Viewpoint
Elementary schools go looking for private donors
A few eyebrows were raised recently when the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) announced it was actively seeking private funding for its programs and already had its first donor lined up.
With tuition caps and the tightening of government purse-strings, universities are becoming more dependent on private funding to achieve their goals. Now the public school system seems to be following suit.
Don Taddeo, who headed Concordia’s last capital campaign, is now CEO of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) Foundation. He thinks this idea has merit.
“It’s a way of establishing a framework and structure that’s more long-term than annual,” Taddeo said in an interview.
Taddeo was a tenured professor in Communication Studies at Concordia. He served as Dean of Humanities during the ’80s, and Dean of Engineering and Computer Sciences in the early ’90s. He was a school commissioner in the ’70s, and currently sits on the board of the Villa Maria High School Foundation.
As Executive Vice-Chair of Concordia’s Campaign for a New Millennium, he was instrumental in raising $77 million for Concordia. He has been founding president and CEO of the MUHC Foundation since 1999.
“Taxes only go so far”
In short, he knows the financial pressures on both education and health institutions, two provincially funded areas that are often strapped for cash. “There’s a realization in Quebec, and in Canada, that our taxes can only go so far.”
Taddeo said our public school system is becoming increasingly heterogeneous. His own children went to the École internationale primaire de Montréal. It has a curriculum based on an international model promoting cultural awareness. The children learn a second language early, and have spent two years on a third language before they graduate to secondary school. Parents contributed $600 annually to the enriched program. However, when some parents challenged the automatic fee levy, the parents then organized a fundraising program to cover those costs.
Similarly, public schools like MIND, FACE, Royal Vale and others offer value-added programs, which incur extra costs.
“What are the alternatives?” Taddeo asked. “Pay more taxes? We’re already the highest paying constituency [in Canada].”
Unfortunately, that leaves an expanding pool of institutions and resources relying on an already overextended source of funds. “With requests from their university, church and their kids’ schools, people more and more are planning their philanthropy.”
Taddeo said that people are more likely to give when they can see a concrete result. Contributing to a school fundraising campaign for equipment that your child will use in the short term is one way to see your efforts make a difference. On the other hand, many parents already feel stretched thin with requests for money for supplies, books, field trips, and the list goes on.
Enter the opportunity for businesses to demonstrate community involvement by contributing at the grade school level.
“There’s a need to identify other sources of funding,” Taddeo said. “In addition, there’s a growing corporate understanding of the need to be socially conscious and to promote those values that enhance society.
“If the 20th century was based on a business economy, the 21st century’s will be a socially conscious one.”