership discussed earlier. By engaging in joint fundraising activities, schools and their leadership enjoy moral support from the community and the community can learn more about what is happening in the school and its strengths and challenges. Schools can increase their funding allocation through fundraising by asking for help from the local community.