Who we are

Our Board of Directors is a blend of current Principals and accounting professionals. It is never less than three and never more than five directors, with a pre-disposition to having a majority of current principals in control of the board.

The role of the board is to ensure the Principals Fund acts and delivers on its mandate to deliver incremental income for low-resource schools while ensuring the Principals Fund is transparent, accountable, auditable, and building resources for the long term.

Our Board of Directors is as follows:

Xoliswa Tono-Nazo

Principal - Rosmead Central Primary School

Xoliswa has been the Principal of Rosmead since 2019. The school is situated in Cape Town, has approximately 800 learners and has achieved greater than 80% in the most recent systemic testing results. Xoliswa is qualified as a foundation phase teacher and has more than 20 years teaching and management experience. She was appointed as a director of the Principals Fund in 2021.

Nokwazi Shezi

ACCA

Nokwazi is a qualified accountant, having graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2017 and completed her articles in 2020. She then joined SchoolAccountant, managing all the accounting and fee collection systems for the partner schools. She was appointed as a director of the Principals Fund in 2021.

Ant Saunders

CA(SA)

Ant is a qualified Chartered Accountant and previously held the role of CFO of GetSmarter (now 2U Short Courses), an online education company based out of Cape Town. He qualified from UCT in 2004 and completed articles at PwC in 2007. He co-founded SchoolAccountant and the Principals Fund with the belief that well-resourced schools can deliver great educational outcomes, and as a sure path to educational improvement in South Africa.

What we value

Transparency

Above all else, we stand for transparency. This means financial transparency in helping schools ensure that every invoice signed and every expense incurred is visible, right down to the last cent. And it means educational transparency in ensuring that stakeholders get an unfiltered, real-time view of the school’s performance to monitor its progress and step in when needed. Transparency builds trust in the school environment – whether between principals and parents, donors and the management team, or governing bodies and the broader community.

Empowerment

We focus on enabling and enhancing financial management skill sets that already exist within a school’s leadership team. We understand that schools themselves must be the long-term custodians of their own destiny, and that this means putting the interests of principals, teachers, parents, and learners first. By adopting a high-level, systems approach to each school’s unique requirements, we can foster financial competence within its ranks in a way that is consistent, sustainable, and focused on delivering results – now and into the future.

Accountability

As schools are places where economic value is sowed for learners, parents, and teachers, they stand accountable to the whole community. We help them handle this responsibility and embrace accountability – which, in turn, drives results. Similarly, The Principal’s Fund also holds itself accountable to its stakeholders and the school. We measure ourselves not by our own bottom line, but through the lens of the school’s financial and educational performance. We hold a staunch commitment to candour and honesty, and our door is always open to robust questioning.

Authenticity

We care. We know that it’s hard work operating at the front line of South Africa’s schools, and that it takes deep commitment and genuine staying power to make a real difference. We also understand that meaningful change doesn’t just happen overnight. However, by helping schools bring about consistent, incremental improvement on their own terms, we believe that great things can be achieved in the long run. After all, for all the challenges they face, schools are places where magic happens, and the foundations of where dreams are made. Today's learners, tomorrow's leaders.

Unless

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not. "

The Lorax