Philanthropy

As the outlook for the future of public spending on higher education takes a turn for the worse, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE Europe) puts forward the benefits of private donation.
Yesterday’s headlines, tomorrow’s issues… “British scientists’ genetic breakthrough brings new hope for cancer treatment”.
“Copenhagen Climate Summit held to ransom”. “Thousands face tunnel chaos”. And, of course, “Review of student fees launched”. Not to mention the recent pre-Budget report of £600m
to be saved by 2012-2013 from across “higher education, science and research budgets, including student support”.
These swirling and sometimes contradictory messages have to be reconciled. On the one hand we have the extraordinary power of higher education to tackle the big challenges facing the world – through medical research, through environmental science, through technology, and above all through the bright, questioning, socially engaged students we graduate; while on the other the shortage of public funding to make that possible is both painful and now inescapable. Just as the independent review of student finance began gathering evidence on the current system, the outlook for future public spending on universities took a sharp turn for the worse.
It is unlikely that we will continue to see higher education funded in its current form. Universities must have more investment. Public resources are finite. Where do Vice-Chancellors turn? In the face of cuts, the sector has already absorbed considerable efficiency savings. This context makes the lifting of the cap on tuition fees more likely, with students, parents and others picking up the bill as government support declines.
With headlines concentrating heavily on fees and government spending, those outside higher education might be forgiven for thinking that universities wait cap-in-hand for students and ministers to dole out alms. In fact, universities are increasingly raising their own funds with the support of those who recognise and value their powerful contribution to society.
Philanthropy helps universities to fund important work on the front line of issues such as environmental change, health and disease and social justice – in addition to providing crucial financial support to students. What’s more, the plurality of funding sources becomes a bulwark of university autonomy, strengthening an HEI’s confidence in itself, its sense of mission and engagement with its own community. The longer-established universities – with correspondingly larger development budgets and older fundraising histories – have considerable success in this field.
Oxford and Cambridge are on track with their £1bn+ campaigns.
Edinburgh, Imperial and University College London are well on the way to meet their £250m+ targets. These concentrated efforts have motivated other institutions to undertake their own campaigns, shaped to their own history and aspirations.
Latest figures from the Ross- CASE Survey into philanthropic fundraising in the UK demonstrate the impact. Giving to UK higher education grew by 28 per cent to £682m in 2007-2008. The year-on-year increase in the number of donors giving to higher education in the UK is equally welcome: 144,000 individuals donated to universities in 2007-2008, up 12 per cent on the year before and up 32 per cent over two years. Clearly, giving to universities in the UK is no longer seen as the preserve of the wealthy. It’s steadily becoming something ordinary people do as universities become more professional in their engagement. But for the wealthy, higher education remains the sector through which they can maximise the impact of their generosity. According to the Coutts Million Pound Donor Report, for the second year running universities received more gifts of £1m or above than any other charitable sector – Coutts noted
56 such gifts in 2007-2008.
The period covered by the latest Ross-CASE survey was also the last period before the introduction of the Government’s Matched Funding Scheme for England. The £200m initiative was introduced on 1st August 2008 and allows universities to draw down government funding in proportion to the philanthropic money they raise. Wales introduced a £10m version for its universities during 2009.
An encouraging indicator of the likely legacy of the Matched Funding Scheme is the £7.5m fundraising capacity building project managed through Universities UK (UUK) in 2004. According to the Ross-CASE survey, the median value of funds secured by the 27 UUK- sponsored institutions in this pilot increased from £743,000 in 2006-2007 to £905,000 in 2007-2008, an increase of 22 per cent. These universities have continued to invest in their fundraising programmes, which promises well for the outcome of expanded resources and disciplined strategic fundraising when the effects of the matched funding scheme in England and Wales are evaluated. Case studies of the achievements of the Matched Funding Scheme are building up convincingly. They are recorded by all kinds of institutions, from specialist arts organisations to modern universities undertaking their first forays into institutional fundraising to heavy hitters now raising their batting average.
Transformational capital projects are among the high profile outcomes; a major new building in London for the Royal College of Art, for instance, made possible by a £5m donation – its largest ever – from the James Dyson Foundation. This generosity also released more than £1.6m of matched-funding, reaching the required amount for the expansion to go ahead. A new centre for music performance in Canterbury is another instance, a partnership between the University of Kent, a £4.5m phased gift from the Colyer-Fergusson Charitable Trust and the government funding that will trigger.
Other universities are using the Matched Funding window to extend the base of their supporters.
Thames Valley University has seen an exponential increase in philanthropic engagement over two years, since it put in place a professional development operation. Using the strap line ‘the Big Match’, the University of Leeds is driving up participation – and income – in its Annual Fund.
The Matched Funding Scheme has a time limit– and there’s a useful sense of urgency arising from that framework. But the role of philanthropy for our universities is timeless. It was good to see the government, in its recent Higher Ambitions framework, underlining the sector’s need to commit to active and professional fundraising and endowment building.
“Strategically, in the next 15 years higher education needs fully to establish itself as a legitimate cause for charitable giving, especially from alumni,” was the charge. Understanding the potential of philanthropy for the long-term sustainability of universities is no passing fad. It’s a once and future task for all of us.

Sir Duncan Rice, Vice Chancellor of The University of Aberdeen.
If we were to look at the history of higher education over the last two decades we would see that the numbers of students coming to university has risen while grants, in real terms, have sunk. We are clearly not going to be able to rely on government funding in the future to the same degree as we have and therefore it is vital that universities look to accelerate their commitment to fundraising. Private giving to universities waned somewhat after the Second World War and we grew up under the shadow of the welfare state, but the power of private support is now on the rise. We have seen from previous Ross-CASE surveys that the amount of money that is being gifted to universities
is increasing year-on-year. This is due in no small part to a realisation by Vice Chancellors that in order to nurture a culture of giving around higher education, there needs to be an outlay by universities to set up professional fundraising departments.
I believe we are in an extraordinary period of time at the moment where respect for the traditional agencies that we have relied upon – politicians, banks, the law – is at an all time low. As these main cohesions of society lose credibility, universities’ reputations for having a pivotal role in society are augmented. As institutions we offer a range of functions that are of value in the broadest range of human matters. The case we can make for the need for this work to be supported has never been stronger.

Shirley PearceVice Chancellor of Loughborough University
Fundraising is of growing importance in UK higher education. Universities are inevitably at different stages with their approach to raising such income. The three-year Matched Funding Scheme that began in 2008 has enabled universities who were previously less experienced in fundraising to concentrate their efforts and – if they have invested wisely –build a professional development team that will be able to continue the work, even once the Matched Funding Scheme has ended. There are examples in other countries of similar schemes that have yielded tremendous results for participating universities. For example, the University of Toronto had almost no fundraising activity 15 years ago, but recently they celebrated a landmark $1bn in charitable donations. I would hope that UK institutions can replicate their success. However, universities in the UK need to get better at articulating exactly what the socio-economic benefits are in giving charitable donations to higher education. It’s not appropriate to simply call alumni once a year and plead for cash, there needs to be a stream of information so that people will be able to see where their money is being put to use and how that work is applied. It will take time to develop those relationships with donors but – as we can see from the example of other countries – it is possible. UB