The Brother Sylvester Foundation
Theory of Change
The chain from donor input through activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact. Required reading for trustees, donors, and partner schools. The Charity Commission expects a theory of change; this is ours.
Version 1.0 · Last updated 1 June 2026 · Reviewed annually
Purpose statement
The Brother Sylvester Foundation exists to advance education, particularly the education of children and young people in the UK, Africa, and the Caribbean, and to relieve the financial hardship of persons in need of educational opportunities, by funding scholarships, teacher-training bursaries, and educational resources.
The chain
01 · INPUTS
- Donor funding (one-off + recurring) — target £100,000 / year at maturity
- Named-scholarship gifts at £5,000+
- Sylvester Leader's expertise + time
- Operator time for programme administration
- Partner-school capacity in-country
02 · ACTIVITIES
- Receive and process donations; ring-fence from operating revenue
- Disburse scholarships to partner schools (quarterly)
- Monitor recipient outcomes via partner-school termly reports
- Operate the Marilyn Scholarship annually
- Annual visit to a partner school (when travel feasible)
- Donor correspondence per gift tier
- Publish annual impact report (January)
- Convene trustee meetings quarterly
03 · OUTPUTS
- Year 1: 10 scholarships funded. Year 3: 50.
- Year 1: 1-2 teacher-training bursaries. Year 3: 5-8.
- Year 1: 1-3 partner schools active. Year 3: 8-10.
- Recurring donor relationships: Year 1: 5-15. Year 3: 50-80.
- Named scholarships in circulation: Year 1: 1-3. Year 3: 8-12.
- Administrative overhead: ≤ 5% of donations.
- Annual impact report published.
04 · OUTCOMES
- For recipients: short-term — tuition paid, school attendance maintained; medium-term — progression to next stage; long-term — tertiary completion and professional or community-leadership role.
- For partner schools: improved cohort retention through funded hardship support; institutional reputation strengthened by documented outcomes.
- For teachers receiving bursaries: completed CPD; updated classroom practice; career progression.
- For donors: transparent accounting; named-scholarship recognition; documented student outcomes; sustained relationship.
05 · IMPACT
- More children and young people in Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, the Caribbean, and the UK accessing and completing education appropriate to their potential.
- More teachers trained in modern, decolonising, faith-literate pedagogy — see the Brother Sylvester Decolonising Curriculum Framework.
- Sustained models of donor-funded scholarship deployment that other organisations can replicate.
- A measurable counter-evidence base demonstrating that small-charity-scale interventions, well-administered, produce outcomes.
Assumptions
A theory of change is only as strong as its honest assumption-naming. The Foundation's chain depends on:
- Donor confidence sustains at the levels modelled. Verified by annual impact report + transparent accounting.
- Partner schools remain operationally viable and aligned with programme purpose. Verified by termly reports and partnership-agreement renewal review.
- Scholarship recipients remain enrolled and progress. Verified by partner-school termly reports.
- Currency exchange rates do not materially undermine disbursement value. Verified by quarterly review against budget.
- Local political and security conditions in partner countries remain compatible with continued operation. Verified by partner-school correspondence and FCDO advice.
- Brother Sylvester's reputation supports continued donor confidence. Verified by absence of material reputational incidents.
- The trading arm (Brother Sylvester Ltd) remains operationally independent and the arm's-length disciplines are maintained.
Failure of any of these assumptions triggers a trustees' review under the change-management discipline.
How we measure
Eight indicators, reported on the cadences below. Each appears in the annual impact report.
- Donation revenue (total + ring-fenced %) — monthly
- Disbursement to partner schools — quarterly
- Recipients funded — termly
- Recipient progression (short / medium) — termly
- Recipient long-term outcomes — annual
- Donor retention rate — annual
- Administrative overhead ratio — quarterly + annual
- Programme reputation health (via incident register and donor survey) — annual
Trustees' oversight
The trustees:
- Approve the theory of change at the first meeting and reaffirm annually
- Review measurement evidence at each quarterly meeting
- Sign off the annual impact report before publication
- Commission an independent examination once income exceeds £25,000 (statutory threshold)
- Commission a formal external evaluation at the five-year mark (2031)
Support the work
Recurring donations enable us to plan partner-school relationships over multi-year horizons. Named scholarship gifts at £5,000+ fund a specific student for a year in honour of someone you choose to name.