Exceeding expectations

On the first anniversary of the launch of ‘Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford’, it was announced that more than half of the Campaign’s minimum target had already been raised and this in a period that had seen considerable global financial uncertainty and a world economy facing some of its toughest ever challenges. By 6 October 2009, total Campaign income had surpassed £770 million. For the collegiate University and for its friends and benefactors, this was a clear signal that ‘Oxford Thinking’ has real momentum.

The figures are impressive and the stories behind them a powerful tribute to the support and commitment of the many friends and benefactors of the collegiate University who have so generously supported the Campaign. Says Director of Development, Sue Cunningham: ‘The University and colleges have worked much more closely together than before on raising support for our academic priorities, and we are committed to providing a clear and unified message to potential benefactors. Donations for an academic department, a college, the libraries, museums and sport all directly support the Oxford Thinking Campaign. A number of generous donors have chosen to support multiple priorities.’ Brian Wilson, a donor to Pembroke College, the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum, said: ‘I regard it as a special privilege to be able to participate in the current programmes of development for the University and my own college.’ Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman donated more than £25 million to Christ Church – the largest financial gift in the college’s history – saying: ‘This is an expression of our gratitude for the compass to life that Christ Church and the University provided many years ago.’

A list of those contributing more than £5,000 to the Campaign over the past year is featured in the ‘Giving to Oxford’ section of this review. All our supporters have the warmest thanks of the colleges and the University for their generosity.

On buildings and infrastructure, the 2008–9 academic year has seen the finishing touches put to the £61 million redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum. Further gifts have come from Geneva-based philanthropists John and Marcy McCall MacBain towards a new graduate centre at Wadham College and two gifts to St Hugh’s College from Hong Kong-based donors for the new University of Oxford China Centre building.

There has also been wide-ranging investment in academic posts and programmes, from funding for an artist-in-residence project at the Botanic Garden to the endowment of a new Chair of Contemporary Islamic Studies, and Oak Foundation’s benefaction towards the new Institute of Cancer Medicine. The entrepreneur Dr James Martin wanted to inspire others to support the Campaign through the global financial downturn. He offered to match donations up to a total of US$50 million for gifts pledged in the year to 11 March 2010. The challenge applies to donations for the 21st Century School, which tackles the toughest global challenges facing the world. Dr Martin said: ‘My view is that while we may be distracted by today’s credit crunch, we must not forget the bigger picture – that we need to safeguard a future for the generations that follow us.’ 

On supporting students, the University is committed to a strategic aim: that no one with the potential to succeed at Oxford should be prevented from studying here on financial grounds. This is why fundraising for scholarships, particularly for graduates, is a Campaign priority. The Clore Duffield Foundation’s generous and wide-ranging gift of £5.1 million includes £1.5 million to endow three graduate scholarships in Humanities. The Helsington Foundation has given the University £3.25 million over six years, to fund the UNIQ Summer Schools. This enables Oxford to significantly expand on previous summer schoolprovision, offering 500 places in 2009, gradually increasing to 1000 places in 2014. The Foundation has also given money to fund the work the University is undertaking with teachers. Its founder, Oxford alumnus Graham Sharp, says he hopes that the gift will encourage more young people to aspire to a university education: ‘I want to help with initiatives that reach out to pupils who have ability and aspirations that they aren’t able to fulfil.’

Other distinguished former students have supported the Campaign in different ways. Author and playwright Alan Bennett donated his entire archive of papers to the Bodleian Library, saying: ‘I was educated at Oxford at Exeter College and I was fortunate in my time because my education was entirely free. I see this gift, such as it is, as some small recompense both to the University and also, though it is unfashionable to say this to the state.’

Oxford alumni are also playing a huge part in raising awareness of the Campaign around the world. ‘Oxford Thinking’ has been the focus of more than 20 international events and in each case alumni have been involved in the organisation, as guest speakers, as ambassadors and ultimately as supporters. The University’s Annual Fund has worked on telephone fundraising campaigns with student callers from Exeter, Wolfson, Oriel, Hertford, Corpus and Mansfield Colleges in the past year, resulting in more than £700,000 being pledged.

As a response to the generosity of benefactors on so many different levels, the University launched a new donor recognition society – The Vice-Chancellor’s Circle. It has nearly 100 founding members including a broad mix of donors, alumni and non-alumni, individuals, trusts and foundations, and corporate organisations. Speaking at the inaugural meeting, the then Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood, said: ‘We are delighted to recognise our donors’ generous support in this way. It helps to strengthen our colleges, divisions, libraries, laboratories, and every centre, society, club and institution that sustains the intellectual life of the University and carries Oxford’s vital mission into the future.’

And so the Campaign continues to reach out to potential donors and benefactors and highlight the many and varied opportunities to give and be part of an endeavour which promises so much for Oxford, for scholarship, and for the common good. Professor Michael Earl, Acting Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Development and External Affairs, adds: ‘Fundraising by the University and its colleges has been excellent in the last somewhat difficult year. We aim even higher as economies start to recover – helped not least by the sustained support and commitment of our Campaign Chairman, Dame Vivien Duffield, our several development boards and our patrons. We are most grateful to them all and to our many donors’.