Higher education fundraising is expanding dramatically as more universities realise the incredible affinity that alumni have to their alma maters, as Natalie Lloyd and Laura Fairbanks demonstrate
In recent years, in the wake of significant changes to higher education funding arrangements, fundraising in the UK’s higher education sector has undergone a radical and rapid transformation. More and more, alumni (previous graduates of a university) are making donations of all levels to their alma maters, to help fund student scholarships, capital developments and life-saving research.
The University of Birmingham, like many other redbrick universities, grew out of the vision of its first chancellor, Joseph Chamberlain, in 1900. It represented a new model for higher education, being England’s first civic or ‘redbrick’ university, where students from all religions and backgrounds were accepted on an equal basis.
What most alumni will remember about their time at the University of Birmingham is the beautiful campus Joseph Chamberlain created. What they may not know is that without charitable donations, the buildings they used to study in may never have existed. The landmark Old Joe clock tower, which remains the tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, was entirely funded by charitable donations.
Aiming high
In 2011, the University of Birmingham completed the first phase of its £60m Circles of Influence fundraising campaign. Launched in 2009, the campaign was designed to inspire a new generation of philanthropists for the university and provide strategic direction for the university’s fundraising efforts. At the time, this was the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the West Midlands, and it aimed to reignite alumni donations to the university. In 2012, thanks to gifts totalling £6m from almost 300 alumni and friends, the university finally completed the historic Aston Webb semicircle, the building of which had been suspended several decades before when initial funds ran dry.
Most of the money for the new funds was raised through a ‘seat naming’ campaign, where alumni giving £1,000 (or £22.22 every month for three years) could name a seat, which enabled donors to become a part of history by investing in the future of the university. Housed within the Aston Webb semicircle, the Bramall Music Building is now home to the university’s UK-leading music department and a 450-seat auditorium for the city; completing Joseph Chamberlain’s original vision for the campus.
Such was the impact that the donations from more than 10,000 alumni, friends, and trusts and foundations had on the university that in 2011, it launched the second phase of the campaign, with an extended fundraising target of £160m. To date, the university has raised £125m, and aims to complete the campaign by 2015.
No fear
Birmingham has continued to be a university that isn’t afraid to do things differently, and to take action in response to the challenges faced within higher education today. The university was a founder member of the National Union of Students, and the first university in the country to establish a faculty of commerce, incorporate a medical school, and to create a women’s hall of residence. In a similar vein, Birmingham is at the forefront of innovative fundraising techniques, aiming to encourage more alumni than ever before to support their appeals.
One such technique was employed in 2013, when Birmingham joined forces with a direct marketing fundraising agency, Bluefrog, in order to increase the success of the university’s direct mail approaches. While direct mail is used successfully by charities across the world, the approach by Birmingham and Bluefrog was unusual in that it combined charitable messaging with the strong sense of nostalgia that alumni have with their alma mater.
The academic researcher Richard Viney, an alumnus of the university, was compelled to write to his fellow alumni to ask them to join him in making his research into prostate cancer a success. Alumni were sent a funding proposal, which outlined the specifics of Richard’s clinical trials, alongside an engagement device that took alumni back to their time at university. Using photographs from across campus for the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s (as well as a ‘generic’ version), a ‘memory lane’ leaflet was created to remind alumni of how campus looked when they were studying there. Reminding them of the wonderful time they had at university enhanced the fundraising success of the appeal. The letters and donation forms also included a high level of personalisation, including individually tailored ask levels and the alumnus’ year of graduation merged into the copy.
Tapping into our alumni’s nostalgia for their time at Birmingham in this way, we created a very compelling case for support. Furthermore, the authenticity of Richard’s approach was such that many donations were sent directly addressed to Richard, and we had to retrieve them from his pigeon hole for banking!
The appeal itself was for funding for trials into an innovative prostate cancer treatment, which could extend the life of men with advanced prostate cancer by up to six months by combining high intensity frequency ultrasound (HIFU) with a powerful immunity boost for the first time. The appeal raised £237,000 from 2,400 alumni, and was the most successful direct mail appeal that the university had ever sent. Thanks to the amazing support from alumni, trials will begin in January 2014 and, if successful, this treatment could be developed for use at much earlier stages of prostate cancer.
Chancellor’s challenge
Following the success of this approach, in September 2013 the university and Bluefrog worked together on another innovative appeal to raise money for the university’s new library. At the end of 2013, Sir Dominic Cadbury stepped down after ten years as chancellor of the university. Sir Dominic has been an invaluable advocate of fundraising during his tenure as chancellor and, as a way of marking his impact upon fundraising at the university, he launched the Chancellor’s Challenge Fund earlier in 2013 to encourage alumni to support the university’s capital developments and to harvest a new group of donors who have never given to the university before.
The university used this challenge to great effect with an appeal to recent graduates. The campaign asked alumni to place three £1 coins in a card and send it back to the university. Alternatively, they were encouraged to make a £3 gift by text. Both of these methods are commonly seen in the charity sector, but what made this campaign different was the added impetus that the first 800 alumni to give would have their £3 made up to £100 by Sir Dominic himself – therefore unlocking £97 of additional income per donor for the new library. To date, more than 1,200 alumni have given to the university for the first time, thereby inspiring the next generation of philanthropists.
Alongside capital and research-focused donations, alumni support to the university has provided more than 400 students who are the first in their family to come to university, or who come from schools with low levels of progression, into higher education, with scholarships that truly encourage the best and brightest young people to continue to study and become our leaders of the future.
Natalie Lloyd is head of development and Laura Fairbanks is deputy head of development – regular giving at the University of Birmingham.
Contact them at giving@contacts.bham.ac.uk
