Fundraising and schools

Today most schools in the UK are looking to alumni, parents and even grandparents for voluntary financial support. Is this something new? What are schools raising money for? Bill O’Hearn tells the story.

At most independent secondary schools, benefaction of one sort or another has been critical to their historical development. A school’s very existence, or at least many of its buildings, and any endowment that supports it today are the result of benefactions given at a school’s founding or afterwards. But something curious happened from the 1950s to the 1980s; benefaction and fundraising dramatically declined or ceased altogether. Why was this the case?

Anecdotal history from Bryanston School, where I worked for three years, and from Eton College, where I have been since autumn 2005, sheds some light on the matter. In the archives of both schools one can find handsomely prepared appeal brochures from the 1950s about the necessity to build new buildings to meet the teaching and living requirements for the second half of the 20th Century. It is all remarkably contemporary material for a country that supposedly doesn’t have a ‘culture of giving’ (as compared to the USA) – a refrain so often heard that it seems to be accepted as an absolute truth. But in the 1950s, at both Eton and Bryanston, vastly different schools in history and ethos, donors provided important funding for major projects. The appeal brochures suggest that there was no sense of needing to educate old boys about philanthropy and the records show that regional committees of men were readily organised to solicit gifts from their peers around the country. It was all very forthright, well planned and done without any sense of embarrassment. Most of the individuals involved seemed to understand that appeals were an expectation, not an exception. Sadly, however, these appeals produced a rather disappointing response relative to their initial objectives. What went wrong?

For Britain most of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s were a very difficult time in terms of wealth creation, taxation and, in turn, philanthropy. In such an environment it is not surprising that voluntary contributions to schools diminished. What is happening today, therefore, is not really the wholesale creation of a philanthropic spirit, but the renewal of an impulse that has been central to the historic sustenance of many of the great educational and cultural institutions in Britain.

Thankfully since the 1980s circumstances have changed. The incentives for giving have never been better and, despite popular misconceptions to the contrary, the tax advantages for charitable contributions are very nearly as good in the UK as they are in United States, and, in some instances, perhaps better. The environment for wealth creation and taxation has certainly improved as well.

One thing that has not changed, but is often overlooked, is the fact that over the years independent schools have continued to assist a significant number of families with scholarships and bursaries. For many years, 15%-20% of the boys at Eton have received some sort of financial assistance, including boys whose families pay very little at all. These figures are similar at many other schools as well. But throughout the sector there is a sense that more should be done and at many schools this is the direct or indirect focus of fundraising initiatives. This is the case at Eton, where the school is in the planning stages for a major campaign which it is hoped, over the next ten to 20 years, will substantially add to Eton’s endowment so that it can make more funds available to permit students to attend the school who would not otherwise be able to do so – very much along the lines of the ‘needs blind’ admission system in the USA.

What does ‘needs blind’ admission mean? In practice this means that no child that seeks admission to an independent school will be denied a place because their family is unable to afford the fees. The admission decision and the financial need determination are made completely separately without one influencing the other. The object is to attract children with diverse talents and a wide variety of social backgrounds. Top US independent schools are able to this because they have raised endowments that are several times greater than even the wealthiest schools here in the UK. In addition many US independent schools have annual giving programmes that generate in excess of £1 million per year and periodically conduct capital campaigns raising millions more for building projects.

At the same time, US independent school parents still pay significant fees, confident in the knowledge that everyone has been subsidised to some degree. In practice, the majority of families pay full fees at US independent schools and schools with needs blind admission policies typically have 30-40% of families receiving some sort of means-tested scholarship or bursary. These schools still believe in the efficacy of selection, but recruit from a broad range of economic and ethnic backgrounds.

Today in the UK, nearly every independent secondary school is looking to adopt a fundraising strategy whereby endowments will be enhanced so as to permit increased access. Gifts may be sought directly for this purpose, or so that major building projects or other special projects do not depend solely on operating budgets and institutional reserves for funding, thereby freeing up these resources.

Whilst this may be described as an American import, it is, in fact, a tradition already firmly rooted, but perhaps forgotten, in many British independent schools. Previous generations of benefactors made significant contributions to make independent schools what they are today. Those that have benefitted from past generosity are now being asked to do their part for the next generation. If they respond favourably independent schools will remain places where achievement, creativity and leadership are given the very best support – whilst also becoming increasingly accessible to a wider range of applicants, whatever their family’s economic circumstance.

Bill O’Hearn is Director of Development at Eton College and formerly worked in the development offices at Bryanston and Yale.

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