Sydney private schools are publishing templates on their websites with specific legal wording so former students can bequeath their houses, share portfolios or art collections before their death.
Seeking bequests to fund expenses such as scholarships is not new, but research commissioned by industry group Philanthropy Australia last month said across all charities, more than $40 million every year is lost due to errors in legal processing or executors deciding not to pay.
Cranbrook School says the cost of funding a scholarship in perputuity stands at $750,000.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Sydney private schools’ philanthropy departments have stepped up their work over the past decade to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.
Cranbrook’s form template suggests benefactors describe their gifts with wording such as “all my shares in publicly listed companies” or by naming specific properties or artwork.
“I give and bequeath, free of all duties, taxes or deductions, to the Cranbrook Foundation,” the form states.
The cost of establishing a named scholarship at Cranbrook in perpetuity stands at $750,000. Those who remember Cranbrook in their will and whose support has made a significant difference are admitted to the school’s 1918 Society.
Other schools to have published legal bequest templates include Riverview, Pymble Ladies’ College, Abbotsleigh and Newington College.
Newington says a bequest provides much needed funds for the college to develop infrastructure and provide scholarships.Credit: Louie Douvis
St Catherine’s School in Waverley admits those who pledge a bequest to the school into its Fielding Fellowship.
“No matter how large or small, the school appreciates and acknowledges the continued generosity and impact of our St Catherine’s old girls and past parents who continue to follow in Ruth Fielding’s footsteps by supporting our girls,” a spokesman said.
In Australia, only 6.5 per cent of wills include a charity, compared to 10 per cent in the United States and 13.7 per cent in the United Kingdom, according to a report last year by JBWere.
At The King’s School, alumni who donate between $5000 and $9999 are given foundation junior fellow status. A donation of $500,000 or more qualifies someone for that school’s 1830 Society.
Over the past 10 years, The King’s School Foundation has doubled its total assets from $23.5 million in 2013 to $51.5 million in 2023. Donations currently fund scholarships and bursaries for more than 250 students.
A school spokesman said families who donate are often doing so in gratitude for the opportunity they or their children received and wanted to support the education of future generations.
“This strong sense of community and continuity is what sustains our scholarships program and enables the renewal of the School’s facilities,” he said.
According to the Philanthropy Australia research, conducted by Bequest Assist, an estimated 3 per cent of wills included a gift promised to a charity but never paid.
“Charities are bearing the full cost of this ‘missing gifts’ issue because no one is consistently checking if gifts are being paid,” it said.
The average size of a gift to all charities stands at around $143,000. Its research focused only on gifts that charities knew about. It said 33 per cent of gifts in wills were completely unknown “windfall” gifts to charities, noting the estimate of missing gifts could be much higher.
Across the nation, there was an estimated $140 billion in inheritance in 2024 with an intergenerational transfer of $5.4 trillion to come over the next two decades, said a report last year by JBWere.
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