One elite South African private school for boys raised R12.39 million in 36 hours from its alumni

South Africa • 6 November 2026 • Staff Writer

St John’s College, Houghton, has successfully raised R12.39 million from its alumni during its third annual giving day.

This is 54% more than the College’s original R8 million goal, with money coming from 795 donors, along with generous matchers who doubled all donations.

The majority of donations go towards scholarships and bursaries for boys from families that cannot ordinarily afford to attend St John’s.

St John’s has built a reputation of being one of South Africa’s best educational institutions over the past 128 years.

The College is primarily known for its academic excellence, with its scholars being admitted into top universities in South Africa and around the world.

It has even been jokingly accused of having a “Medical Mafia at work” by a former vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand.

The school is one of the largest single contributors of students to the university’s medical department.

Often compared to the mythical Hogwarts for its grandeur, the school was built on its current premises thanks to a generous donation from mining magnate Sir Thomas Cullinan.

Opened first as a parish school of St Mary’s Anglican Church on Eloff Street, St John’s was initially intended to be a choir school and produce boys to work in the famous church choirs of England.

St John’s struggled to get off its feet in the first few years due to the Anglo-Boer War and the advent of Milner Schools such as King Edward VII School to crush private education.

An order of missionary priests, the Community of the Resurrection, took control of the school in 1906 and developed it along the model of the great English public schools, such as Harrow and Eton.

In 1934, the Community handed back St John’s to the Anglican Diocese of Johannesburg after transforming it into a physical and educational giant.

It oversaw the development of the school as we know it today on the Houghton Ridge, with its iconic northern facade and quadrangles.

Today, the school offers a full education for boys from Pre-Preparatory, Preparatory, and College, all on the same campus. It also offers Cambridge A-Levels in its VI Form.

Known for its academics, St John’s regularly ranks as the top boys’ school in South Africa, with a handful of its students gaining access to prestigious universities around the world.

The school’s facilities remain world-class and historic, with the tallest working bell tower in South Africa, a large Memorial Chapel, and cloisters that rival those of ancient European cathedrals.

Giving Day 2026

More recently, St John’s has launched its Giving Day initiative, which runs annually and aims to raise funds from its vast alumni network for future investment.

In its third instalment, the school set a target of R8 million to be raised in 36 hours. It smashed this target, raising R12.38 million.

Contributions during Giving Day are doubled by Matching Donors and are tax-deductible if they are made in rands, dollars, or pounds, with the College having registered entities in South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The College attracted 795 unique donors, with the largest contributions of R500,000 being made by an anonymous donor and the Sithole family, respectively.

Other families and trusts donated individual sums of R450,000, R300,000, and R250,000.

The donors could dedicate their donations to the houses they attended at the school, with Clayton raising the most at R1.65 million, followed by Hill and Nash.

Double Matchers included anonymous donors and a handful of illustrious St John’s families.

Donors could also direct their funding in specific ways, choosing between Scholarships and Bursaries, the School of Tomorrow, or leaving it up to the school to decide.

In a report detailing the funds received during the 2025 Giving Day, St John’s revealed that more than half of all donations go towards scholarships and bursaries.

These donations help support the 163 boys currently attending St John’s through scholarships or bursaries.

The second-largest category was the School of Tomorrow, which funds the College’s world-class facilities. Some of this funding is set aside for longer-term capital projects.

A large portion of the donations also went to the Academy Sustainability Fund, which supports St John’s Academy.

Launched in 2008, the Academy partners with inner-city schools to support learning and provide boys from underprivileged areas with access to high-quality education.