ENHANCING THE CULTURE OF

Philanthropy in its many forms is a valuable aspect of Diocesan’s history. From its very earliest days when the founders, prominent Aucklanders, contributed £350 to purchase the property the campus occupies today, giving has enabled the School to flourish. What wonderful foresight!

Today’s campus is the result of the many generations of families, staff and alumnae who have continued to contribute over the past 120 years to ensure Dio remains at the forefront of girls’ education.

The Diocesan Heritage Foundation was established in 2001 to enhance that culture of philanthropy and support the School to deliver, in Bishop Neligan’s, words “the very best scholarship for every Dio girl”. The purpose of the Foundation is to support the School through fundraising initiatives and projects to ensure the best facilities, and staff and student opportunities are available to all.

Today, there are three streams for giving to the Foundation:

Future and facilities

With the wonderful generosity of our community, the Diocesan Heritage Foundation has supported many of the School’s new facilities over the past 25 years; from the Junior School to the Aquatic Centre, the strengthening of the Chapel and the redevelopment of the Chapel Courtyard to the Performing Arts Centre.

Sport and the arts

The Foundation supports student achievement across the many sports codes, performing arts activities and the visual arts with grants and bursaries. The Sports and Arts

Funds receive donations from which grants are awarded for students to participate in national and international competitions and activities. Equipment and instruments such as the Steinway grand piano and new rowing boats are also supported by the Foundation on application.

Scholarship and support

The Staff Scholarship Fund has supported Dio staff to attend outstanding career opportunities globally. Recently Lisa Mave (Head of Social Sciences Faculty) went to the Inge Woolf Memorial Seminar in Jerusalem – read about her experience on page 25 of this magazine.

Student scholarships, bursaries and grants have supported students in several ways. These may be awarded at prize giving – such as music awards; supporting academic success – a student attending the World Bio

Olympiad or a Future Problem Solving competition; or, as in the ‘Dio Together 2020’ campaign, when the pandemic hit, assisting families to ensure their daughters could stay at Dio when family circumstances had changed.

The Heritage Foundation trustees

The trustees’ principal role is to oversee the investment of the Fund. Despite a high level of turbulence in global financial markets over the last year, the Fund has proved resilient, reflecting the lower risk and diversified investment approach implemented by the Foundation early in 2021.

The Foundation’s investment consultant EriksensGlobal continues to closely monitor the current selection of fund managers within the parameters set by the Foundation, and with consideration for the ongoing uncertain and volatile outlook across financial markets.

We have recently welcomed Jenny Spillane and Terence Ng as trustees.

Jenny Spillane

Jenny is a proud Dio alumna, along with her two daughters Eleanor and Natalie. Jenny joined the Diocesan Alumnae Association Committee in 2015 and was President from 2017 until 2021. She remains on the committee as vice president. Jenny was appointed as a trustee of the Diocesan Heritage Foundation in August 2022 and brings extensive commercial legal experience from working in in-house legal roles across different industries.

Terence Ng

Terence joined the Foundation in February 2023, and he and his wife Michelle have a daughter at Dio and a son at King’s College. Terence is a partner at Buddle Findlay where he specialises in banking and finance, corporate and commercial, and property law; and has acted for clients for their outbound investments in New Zealand. Terence is passionate about quality school education and the School providing the best opportunities to its students to discover and explore their full potential.

We are one and together we can truly impact tomorrow!

The fundraising campaign for this scholarship programme seeks to raise the funds to provide two full scholarships each year for students entering Year 9 through to Year 13.

Join us in giving the opportunity of a lifetime!

The Director of Development Angela Coe oversees giving at Dio and enjoys every https://www.diocesan.school.nz/donate/ Angela Coe acoe@diocesan.school.nz

All donations are appreciated, there is no minimum! All donations are acknowledged with a tax receipt.