Fundraising

Bishops has the advantage of catering in large part to an affluent community. It was not always so and concerns about financial resources have always been present in the minds of Council and management. There have been three primary sources of funds – fees, the endowment (funds stored in interest-bearing instruments, and constantly and protectively guarded by the Investment Committee of Council, which usually attracted some of the top experts in investment management in Cape Town) and occasional donations and gifts.

Specific fund-raising activities have been a part of Bishops history all along and have taken many different forms. Both Chapels were built with funds raised by subscriptions, and the Four Schools Trust together with certain individual bequests made possible the buildings that were erected between 1954 and 1970. After this came the “Bishops 125” Appeal which raised over a million rand, and resulted in further enlargement of the buildings on Bishops grounds. This Appeal closed in 1980. In order to facilitate future campaigns, Council decided to set in place the Bishops Trust. After John Peake’s arrival in 1983, the Bishops Development Appeal (1984-1989) using the Trust as the vehicle for gathering the contributions, was instrumental in providing the resources that enabled the improvements that John Peake put in place during the 1980s.

The next appeal, the 150 Appeal, was launched in 1996, which aimed to raise R15 million. Three main areas were targeted – Technology, People and Facilities. In the end, R7 million was raised and was largely spent on making improvements to the existing plant. The only new building to come from this Appeal was the Rossall Pavilion at the Prep. Pension and bursary funds benefited.

During the 2010 conference, held in September 2001, there was a strong lobby for a more business-oriented approach to the question of fundraising. Not only did the school need a business manager, but the Action Plan also called for the fundraising efforts to be continuous and run by a professional office within the school. Accordingly, in 2004, the Development Office was set up, and a Director was appointed in the person of Jessica Setterberg. The approach that was to be adopted was called the Advancement model – a pattern of integrating marketing, communications and fundraising – that had been very successful here in other ventures in South Africa and internationally. The Office focused on marketing the school and developing a long-term (15 year) campaign based on three identified needs. These were presented in the Three-Pillar Plan , which addressed People, Projects, and Programmes. This Plan was addressed to all members of the Bishops Family including ODs, past, current, and prospective parents, the corporate sector, other interested parties, and charitable trusts and foundations, both locally and internationally.

In order to reach as many people as possible, teams were set up to make personal approaches to people, and for this to be effective, a major effort went into updating and consolidating the databases of people and institutions with connections to the school.

The Three Pillars addressed the following projects within each of the Pillars. Under people, Scholarships (Academic, Sporting and Cultural), Bursaries (2010, i.e. Diversity, ODs and compassionate) and Staff (general development, incentivise and attract, internships and trainees, and welfare). Under projects, there were two areas of focus – Outreach and community relationships, and then Buildings and Facilities, and the specified list of these included a central lecture theatre and classrooms, an upgrade to the Mallett Centre, a hockey pavilion and change rooms, staff housing, and an OD clubhouse and offices.