Sibling applying, considering donation amount

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about "silly." There are a lot of new families for the development staff to get to know quickly. They're probably reaching out to get to know lots of parents, and are trying to identify those that maybe have philanthropic capacity, experience with independent schools, and maybe some past board service.

I'd just ask about the goals of the campaign and the community's progress towards them. They'll do the rest of the talking. If you can do what they ask (which could just be an extra generous annual fund gift this year), you've made their jobs easy for them. And if you have a genuine interest in some kind of volunteer role outside the parents association, ask about those for sometime in the future (but don't push). They now have two reasons to love you, and they will let the Head know. That's all you need to do. No need to be obvious about a future application, which would seem transactional.

You are delusional if you think the development office worker is going to let the head of the school know about your meeting and interest in helping the school. Not happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest started 3rd grade this year at one of the more competitive admissions process schools. We've been thrilled with the school, and want her younger sister to attend from prekindergarten onward if possible. Our younger one will be applying to preK next year (in Fall 2026).

It sounds like our 3rd grader is doing well (her teachers have mentioned a few times how well things are going and what a positive addition she is to the class), which should hopefully help her sister's application (I think, at least?).

The school (like most, I presume) heavily encourages parent donations. We've received some mass emails and mailed communications about how we can donate, and there are numerous school events throughout the year where parents are encouraged to make an annual monetary donation to the school. We've also been contacted directly by the person who heads fundraising for the school asking for a meeting (we have that meeting scheduled in 3 weeks time).

We are decently charitable people, and we are happy to give something to the school, but we are sort of stuck on what the right number is. And more specifically, what number the school would want to more favorably look at our younger's application. And perhaps what number is too low that it would actually hurt our younger child's application.

My husband and I both have jobs that tend to have wide ranging income potentials, so I don't think the school can glean how well off (or not) we are from that. The only data they presumably have is that we pay full tuition and we bought our home two years ago for $2.7 million. We are financially comfortable, but not splashy rich by any means (we both work, we budget, we drive normal cars etc - and we now have to consider paying 2 large private school tuitions if our younger child gets in).

I apologize if this is a weird question and I do appreciate any answers, as we are totally new to the private school world.

They know your net worth. They can purchase lists that tell them, so if the head of fundraising is asking for a meeting, they are asking for a large gift

[Anonymous]

Thanks for confirming our decision to stick with public schools. This is nuts. What’s next? Varsity Blues?