Aiglon College, perched high in the breathtaking setting of Villars-sur-Ollon in the Swiss Alps, is one of the world’s most distinctive not-for-profit schools. Founded by John Corlette in 1949, philanthropy is tightly woven into the school’s history. In 2021, More was approached by Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement, Karen Sandri, to help Aiglon implement best practice and create a trustworthy and scalable philanthropy strategy.

The brief
Following a leadership transition at Aiglon in 2021, long-time Aiglon employee Karen Sandri took up the role of Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement. Karen had a deep understanding of the school’s community, and was conscious of historic pockets of uncertainty around philanthropy and its value for Aiglon.

“Working with the new School Director and CFO, we really wanted to re-engage our parents and alumni with the philanthropic culture on which the school was built,” explains Karen. “To do this, we needed buy-in from across the school, and an inspiring and transparent story about the difference donors could make.”

Karen was looking for an experienced partner to help ensure Aiglon was in the strongest possible position to scale up philanthropic activity and ambition. After working with More Partnership previously at Aiglon in 2013, Karen approached us once more, and Partner Maarten Vervaat and Associate Partner Dave Shepherd were on hand to provide support.

Building trust and confidence
“Karen and the team at Aiglon had an incredible community at their fingertips, with strong affinity to the school and capacity to give generously. But the community needed to see a clear plan for philanthropic support to know their generosity would have genuine impact”, explains Dave.

To help them do that, Dave and Maarten enlisted the help of colleague, Laura Phipps. After consulting across the school, the team drafted Aiglon’s master case for support, ‘Going Beyond’. From this, Karen developed a series of mini cases for support around particular areas of need, including scholarships.

“The case for support work really focused Aiglon’s leadership on what our fundraising priorities were,” explains Karen. “It was a really inclusive process and we built teams across the school to support each of our fundraising priorities, including creating a new scholarship committee. This helped with transparency, and built trust and buy-in internally as well as with donors. Now everyone understands that to get things done better and faster, they need to talk to the Advancement team!”

Hands-on support
Maarten and Dave supported Karen in creating a roadmap of actions to grow philanthropy at Aiglon. After this, Dave was asked to join the team on site for two years as a Philanthropic Advisor to help Karen implement the roadmap. This involved building, cleaning and refining the database, establishing a stewardship programme and impact report, and expanding the ambitions of the school’s Annual Fund.

“It was really valuable to have Dave and Maarten alongside me, to validate my thinking and be an experienced sounding board every step of the way,” explains Karen.

The impact
“It’s been incredible to see Karen modelling a culture of philanthropy to the children,” said Dave. “Philanthropy will only be really effective if it’s truly embedded in the mindset of the whole school. They’ve turned what started as a somewhat tentative culture of philanthropy a decade ago to one that embraces it wholeheartedly.”

Over the last three years, philanthropy at Aiglon has reached record heights. In the last year alone, income has doubled and donor numbers quadrupled. In 2023, Karen secured the largest gift in Aiglon’s history – a $6m unrestricted donation that is now being used to create an ambitious campus hub to unite the whole school for events and celebrations.

“Communication has been key,” explains Karen. “We now thank people well and can show concrete examples of transformation through philanthropy. In 2012, only 2% of scholarships were funded through philanthropy and today it’s 50%, for double the number of scholars. One parent funded robotics equipment and within a year, a student team had won the Swiss National Championships. Philanthropy is creating so many opportunities for our students that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Our community is starting to trust and believe in us, momentum is building and it’s an incredible feeling.”

To find out more about the bespoke support we could provide your organisation, contact us on info@morepartnership.com or 01382 224730.