5 Steps to Get Started

 
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STEP 1
Designate a US representative

Before you begin an application to become an approved BSUF institution, you must have a representative in the U.S. that can help you mobilize support for your appeal.  In our experience, the individual chosen to represent an institution in the U.S. can make a big difference in the amount of support. 

Download our suggested guidelines for choosing a representative and please consult our Statement of Purposes and Policies for additional criteria used in approving institutions.

 

STEP 2
Apply for BSUF approval for your institution

The head of the institution must complete the BSUF Application Form to describe your institution and the purpose of your fundraising initiatives. BSUF makes grants to public, private, sectarian, and non-sectarian schools, colleges, universities, and other educational, scientific and literary organizations in the Commonwealth.

The BSUF has two minimum requirements for every applying institution. First, while there is no fixed minimum, it is desirable that an institution have a U.S. constituency of 25 or more individuals. Second, one of these constituents should be willing to serve as its representative in the US.

If you have any questions about the application process, please email us.

 

STEP 3
Prepare your fundraising language

First: is it important that BSUF's role in your fundraising is accurately described. Please use the language below.

Second: please email us your draft solicitation letters for a quick review, and so that we may be certain that donors will be correctly informed about BSUF.

Finally: please feel free to direct your donors to our Annual Reports. 

Required language for mailings
To make a gift and take a U.S. income tax deduction, you may make a donation to the British Schools & Universities Foundation (Federal Tax ID 13-616-1189), a charitable organization approved by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service under code Section 501(c)(3). Write your check to the order of the British Schools & Universities Foundation. You should express a preference for {{the institution}} in your transmittal letter, not on your check. Such preferences are respected by the Foundation but all grants are made at its sole discretion, as required by the IRS.

 

STEP 4
Prepare your donor transmittal form

All donors will need to include a donor transmittal form (or something similar) to ensure that all necessary information is received from the donor. Your donors can make donations in two ways:

  1. Donors can donate directly to BSUF by check or credit card. Learn more about donating directly to BSUF.

  2. Donors can mail a check (payable to BSUF) to you. If you prefer to collect checks directly so that you can track donations, you should forward all checks to BSUF at least monthly.

 

STEP 5
Fundraise

If you receive checks directly, please forward checks to BSUF at least monthly. Your donors can donate in many ways; learn more on our donations page.

How are donations processed?
The BSUF board meets four times per year to vote on donations. See our meeting schedule. After donations are voted on by the directors, they are changed into £ Sterling and then wired as a grant to our institutions. This takes between ten days and two weeks. As we wire the grants we will send you an email with the names of the donors and how much they gave.

Please note that BSUF has no control over the exchange rate. This is done by HSBC on the day our dollar donations are sent to the UK in preparation for being wired to our British or British Commonwealth institutions.

Finally, when we receive donations from Donor Advised Funds, we often receive a check with no information about the donor or the preferred institution. When this happens, we try to get this information from the Fund, but if they refuse to share this information BSUF will record the gift as one made to the foundation until we can identify the true donor and the purposes for which the donation was made.