Sydney’s top private schools rake in millions in donations

Donations made to some of Sydney’s top private schools almost doubled between 2016 and 2019,as 20 schools drew in almost $340 million in contributions from parents and alumni over a six-year timeframe.

The windfall comes as the city’s high-fee independent schools ramp up fundraising drives to bankroll major infrastructure projects as they look toboost student caps,overhaul ageing buildings,expand sports facilities and invest in scholarship and bursary programs.

Private school The Scots College in Bellevue Hill received about $53 million in donations from parents and alumni from 2016 to 2021.

Private school The Scots College in Bellevue Hill received about $53 million in donations from parents and alumni from 2016 to 2021.Louise Kennerley

An analysis byThe Sun-Herald examined the financial records of 20 schools that raised some of the highest donations from 2016 to 2021,tallying the amount each school collected from foundations,trusts,school building funds and parents’ associations.

All-boys schools The Scots College,Cranbrook and Shore topped the list with some of the largest donations from parents and alumni,receiving more than $32 million each in the six-year period.

In 2016,the total amount received by the 20 schools that had among the highest donations was $36 million,but surged to almost $71 million in 2019. In 2020 and 2021 the amount fell to an average of just over $62 million for each year.

John Simpson,a specialist in education governance,said school fundraising had become an industry in its own right.

“The funds raised are staggering seen over recent years and show the affection people have for their old schools,” he said.

“Traditionally,boys schools have been more successful in raising money than girls schools. School foundations started at boys schools decades ahead of girls schools and have tended to attract more sizeable donations. This could change over the coming decades.”

The highest-fee private schools do not qualify for capital grants from the government,and run their own fundraising drives for building upgrades and infrastructure. Public funding for private schools must be spent on the costs of running the schools,rather than on capital works.

David Cross,chief executive of the think tank the Blueprint Institute,said that,given some private schools have a larger proportion of high net worth people in their communities,it was not surprising there were proportionally greater donations to these schools.

“Parents should feel free to donate money in ways that they see fit. However,with private school fees rising to ever more stratospheric heights,schools should not be putting pressure on parents to donate,” he said.

“Too often schools that have parents remortgaging their homes to keep their kids enrolled place parents under pressure to donate yet more on top of the fees so that they can build superfluous infrastructure that has little educational benefit.”

Private schools are raising fees about 3 to 7 per cent this year; eight schools are charging more than $40,000 for year 12.

The Scots College principal Ian Lambert said donations to the 130-year-old Bellevue Hill school had increased as the school harnessed support from parents,alumni,staff and community church members.

“The majority of our donations support key infrastructure projects and Indigenous education bursaries. The cost of maintaining historic buildings and building 21st-century learning spaces cannot be met through our school fees and government funding,” he said.

Scots,which received about $53 million in donations in the past six years, is transforming its Stevenson Library into a new student centre designed to resemble a Scottish baronial castle with a rooftop terrace.

Cranbrook recently unveiled a $125 million new building and aquatic centre that was supported by major donors,while SCEGGS Darlinghurst raised more than $500,000 at its November giving day for new buildings and scholarship programs.

A spokesman for The King’s School,which is planning a new sport pavilion and a STEM building,said the overwhelming majority of donations came from old boys and their families.

“Benefactors have contributed significant sums that have contributed to the purchase or construction of many iconic facilities at the school,” he said. “The income[also] sustains extensive scholarships and bursaries program.”

Simpson said Australians tended to favour their old schools as opposed to their universities in giving decisions,which is the reverse of the practice in the United States.

“That said,universities have been very successful in recent decades in attracting impact philanthropy,usually tied to research or applied outcomes,” he said.

David Hetherington,chief executive of the Public Education Foundation,said independent schools were locked into an arms race in infrastructure spending.

“It’s a competition,and some schools have built sophisticated fundraising models to raise tax-deductable donations,” he said.

“In a sense they are starting to borrow from the models universities use,especially American universities that have pioneered sophisticated alumni relationship building.”

As fees and donations rise,private schools are also facing the loss of tens of millions of dollars in government money as funding levels are adjusted over the next seven years under the schooling resource standard (SRS).

Verity Firth,pro vice chancellor at University of Technology Sydney and former NSW Labor education minister,said the amount raised by some school communities to contribute to the funding of their school was far greater than the amount predicted through the current SRS formula.

“Private contributions at this level should be part of the assessment when determining government funding,” she said.

“At a time when the education achievement gap between students from higher income backgrounds and those from lower income backgrounds continues to grow,the funding system needs to ensure that government funding is directed to where it is needed most,” Firth said.

The NSW government spent $2.7 billion on new schools and upgrading infrastructure in the last financial year.

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Lucy Carroll is education editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously a health reporter.

Nigel Gladstone is an investigative journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.

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