Donations for bombing victims welcome at Edwardes College Compassion Appeal

In response to the announcement of the Edwardes College Compassion Appeal, which is being established to reach out to the families of Edwardes students and alumni who were killed or injured in the bombing at All Saints’ Church, Peshawar, on Sept. 22, one reader asked:

Will there be a way for friends from around the world to contribute to the fund for the Edwardes families?

The answer for people in the USA, which is where this inquiry originated, is Yes: through the British Schools and Universities Foundation, Inc. (BSUF), which is a USA-based tax-deductible (501c3) organization established in the 1960′s specifically to facilitate tax-deductible donations from persons in the USA to schools and universities located in Commonwealth countries.

Cheques should be made out to British Schools and Universities Foundation (or BSUF), Inc.  It should be accompanied by the BSUF Donor Transmittal Form with “Edwardes College Peshawar: Compassion Fund” noted on the support preference line.  Your cheque and the form should then be mailed to BSUF at: 575 Madison Ave, Suite 1006, New York, NY 10022-2511. The foundation will then pass on the donation to Edwardes for the Compassion Appeal.

The BSUF website has the Donor Transmittal Form and also a facility for making donations electronically via credit card or PayPal .

For persons in other parts of the world: Crossed cheques made payable to Edwardes College Peshawar should be sent to: Finance Director, Edwardes College, Mall Road, Peshawar Cantonment 25000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  The memo line should read: “Compassion Appeal.”  Call +92-91-5275236 to clarify any details.

The announcement of Edwardes being approved for the BSUF conduit as a general practice appeared on the Edwardes College website in July, and the full text appears below:

Edwardes College has been approved as a destination for tax-deductible donations for US-based persons who may wish to support the College through the British Schools and Universities Foundation, Inc. (BSUF), Principal Dr Titus Presler announced. This means that potential donors now have a channel through which their contributions can be tax-deductible according to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States.

Edwardes applied to be an approved institution for BSUF early in 2013 through the efforts of Institutional Advancement Officer Bilal Ahmad and the Principal. On 11 June 2013, Chairman David Lipson of the BSUF Board of Directors wrote saying,

I have the pleasure to inform you that at the June meting of our Board of Directors Edwardes College was approved to be fully qualified to receive grants from the British Schools and Universities Foundation.

As you know, this approval gives the College alumni the opportunity to make their tax-deductible gifts to BSUF, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that is recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service. We would like to encourage your patrons and associates also to support the College by sending donations directly to us and in doing so to express a specific preference for the institution at the time of their gift.

Cheques should be made out to British Schools and Universities Foundation, Inc., or simply BSUF, and sent to the organization at 575 Madison Avenue, Suite 1006, New York, NY 10022-2511, USA. “Edwardes College Peshawar” should be entered on the memo line of the cheque. BSUF also suggests enclosing the BSUF Donor Transmittal Form available at www.bsuf.org/DonorInfo.html so that BSUF can send the donor the certificate confirming the donation for tax filing. The website has information about making donations via credit card and from mobile devices and about making tax-deductible bequests, legacies, and transfers.

When BSUF receives a donation for which the donor has expressed a preference that the donation be used for the support of Edwardes College, the Board of Directors considers the donation at its next meeting and votes the designation, after which the contribution is sent directly to Edwardes. Managed by volunteers, BSUF makes no deductions for administrative costs.

The US-based Edwardian contact person for BSUF is Mr Omar Nadeem, who works at Intel, the computer chip manufacturer, in California.  He is an FSc alumnus of the College.

British Schools and Universities Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit educational, scientific and literary foundation that was incorporated in 1961 specifically to function as a conduit for USA-based persons, often alumni of British schools and universities, to make tax-deductible contributions to schools, colleges and universities in Britain and the Commonwealth. Edwardes College qualifies as a member institution because it is in a Commonwealth country.

BSUF has about 200 member institutions, the vast majority of them within the UK. Among the more well known are Eton College, Harrow School, Trinity College Cambridge, Trinity College Oxford, Pembroke College Oxford, Jesus College Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, Liverpool Hope University, University of Liverpool, University of Leicester, University of Glasgow, and University of Aberdeen. There are 11 institutions in Australia, 2 in Singapore, 1 in Uganda, and 1 in the Solomon Islands. So far, Edwardes College is the only participating institution in Pakistan or South Asia.

“This is an important step forward in our institutional advancement efforts,” Institutional Advancement Officer Bilal Ahmad said. “The BSUF will make it more attractive for potential US donors to contribute to Edwardes, and it relieves us of the expensive and time-consuming task of establishing our own tax-exempt US organization.”

“Part of becoming a global institution is participating in global networks,” Dr Presler said. “In addition to the practical advantages for US-based fundraising, our connection with BSUF links us with peer institutions around the world.” He noted that it was another global link catalyzed by General Secretary Canon James Callaway of Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC), who made him aware of BSUF during a lunch in New York City in January 2013. Since then Edwardes has been accepted as a member institution of CUAC as well.

A good deal of the time the Principal spends outside Pakistan is spent in developing relationships that can support the College through funding and other means.  The UK Friends of Edwardes College is in process of formation in London, and plans are underway for an organizational meeting of the USA Friends of Edwardes College in Virginia this month.