Fifty top private schools raked in $461m in donations: Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission

Fifty top private schools raked in $461m in donations over the past five years, new analysis shows – with 10 schools pocketing almost half the total.

Ten of Australia’s top schools pocketed $207m in donations.

Fifty top private schools raked in $461m in donations over the past five years, new analysis shows.

Financial figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission show the schools averaged $9.2m in donations between 2017 and 2021, mostly from parents as well as “old boys” and “old girls’’.

Ten of Australia’s top schools pocketed $207m in donations – almost half the total.

Scotch College in Melbourne – which has educated three governors-general, four chief justices, eight premiers and five military leaders – received the most donations, totalling $30.2m over the four years from 2017 to 2020.

The school charged tuition fees of $38,280 this year, and received $7.3m in public funding in 2021.

Scots College in Sydney – which boasts billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff, artist Brett Whiteley and controversial neurosurgeon Charlie Teo among its alumni – raked in $31.8m in the five years from 2017 to 2021.

The school is charging $44,600 for Year 12 students this year, and received $9m in government funding in 2021.

Melbourne Grammar, which counts three prime ministers, four premiers, business philanthropist Ross Adler and comedian Barry Humphries among its “Old Melburnians’’, pocketed $26.7m in donations over five years.

The gifts came on top of revenue from $38,940 a year in tuition fees, $16.5m in investment income over five years and $8.1m in government funding in 2021.

Shore School, also known as Sydney Church of England Grammar School, received $25.4m in donations, as well as $11.1m in investment income over five years.

The school made headlines after an end-of-school “scavenger hunt’’ among senior students in 2020 encouraged them to “spit on a homeless man’’, “sack whack a complete random walking past” and “shit on a train’’.

The $41,889-a-year Cranbrook School in Sydney’s east, which last year investigated a student filmed giving a Nazi salute, collected $20.3m in donations.

Brisbane Grammar received $12.3m in donations and $7.6m in investment revenue over five years.

In Western Australia, Christ Church Grammar School collected $25.1m in donations over five years. Its alumni include business leaders Andrew Forrest, Peter Holmes a Court and Sir Rod Eddington.

The data from schools’ financial reports was compiled by Save Our Schools, a lobby group for public school funding.

It shows the schools also generated $50m in investment income on top of their donations.

“These are very wealthy and exclusive schools,’’ Save Our Schools convener Trevor Cobbold, a former economist with the Productivity Commission, said.

“Their average fees in 2021 were $24,423 per student.

“These 50 private schools also received $539m in funding by the commonwealth and state governments in 2020.’’

Mr Cobbold said government funding formulae ignored the schools’ fundraising revenue, and called for an end to “all government funding for wealthy, exclusive high-fee schools’’.

“They don’t need taxpayer funding,’’ he said.

“It is funding that would be better used to support disadvantaged students, and schools where additional funding will have much greater impact on improving education outcomes than the taxpayer money being squandered on wealthy schools.’’

Independent Schools Association chief executive Carolyn Grantskaln said the ability of non-government schools to raise private income through fees and donations was “already recognised’’ in the federal government’s funding formula.

“(It) takes into account each non-government school’s ability to raise fee income from its parents, based on parents’ income from tax returns, and reduces the amount of base funding going to schools accordingly,’’ she said.

“The greater the parents’ capacity to contribute, the less recurrent funding independent schools receive.

“This is why independent schools need to raise money from their families and communities through fees and fundraising.’’

The most recent funding data, for 2020/21, shows that federal, state and territory governments spent $23,200 per state school student, $14,625 for Catholic schools students and $12,214 for independent school students.

The data, from the National Report on Schooling in Australia, includes recurrent funding for salaries and running costs, as well as capital works grants for buildings and maintenance.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said fees and donations were not taken into consideration when determining federal funding for government or private schools.

“The government is committed to working with states and territories to get every school to 100 per cent of its fair funding level,’’ he said.

Mr Clare would not say if he planned to take donations into account in the next school funding agreement.