Year in Review 2023–24

Collaborative approaches

One of the themes that comes out strongly, looking back on the last decade, is collaboration. It really does take a village to raise a single gift, and embedding philanthropy across the institution is the story of hundreds of thousands of relationships, conversations, agreements and ideas. Philanthropy is enabling new research, projects and partnerships; it’s allowing more students to dream of coming to Cambridge—and to get here—and it’s enabling the University to deliver on its mission of international excellence.

Collegiate Cambridge alumni are the largest cohort and only permanent members of the University community. They are a multifaceted and distinguished global group with diverse skills and interests. Working closely with them to understand their views is key to building an engaged community.

Partnership in action:

• This year joint University-College gifts more than doubled. One noteworthy example of this type of gift was Undergraduate Support for International Mathematics Olympiad Medalists with Trinity College
• Several gifts that contributed to meeting the Student Support Initiative goal were brought in this year jointly by Colleges and the University
• The Alumni Engagement team supported the University Admissions team through alumni volunteering and advocacy. A new Manchester alumni group was launched to assist with outreach in this focus region for Admissions
• Partnership with a refreshed Alumni Advisory Board brought an influx of new ideas and progress to a variety of projects including alumni awards, increased volunteer training and programming, and supporting communications activities
• Collaboration between the alumni engagement team, academic departments, communications, events, OEAC and others helped to ensure our offerings and communications to alumni remain competitive and relevant. A highlight of the content produced through teamwork was the extensive coverage of the 11 alumni who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics
• The Development and Alumni Relations office and Cambridge in America (CAm) worked with each other and their advancement counterparts in the 31 Colleges to maximise philanthropic opportunities for the Collegiate University. CAm raised and facilitated £12.85m for the University and £32.4m for Collegiate Cambridge
• The sector award-winning Fundraising and Alumni Relations student internship programme is an example of thoughtful partnership between the Colleges and University leading to positive outcomes. Launched in 2023 in response to the UK sector-wide talent shortage, the second cohort of the internship programme was welcomed in July 2024. Across the 2 cohorts of student interns, 7 secured development roles within Collegiate Cambridge.
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Fundraising momentum

Over the past decade philanthropy has taken root across Cambridge and in May we held the tenth Annual Collegiate Cambridge Development Conference.

This year the University's Development and Alumni Relations programme saw significant growth in underlying performance. In particular, there was a large increase in the number of 7-figure gifts, the total for which surpassed income from 8-figure gifts for the first time. One of the factors that improved success with gifts was the high number of asks made in the previous year. This highlights the importance of driving increased activity at all stages of the process, from initial contact to asks and ultimately gifts. This performance marked an evolution of the Development and Alumni Relations programme away from being overly reliant on principal £10 million+ gifts.

International focus is another driver of fundraising outcomes. North America continues to be a key focal point as home to one of the largest alumni and donor populations. The Vice-Chancellor attended alumni events and prospect/donor dinners in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle, further strengthening her connection with the North American community. In support of the growing international and regional programme she also met with prospects and alumni in Canada, Ireland, USA, UAE, Italy, and South East Asia.

Return on investment was 12.8:1, meaning that for every £1 the University invested in Development and Alumni Relations, £12.80 was raised in philanthropic support. This is up from 11.9:1 the previous year. The Russell Group average is 6:1.

This year’s results represent an important maturing of the Development and Alumni Relations programme, following a focused multi-year effort to drive up underlying performance.

Focus on strategic priorities

Philanthropic income for defined strategic priorities agreed by Schools or as cross-University priorities constituted a significant proportion of the total income for the year.

70 per cent of gifts were for strategic priorities, for example:

• £18.8 million for the Cambridge Children’s Hospital
• £11 million for the refurbishment of the Hutchison Building, housing the Early Cancer Institute
• £1 million from the Quadrature Climate Foundation for Cambridge Zero core costs and programmatic research support, building on a previous gift.

Another major milestone in fundraising for Collegiate Cambridge priorities this year was meeting the fundraising goal of £500m for the Student Support Initiative. This is a significant achievement that demonstrates the power of Colleges and the University working together towards a common aim that has a considerable impact on Collegiate Cambridge’s widening participation and student mental health and wellbeing goals. Removing financial barriers in Colleges and departments will lead to more students being able to study here at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Find out more about this remarkable achievement.

Dedication to targeted areas

Building a highly engaged alumni community with strong affinity for Cambridge is one of our primary aims. The conclusion of the alumni and donor journey research and the effect of last year’s refresh of the Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) resulted in a clear process of priority setting, focusing on issues shared by the alumni community globally. The structure of the Alumni Engagement team changed to provide greater alignment with these priorities including more resource for the alumni volunteer programme.

As early adopters of the ‘journey’ approach to engagement we are focusing on greater personalisation of communications, events and opportunities. This year targeted marketing of alumni events led to a rise in online, in-person and international attendance numbers.

In the fundraising programme areas that had previously been identified for growth saw the benefit of an increase in dedicated resources, including legacy fundraising, which received the highest income since FY03 of £10.4 million due to investment and emphasis in this area.