Developments in the Trust
The Bishops Trust was established in 1981 with John Selfe as its Honorary Director. The Bishops Council set it up to help provide a constant flow of funding for the school especially for endowment and bursary purposes. Quoting from the publicity document released at the time, “The objects of the Trust, in terms of the Deed, are to provide the opportunity to attract funds to ensure the progressive development and endowment of Bishops; to collect and receive funds or other assets both movable and immovable from interested parties; to ensure that the aims and achievements of Bishops are given the widest publicity; and to improve the communication between all interested parties, to remind them of the needs of the school and encourage them to remember Bishops in their wills.
“The purposes for which any funds attracted by the Trust may be used by the College Council, are to provide for the progressive development of Bishops by the erection of new buildings or additions or alterations to existing buildings, to ensure that the staff/pupil ratio is adequate, to purchase immovable property or special school equipment, to make provision for repayment of any loans outstanding from time to time, to provide endowment for the augmentation of staff pensions or other benefits or of staff salaries if the normal provision for this is considered inadequate, to provide for scholarships and bursaries, and for such other purposes as the council may decide.”
Fundraising had usually been linked to a particular campaign – the 125 Anniversary (John Newman and others), the Bishops Development Appeal (1984), the 150 Appeal (1996) , or to specific buildings – the Heatlie in 1992. Although these Appeals were led by specific individuals, the Trust provided office support for these campaigns.
There was also a concern that the State might seek to nationalise the ‘private’ schools, and having a Trust would afford a measure of protection for the assets of the school. The original deed setting up the Trust was modified in 2008, at which point, the Chairman of Council, the Principal, and the Chairman of the ODU Committee were ex officio trustees of the Bishops Trust, with two others. These two others would be appointed by the Bishops Council. A requirement of the Trust Deed is that by the end of each year, a minimum of 75% of monies lodged with the Trust had to be paid over to the sole beneficiary, the School. Where donations were intended for specific purposes, the school allocated the money to that purpose. The amount of money coming through depended largely on whatever fundraising projects the school was promoting.
Following the 2010 Conference, Philip Wheeler was appointed as General Manager of Bishops in 2002 to handle business matters and fundraising. The Trust was still in existence, but not taking the lead in any fundraising. Council decided that there should be a specific arm of the school directed towards continuous fund-raising. The Trust would still play its part in tax concessions and channelling funds from overseas – there were Trusts in the United Kingdom, the USA and Canada. Wheeler left at the end of 2002 after a year in the position.
In 2004, Jessica
Setterberg was appointed Director of the newly set up Development Office. While the Trust itself remained functional, the fundraising task was undertaken by the Development Office. Money raised by the Development Office was channelled through the Trust to the school. Jessica resigned in 2009, and the fundraising and marketing activities were taken up by the Principal’s Office. When the executive structure of the school was reversed in 2013, there was no official body engaged in regular fund-raising. To rectify this, Brian Robertson was appointed Development and Funding Director in 2014, working with the school and the ODU for the Trust, although he only remained in the position for one year.
The Bishops Trust committee in March 2014 was comprised of the following: Alan Ramsay (Chairman), Guy Pearson (Principal Ex Officio), Brian Robertson (Chairman OD Union Ex Officio), Michael Bourne (Chairman of Finance Committee) Mike Bosman (Chairman of Council), Sean King (Secretary). At the end of the year, the trustees were Bosman, Pearson, Robertson and Bourne.
There were equivalent Trusts in the United Kingdom (Diocesan College UK Trust); in the United States (The Bishops Foundation); and in Canada (Diocesan College Trust Canada).
There was minimal fundraising by the school after 2013, and thus there were several years of inactivity, until 2016, when the Trust was revived, headed by Andrew Selby who was chairman of the Finance committee of Council. Mrs Nikki Matthews was appointed Trust Secretary in 2016.
This revival enabled the launch of the 175 Campaign in November 2016. People were invited to a formal function to publicise this. The Chairman of Council, Mike Bosman, opened the gathering and welcomed people. The Chairman of the Trust, Andrew Selby introduced the Trust and its objectives. The aim was to raise R175 million to mark the 175th anniversary of the school’s founding. A focus group led by the school architects had conducted an analysis of the school’s physical needs, and Guy Pearson outlined what the group was proposing.
Raymond Ackerman started the campaign by giving R20 million. The vision of this campaign was to safeguard the long term sustainability of the school and ensure that it continued to be recognised as a leading school for boys. There were three stated objectives – to provide capital to build world class facilities; to provide bursaries through the Hamilton Mvelase Bursary Fund for skilled individuals who would otherwise not be able to afford the opportunity of attending Bishops; and to increase annual donations to the General Endowment Fund to ensure a general sustainability for Bishops. Donors were able to indicate on their donation forms which objective they wanted their donation to benefit.
The first big project of the Trust’s fundraising effort was the Prep Library and Learning Centre, completed in 2019. The new Chairman of Council, Simon Peile, appointed Mark Jefferies to lead the fundraising campaign from 2019.
Samantha Petersen replaced Andrew Selby as Chair, and she in turn was followed by Jan Newman, whose father, John Newman, had started the Trust in 1981.
Covid brought the public activities of the Trust to a sudden halt when the lockdown was enforced in March 2020, but the lull enabled the Trustees to undertake a reconsideration of the priorities and to refocus the Trust’s activities. There was then a shift in priorities – the primary target initially had been the capital development and upgrading of the physical infrastructure of the school, but this gave way to focusing more on growing the bursary funds in order to broaden the school’s ability to accommodate the sorts of pupils who would benefit most from what Bishops had to offer. The buildings became second priority and growing the General Endowment the third. The Trusts in the USA and Canada became dormant.
Associated with this re-launch was the re-instatement of the Hamilton Mvelase Scholarships. Under John Peake’s leadership in the 1980s, sufficient funds had been raised from big corporates and embassies for the school to support black pupils coming from township schools. There were seven scholars each year. After Hamilton Mvelase’s sad death in 1991, these scholarships were named in his memory. However, with the unbanning of the ANC and the first democratic elections, the funding dried up and the school did not have sufficient money in the endowment to maintain these scholarships, and the scheme lapsed.
After the Hamilton Mvelase Trust was re-instated, this was followed by the creation of the Russell Adams Scholarships. Other scholarship set up by individual donations included the Christian Rohrer Bursary, and the Pippa Frater Scholarship. A very successful venture was the Extra Term Initiative in which parents were prompted to pay an extra term’s fees which could then be used to support other boys who needed this level of support. As of 2023, the executive decided that no distinction should be made between scholarships or bursaries from whatever source, and all boys receiving any benefit were to be called ‘Diocesan Scholars’.
Covid delayed the fundraising project, and this delay meant that the Sports Complex which had been the lead item in the Appeal launch, would cost more than could be raised in time for the 175 celebrations. Instead, the Ubuntu Learning Center in the middle of the school was given the go-ahead, and this will be opened during 2024.
