12th September 2023
September marks the start of the new school year, with students returning to primary school, senior school and university across the globe. This month, we are taking a closer look at some of the educational causes that our Donor Advised Funds (DAF) and Collective Funds (CF) support.
In the UK, just under 3 million students will be going to university this month[1]. Many of Prism’s DAF clients choose to give to universities for broad causes and programmes, as well as for specific sponsorships. Scholarships supported include PHD students researching carbon capture at Imperial College London, and the living costs of a star pianist student at the Royal College of Music. One student said of the funding, “Your support inspires me to be a conscientious and strong woman in the field of engineering and helps us to build a brighter and greener future”.
Focusing on younger age groups, other DAF clients have donated to over 30 different primary and senior schools, as well as organisations such as SHINE: Support and Help in Education, which supports educational projects that work primarily with disadvantaged children and young people across the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber regions. SHINE, which has received just under £1million in funding from Prism’s DAF clients, organises projects which give the young people they work with the extra support and attention they need to learn the basic but essential tools for life.
Alternatively, some of Prism’s DAF clients look to support education overseas, donating to charities such as Room to Read, a leading international charity focusing on children’s literacy and girls’ education across Asia and Africa, which over the last 3 years has received £1,470,000 from Prism. Initiatives supported range from literacy programmes in Moulvibazar, Bangladesh, to a Read-a-thon in the Nkangala District of Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Several of our Collective Fund clients are also providing support to organisations in the literacy and education space. For example, Impande UK Charitable Fund raises money, using Prism’s ‘British Friends Of’ structure, for South African charity Impande, which builds early childhood development centres and classrooms in rural parts of South Africa. They also provide a salary for the teachers working in these centres, with over 1000 teachers now receiving an income.
Alternatively, Prism CF RefuAid provides support for refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. Their Language programme increases access to English language tuition for people who have claimed asylum in the UK or those in the process of doing so, and their education programme supports the retraining and requalifying of displaced people.
Finally, Prism’s largest CF, Choose Love, has partner organisations across the world providing educational support. One example is Mosaik Education; Choose Love are currently supporting their project which involves training and providing teaching resources for conversation-driven English language teaching, led by ‘non-qualified’ teachers – teachers who are not qualified ESOL teachers in the UK but have some experience of teaching or training. The aim of the project is to test a model of English language teaching that can create new, quality learning experiences for refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
[1] . https://www.studying-in-uk.org/international-student-statistics-in-uk/#google_vignette .
