Forget the gala, these Silicon Valley schools run their own venture capital funds

Three students posing outside of Saint Francis High School (Credit: Courtesy of Now and Forever Studios and Saint Francis)

Most American private schools still raise money the old-fashioned way—silent auctions, annual giving, and a yearly gala with mixed drinks and canapés.

Crystal Springs Uplands School, a 569-student private day school located on the peninsula between San Francisco and Silicon Valley, still plans to throw a gala this year, but it isn’t the main draw for raising money. The fundraising, increasingly, comes from somewhere else.