‘ limited to the occasional chook raffle or giving away a tray of meat ’. But after a US study tour he was ready to enthuse Gordon Donaldson with the idea of philanthropy . In 1981 , a ‘ strip show ’ in Assembly revealed T-shirts with the slogan ‘ Get it done in ‘ 81 ’, and a capital campaign was launched .
Gordon Donaldson said a study leave visit to the Harvard Business School in 1987 opened his eyes to fundraising . A master plan to coordinate Scotch ’ s fundraising efforts was needed , and the vison had to be more than just fundraising . Peter recalled dinners in Memorial Hall , organised by Campbell McComas (’ 69 ), and other ‘ friend-raising ’ functions , all to show that the Foundation was not just an organisation which raised money for buildings . Part of the plan was also to raise endowments for specific projects , and to create a corpus .
Gordon said that when the campaign to fund the James Forbes Academy was launched , there was a feeling in some quarters that the school had sufficient major facilities as it was – some said , why create more ? The school and the Foundation emphasised that not only would the academy be a magnificent asset to Scotch , its facilities would also be available for use by people or organisations outside the Scotch Family , and this was an important factor in gaining support from donors at all levels .
It was exciting , Gordon said , to see so many people at the dinner who had staunchly supported Scotch over so many years , and he thanked all who have contributed so generously to the school .
Tim Shearer next interviewed Bruce Brown (’ 60 ) about the forthcoming history of the Foundation , Where Thy Towers Thou Proudly Rearest , which Bruce is writing . Bruce spoke of some of the notable people who have led the Foundation , including Laurie
Muir , School Captain at the tender age of 16 , and first President of the Foundation ( 1972-74 ). In the history , Bruce said , ‘ we ’ re talking money , but we ’ re also talking people , and there has always been lots to celebrate .’ To conclude the evening , former Foundation President Brian Randall OAM (’ 51 ) was invited to the lectern , and spoke of the early days of the Foundation when it was at first difficult to ask for donations , but once the funds began to come in , the Foundation never looked back . The strong investment committee invested funds judiciously and the corpus grew . The annual report shows that the Foundation now has about 1914 members , with the aim of hitting 2000 members in this celebratory year .
A thoroughly enjoyable night of celebration and friendship drew to a close as the formalities ended and guests mingled around the tables . The great success of the night was due to the hard work of Development Office staff , led by Tim Shearer and in particular Bequest Program Manager , Sandra Dick and Foundation Coordinator , Rebecca Mortimer .
TOP , LEFT : BRIAN RANDALL OAM (’ 51 ), PENNY INGE , SCOTT MONTGOMERY (’ 85 ).
TOP , RIGHT : DAN LUO , LISA TENG , CHERRY GE . SIDE OF PAGE , TOP : PAUL ABERDEEN (’ 86 ).
MIDDLE : NEVILLE (’ 59 ) AND MARGOT YEOMANS .
BOTTOM : ( LEFT ) SCOTT MARSH AND GORDON DONALDSON AM ( RIGHT ) DAVID COPOLOV OAM (‘ 68 ).
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