Economy / Donations to Schools?

[Anonymous]

I'm working on raising funds for my child's independent school - annual fund & auction

[Anonymous]

I assume your question is "Will the current situation on Wall Street and the economy in general affect the amount of donations school's will receive?" I'm no expert, but I would certainly think the answer is a resounding YES!

[Anonymous]

Ditto. We will cut way back. We gave close to $9,000 last year. This year it will be more like $1,000.

[Anonymous]

We should all remember that this is the time independent schools will really need donations from those who can afford it. The caliber of the student body of any school will suffer if the school does not have sufficient financial aid resources to attract the brightest kids, regardless of resources. Even though we do not receive aid, I definitely considered that in choosing a school. I did not want my children to go to private school with just rich kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ditto. We will cut way back. We gave close to $9,000 last year. This year it will be more like $1,000.

Really, $9,000. Call me naive but are people actually making donations of that size?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ditto. We will cut way back. We gave close to $9,000 last year. This year it will be more like $1,000.

Really, $9,000. Call me naive but are people actually making donations of that size?

Yes. I'm the PP.

5K Building Campaign
2500 Annual Fund (funds operating expenses of the school)
$250 outright to the scholarship fund, plus another $500 - $700 or so spent at the tuition assistance auction. Plus we raised another $800 or so for the scholarship fund by donating a week at our very modest second home to the auction.

We believed in the school's building campaign. We also gave $5K to our church for their drive to pay off the mortgage, and another $3K+ to the church generally.

We are not rich by any means. Our school's building campaign had donations from $2K to $200K. We just put our money in things we believe in. This year, given the economy and the fact that our retirement savings are decimated, we will not be able to do those things. It will be all we can do to pay for childcare and school tuition plus a vacation we drive to in the U.S.

Not sure why I am airing my finances to this board, but yes, people do really give that much to the schools, and it's not just rich people. Not sure what it was about the question that bothered me, but something did.

[Anonymous]

sorry if something in my question bothered you - it wasn't intended that way. I applaud your generosity to your school & church, and wish we were in a position to do the same.