BECOME A DONOR

We receive financial contributions in several ways. All are valuable!

• SINGLE GIFTS. Any time you wish to make a donation, of any size, please send us a cheque! You can, if you wish, specify what aspects of our work you would prefer it to be spent on.

• STANDING ORDERS. You ask your bank to make regular payments to the ERT. You control what goes out, when, and for how long. Download the standing order form, complete and send it to the ERT (address on the form). If you are a UK taxpayer, also download the Gift Aid form and send it to us. The taxman increases your donation by the standard rate of income tax.
• LEGACIES. Several Friends have told us they have remembered the Trust in their will. In 2001 the late Valerie Warner left us her house in London in her will, the biggest legacy we have yet received in the UK. Valerie was devoted to the education that the ERT promotes, and she taught music to the St James pupils in London.
  Legacies are a highly tax-advantageous way of giving to charity, and yet they are surprisingly neglected. Many people simply never get around to making a will. Download our legacy form or e mail us for a copy of the legacy brochure.
• PROJECT FUNDING. We invite grant-making organisations, as well as wealthy individual donors, to support the development of our schools across the world. We have received valuable support from the Dulverton Trust, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Paget Charitable Trust, the Joseph Frazer Strong Trust, Open Gate and the Rothenberg Charitable Foundation. UNESCO funded some ERT teacher training seminars in Trinidad. We have also received some exceptionally generous donations from private individuals in the UK and elsewhere. They bear out our theory that the wealthy people that support us are ‘rich outside because they are rich within.’
  There are many projects that need support. The funding needs range from £500 to £500,000. For example, bursaries for children are a priority in South Africa and the UK. There are sometimes teaching posts to be sponsored. Many of the schools need more space, new equipment and more adequate buildings.
  Internationally, the ERT would like to run more teacher-training, and to fund more secondments and exchanges.
  The ERT fundraising team is continually talking to potential donors, tailoring proposals to their priorities and interests. Please contact us if you would like us to design a proposal for you to send to someone.
• SPONSOR A CHILD. We have set up schemes with St James Johannesburg and St James Durban to allow Friends in the UK to help disadvantaged children to attend the schools. As many of the children are in need of bursaries, this scheme makes sense, especially considering the low rate of the South African rand against the pound.
  The UK-based sponsor contributes a regular sum to the ERT, equivalent to the cost of a bursary in rands. We pass this on to the South African school, who allocates it to a pupil. The child is asked to write to the donor once a term, giving news of his or her schooling. As several charities have discovered, this creates a bond between sponsor and child, and makes the situation in South Africa that much more real for the donor. From the school’s point of view, it represents a guaranteed source of income to support a pupil.
  Naturally, the sponsor needs to be able to commit to sponsoring the child for a number of years - say the length of the child’s primary or secondary education at St James. As an example, just £500 a year is enough to sponsor a child on an average bursary.
  If you are interested in becoming a child sponsor, please get in touch with Dorothy Venables at admin@ert.org.uk or 020 7727 8611.