Since the founding of St. Margaret's Episcopal School in 1979, the commitment and generosity of our families, trustees, and friends have built the school from a patch of dirt and a few temporary trailers to a recognized leader in independent education in Southern California.

Supplying our students with a quality education depends on financial resources to support an excellent faculty, provide programs, technology, and facilities to motivate our 1,200 students, and keep the campus in good repair. Our school's phenomenal progress has been made possible by more than two decades of charitable gifts received from our generous parents, alumni parents, grandparents, trustees, and friends who built new facilities and invested in all aspects of the school.

Because charitable contributions provide the margin of excellence for St. Margaret's Episcopal School, we would like you to know the many ways in which you can enhance the education of the leaders of tomorrow.

How to Make Your Gift
There are many giving options with possible tax benefits accompanying each choice. Gifts may be tailored to express the donor’s interests and tax situation.

Fund-Raising Goals

Current Operating Support

The Annual Fund provides essential operating support for St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and is one of the school’s highest fundraising priorities Gifts to the Annual Fund are received each year and are reported in the school’s financial statement as income and expended during the current school year for operations and enhancements that are not fully funded by tuition. At St. Margaret’s, current parents account for 78 percent of total annual giving and other individuals (including grandparents) make up 12 percent. Ten percent comes from foundations, 
corporations, and other organizations.

Current Restricted Support

Restricted gifts support a specific priority program or project at the school. Presently there are opportunities to fund the purchase of new equipment and technology for our academic programs, to enhance our library collections, and to expand our scholarship program. Please call or email the to discuss priority needs.

Capital Campaign Support

Capital campaigns at independent schools support projects and programs not generally funded from the annual operating budget. Most capital campaigns at St. Margaret’s have as their objective the construction or renovation of campus buildings or facilities, the acquisition of land, or the creation of endowments to fund student financial aid, faculty salaries, or other special purposes.

The Legacy Campaign is a multi-year fundraising effort to complete several new facilities and to increase the size of the school’s endowment.  The Legacy Master Plan is a campus master plan for St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and Church.  When completed, 160,000 square feet of space will be added to the campus to meet the academic, extracurricular, spiritual, and social needs of the school and church communities both today and in the future.  The completion of the Legacy Master Plan during the next few years will provide the facilities and necessary infrastructure to maximize the use of technology in our learning environment, provide greater opportunities to forge partnerships with other schools, and to strengthen the school’s outreach efforts in the City of San Juan Capistrano and the greater community.

The following new facilities are planned for St. Margaret’s: 

  • Events and Education Center which includes a new gymnasium (replace with The Pasternack Field House and DeYoung Family Upper School Classroom Wing - under construction

  • Performing Arts Center, which includes a 450-seat theatre

  • New Middle School

Spring 2005 Newsletter with information on the new facilities

Five existing campus facilities will be renovated or expanded:

  • Church Sanctuary will increase seating from 400 to 600
  • Sillers Hall and kitchen area will be remodeled and expanded for campus food service.
  • Two Lower School buildings will be renovated to accommodate reduction in class size from 22 to 18 students per class in grades one through five.
  • Highland Hall will be demolished to make room for a new Upper School complex, and Middle School (grades 6-8) will move to the existing Upper School Classroom Building on Calle Arroyo.

Other benefits made possible by the successful completion of The Legacy Campaign:

  • More parking due to land acquisition in Ortega Business Center 
  • Creation of a permanent, multi-million dollar endowment with annual investment income used to support financial aid, faculty compensation, and maintenance for new buildings.

Past Capital Campaigns

During the past decade, St. Margaret’s completed the Gateway to the Future Capital Campaign and the Fields of Dreams funding program to build the new Library, Science, and Technology Center; renovate the new Upper School Classroom Building; fund the construction of a new Kindergarten classroom in the Early Childhood Development Center; and expand athletic and parking facilities in “The Meadow.”  The Tartan Sports Field and improved Lower School playground facilities were also funded by donors who made gifts to the previous capital campaigns.