Supporter Update Nov 22

Supporter Update

Latest news from the Development Office

The Beckwith

A fantastic way to kick start the Centenary year!

A big thank you to everyone who supported our fantastic, inaugural Centenary event, The Beckwith, on the stunning Saturday morning back in September. A thousand people took part, raising over £8,500 for the Lord Wandsworth Foundation. Thank you so much to all who participated and helped to make it an incredible, joy-filled day.

For those that couldn’t make it, The Beckwith, named after pupil number ‘1’ (who arrived at Long Sutton in November 1922), is a beautiful 5km route which winds its way through our lush, green 1200-acre campus. The route is marked with new, bespoke way-markers handmade by our brilliant Head of Design, Claire Liggins, and takes you from the Acorn Gates, up to Sutton, through the fields up to the Chichory, through to Sheephouse Copse, then Quercus and home through Heaven and Hell.

The event had been designed to bring all corners of our community together and certainly delivered on this. Sternians, staff, pupils, governors, and friends of the College came along and either walked or ran the 5km or 10km route. We were also delighted to see that our canine friends made up a significant portion of the crowd too!

LWC Giving Day

A first for LWC!

As part of our Centenary celebrations, we are delighted to announce that we will be hosting our first ever LWC Giving Day in March 2023!

If you have not taken part in one before, a Giving Day is an online fundraising event aimed at rallying communities together to maximize awareness, engagement, and donations towards a charity during a short, targeted time period.

All Giving Days are unique and ours is designed to be a 36-hour, multi-channel fundraising event that will encourage the entire LWC community to come together and support an appeal of their choice and celebrate 100 years of LWC. We expect it to be a lot of fun with all sorts of activities and surprises planned. We do hope you will be able to get involved!

Please note that we will be writing to the entire LWC community to give everyone a chance to ‘opt-out’ of this fundraiser.

We have one, very generous donor to thank for this incredible statistic that we are so very proud of. The donor wanted to make a significant difference to Foundation families who are struggling under these tough economic times to pay their 5-10% contribution to the fees this year.

We are delighted that these families will no longer have to shoulder this burden due to the generosity of one kind individual this September.

To continue to relieve these families of this financial pressure for future years to come please discuss making a donation with the Development Office by contacting:

Sam Corfield, Development Director development@lordwandsworth.org | 01256 860243.

Decreasing Donations to The Foundation

Since the pandemic, donations towards the Lord Wandsworth Foundation have decreased significantly. It is not a surprising trend when you read the news headlines. Research from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) revealed...

Just under 5 million individuals chose not to make a one-off donation last month because of the rising cost of living – nearly one in ten people (9%). More than 3.2mn people (6%) also said they reduced or stopped a regular payment to charity because of increasing living costs.

As the Development Office navigates its way through more troubled waters, our determination to continue to offer transformational awards to children who have lost the support of one or both of their parents continues with the Development Office having to act fast with an urgent direct mail campaign to encourage giving.

We would like to thank all those who continue to give so generously as well as those who have been doing so for some time. We know times are tough and we can’t thank you enough for your support.

Fundraising Income 2021

As you can see from the graph, 2021/22 was a really tough fundraising year, that came as a stark contrast to our successful 2020/21 results.

Philanthropic income from individuals was down 56% compared to 2020/21 (from £394k to £173k), grants from trusts

and charities were up by 23% (£231k to £284k), but overall income was down by 27% (£637k to £367k). This has a huge effect on our budgets in general, but The Foundation in particular.

Whilst we appreciate the current financial situation facing many households, we very much hope that in 2022/23, our Centenary year, the LWC Community will feel able to support the College in our endeavours to ensure Foundationers have the bright futures they deserve.

Five Year Income Comparison

£700,000 £600,000 £500,000 £400,000 £300,000 £200,000 £100,000 £0

Donations from Individuals

Total Individual Giving (Donations & Legacies)

Total Income

Donations from Legacies

Income from Trusts and Charities

Centenary Appeal

The Foundation has been at the heart of our Centenary planning as we seek to raise funds through the myriad of celebrations we have scheduled throughout the year.

We were delighted to unveil our Centenary Appeal in October 2022 which outlined two fantastic, additional appeals; Foundationer Extras and the Centenary Sculpture. These new appeals will be central to our fundraising over the coming months. Read on to find out more.

Foundationer Extras

Our goal is to raise money for the array of ‘Extras’ on offer at LWC to enrich the lives of our Foundation pupils beyond the classroom. We want all pupils to flourish at LWC and make the most of everything that is on offer, to support their growth and learning. An education at LWC should be a rich and rewarding experience, with the opportunity for all to explore their talents. A Foundation Award covers the fees, but does not always extend to the incredible variety of ‘Extras’ on offer at LWC, or basic items for College life such as uniform, equipment or sports kit.

Please take a look at the infographic, with just some examples of ‘Extras’ the Fund supports.

FUNDRAISING TARGET £65,000:

Centenary Sculpture

To help mark 100 years since our first pupil, Alfred Beckwith, joined the school, we hope to commission a bronze bust of our founder Baron Sydney Stern, Lord Wandsworth. Our Centenary is the obvious and most fitting time in the story of Lord Wandsworth College to create this special monument.

The aim is for the sculpture to act as the focal point in front of our brand-new Science Centre. We plan to name this Barons Court, and envisage this courtyard having seating for pupils to gather, a stone plinth for the bust to be mounted on, and a plaque on the wall giving details about Lord Wandsworth. This will be a place where pupils can relax and enjoy the open space whilst having the opportunity to reflect and remember who generously founded their school. We have a sculptor on stand-by, waiting to be commissioned once we have reached our target. Vincent Gray has kindly

produced a maquette for us. This small “draft” gives us a good idea of what the life-sized bust will be like.

Once commissioned, Vincent will create the bust in clay and cast it in resin. The resin sculpture would then move to the foundry to be cast in bronze. The whole process will take up to six months. We very much hope to have Sydney in place in Barons Court in the summer term.

Team Sahara!

Training for our February 2023 trek continues.

A team of 27 Sternians, LWC parents, staff and governors have signed up for this epic challenge. Our team of trekkers have already met a few times to get to know each other and begin training for those long walks through the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert in Morocco. We can honestly say they are the most wonderful bunch! Not only are they giving up their time from family, work and life in general to come and trek the desert in the scorching heat, they are also devoting themselves to raising funds for The Foundation which is of course the central aim of this adventure.

If you would like to support the team you can do so by visiting the JustGiving page here...

Donor Focus

Legacy Donors

I have left a gift in my will because I feel that the opportunities I was given at Lord Wandsworth College were life-changing. The only way I can repay that debt is by helping others with similar family circumstances to reach their own potential, both academically and in terms of personal development.

In 1947, having lost my parents in the war, I was living with the family of my aunt with her husband and three very young cousins. The austerity of post war London was all pervasive so my acceptance at LWC was a godsend for all concerned. With hand on heart, I can say that my school days were happy; despite my orphan status I never felt a victim because all my fellow students had suffered similar losses. That’s why the College and the work it continues to do for those in need means a great deal to me, long may it continue.

Cliff Hilditch (716, School, 1953)

Three years after leaving LWC I got my first invitation to leave a gift to The Foundation in my will. I didn’t think twice, I immediately put a fiver in an envelope and sent it back with a note “no need to wait you can have 5% now!”

Jokes aside, I intend to honour my debt of gratitude to LWC through my will. The Foundation paid for me to get a fantastic education, not just in the classroom: it let me sail a dinghy so I could later jump on a yacht without fear; it taught me poker after lights out, so that I could survive living in Vegas. But most of all, it gave me structure when home life was unstable. And for all that I will always be grateful. I am a legacy donor and member of the 1912 Society and if you benefited like I did I think you should join me.

Lindsay MacVean (Hazelveare, 2007)

Legacy Gifts

A legacy is a simple, tax efficient and flexible way to leave a lasting gift to your old school.

Legacy giving plays a central role in the continuing prosperity of The Foundation, The Sternians Trust Fund and of course the College itself. There have at times been a handful of large, transformational bequests. Others leave more modest amounts from £500 upwards. The majority of gifts over the last few years have ranged between £5,000-£100,000. All are extremely welcome and gratefully received, and make a significant difference to pupils and families at LWC. It is a pipeline that we rely on heavily and one that we never take for granted.

1912 Society

If you have chosen to leave a gift in your will to LWC, The Foundation or the Trust Fund, please do let us know as you will then automatically become a member of our exclusive 1912 Society. As a member you will be invited to our wonderful annual event, as well as other College events throughout the year.

This year we met on 19th October at Bletchley Park for a fantastic tour followed by lunch with the Headmaster. It is as always so great to get everyone together and catch up.

REQUEST LEGACY PACK

To find out more about leaving a gift in your will and becoming a 1912 Society member contact Kate Boyd for a Legacy Pack development@lordwandsworth.org | 01256 860297