The Radley Foundation

Why Do We Need It?

Why Do We Need The Foundation?

Our good reputation cannot be maintained by standing still. Anyone knowing Radley will see the evidence of a successful school - in the demand for places, the academic standards, the pastoral care, the quality of the Common Room, the success on the games field and in drama and music. But despite this evidence and despite the generosity of previous generations, which has enabled us to do so much, relatively speaking, we still lack endowment resources, when compared with other similar schools.

The College's present endowment consists of a Reserve Fund (£6.0m) created at the time of the land sales in the 1970s and increased since then by transfers from small annual surpluses. The Reserve Fund, however, is less now than it was in 1999 as a result of market conditions and expenditure on new buildings. In addition, the College has four endowed Scholarship Funds totaling £2.7m but the income from these covers little more than a quarter of our annual expenditure on scholarships and bursaries.

Council recently decided to offer the equivalent of thirty fully assisted places in the coming years; the real cost will be close to £880,000 per annum or, if these bursaries are to be funded out of income, a capital sum of at least £25m will need to be found. Whilst one way forward could be to increase fees to boost these Reserve Funds, the Council does not believe it is right to achieve from fee income the level of surplus that might be looked for in a wholly commercial organisation. It expects to continue to put aside significant sums from fee income to maintain and improve existing facilities and to contribute to new ones, but looking ahead, it is evident that the College will need to rely on The Radley Foundation to meet its objectives.