In my experience, the influence centers around getting their own kid admitted & to stay even if their behavior or academics suggest otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A school is not going to change its worldview based on a donor. Find a school that matches your beliefs and go from there.

Disagree. Seen it first hand get push back from donors as they have the HOS's ear at private donor dinners. private events that only donors are invited to. Yes they have influence and so do their friends.

They get better seats at graduation. They get the warm greeting from HOS while you get ignored. But no, they don’t influence policy.

If the bonus is the warm greeting from
The HOS, I am ok with not being a big donor.

Anonymous wrote:If you attend a school with a Head who has been around a long time, donors really can't affect the culture. That head will heavily influence who is recruited to the board and those trustees are more controlled by him than the other way around. Anyway, a good board doesn't overreach into administrative decisions. That's bad governance.

The notion that donors get preferential treatment is just misguided. Teachers may have a sense of a student's wealth by what they say in class, but the faculty prefers not to know and advancement staff don't discuss that kind of thing with the teachers.

Wealthy families that try to use philanthropy to get, say, a student's grades changed, are doing a lot more harm than good. Schools hate that kind of quid pro quo thinking and they will push back. It can really backfire. If you even want to attempt throwing your weight around as a donor, the "high five figures" (as a PP said) is so low as to be ridiculous.

oh my sweet summer child

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A school is not going to change its worldview based on a donor. Find a school that matches your beliefs and go from there.

Disagree. Seen it first hand get push back from donors as they have the HOS's ear at private donor dinners. private events that only donors are invited to. Yes they have influence and so do their friends.

They get better seats at graduation. They get the warm greeting from HOS while you get ignored. But no, they don’t influence policy.

For what its worth, we have several huge donors in our K class (think folks with families of net worth in the range of $100 million to $1 billion who have family members on the Board, are alumni (sometimes for multiple generations)) who definitely got the worst of the teachers in the particular grade. Obviously a micro-example, but perhaps somewhat telling. At least one of these families has older children and so would have known the teachers' reputations and presumably could have asked for a particular assignment and obviously did not.

If you attend a school with a Head who has been around a long time, donors really can't affect the culture. That head will heavily influence who is recruited to the board and those trustees are more controlled by him than the other way around. Anyway, a good board doesn't overreach into administrative decisions. That's bad governance.

The notion that donors get preferential treatment is just misguided. Teachers may have a sense of a student's wealth by what they say in class, but the faculty prefers not to know and advancement staff don't discuss that kind of thing with the teachers.

Wealthy families that try to use philanthropy to get, say, a student's grades changed, are doing a lot more harm than good. Schools hate that kind of quid pro quo thinking and they will push back. It can really backfire. If you even want to attempt throwing your weight around as a donor, the "high five figures" (as a PP said) is so low as to be ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A school is not going to change its worldview based on a donor. Find a school that matches your beliefs and go from there.

Disagree. Seen it first hand get push back from donors as they have the HOS's ear at private donor dinners. private events that only donors are invited to. Yes they have influence and so do their friends.

The HOS humors them but they aren't making major changes over these whispers. The school works hard to cultivate a culture and they aren't going to make any significant changes to that just bc a couple donors want them to.

Wrong. Board can and do fire the HOS. They have that authority.

You say “wrong” but don’t remotely address what I actually said. Who cares that the board has the authority to fire the HOS? Completely irrelevant to the question of if donors can meaningfully change culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes OP, that's how private schools work in the US..it's pay to play.

I agree with that. But is the transaction disclosed ? X donated 1 million dollars so school prioritizes Y.

Also most of the money comes from tuition not donations, and I guess parents also have a say in the way the money is allocated.

Private schools are private. They can disclose what they want to disclose.

I attended private schools for 12 long years; fellow students who had parents or grandparents who were larger donors were usually treated in more special ways.

We donate in the high five figures annually to our kids' school. So either that doesn't count as a big donation or we just don't get any special treatment. I laughed at the idea that we "have the HOS's ear at private events" for bigger donors. You mean, in the 20-30 seconds that we get of saying hello and being asked about our already-graduated kids? With a line of parents also waiting to say hello listening in? Those events are just small talk and bad hors d'oeuvres, not backroom dealing.

I do, however, see the board members' and their children getting preferential treatment.

Anonymous wrote:Yes OP, that's how private schools work in the US..it's pay to play.

I agree with that. But is the transaction disclosed ? X donated 1 million dollars so school prioritizes Y.

Also most of the money comes from tuition not donations, and I guess parents also have a say in the way the money is allocated.