Fundraising Success For Lancaster

09/28/2007 12:37:54

Lancaster University has been ranked 38^th out of 94 institutions in a survey of fundraising in higher education in 2005/6.

The University raised over £700,000 through a mixture of charitable trust giving, alumni donations, bursaries and gifts.

The Director of Alumni and Development Chris Fancy said he was pleased, especially given that Lancaster only began fundraising five years ago.

Next year the total for Lancaster will rise steeply to over £2.5m when money from the Bowland Charitable Trust is included. The Trust has donated £5m over five years, without any restrictions on how it should be used. This is believed to be one of the largest unfettered donations in the modern history of UK universities. The money will be used to develop research and teaching.

Chris Fancy said: “It should be noted that 2005/6 does not include the additional staffing resources from Universities UK, nor any of the Bowland Trust money. If we were to substitute the income figure for 2005/6 with that of the figure for 2006/7 which includes £1m from the Bowland Trust, it is encouraging to see that Lancaster would be ranked 19^th out of 94 universities.”

Overall in the UK, 660 staff were employed in the HE Development sector in 2005/6, generating £417m in pledged income. Oxford and Cambridge accounted for over half this total income, with £112m and £108m respectively.

16 universities raised more than £5m in 2005/6 while 36 raised less than half a million.

A breakdown of the results shows that Lancaster was ranked:

38^th out of 94 for cash received
29^th out of 94 for legacy income received
33^rd out of 94 for income from the Friends Annual Fund and for the number of alumni making a gift
28^th out of 94 for the percentage of alumni making a gift
36^th out of 94 for the number of addressable alumni
34^th out of 94 for fundraising expenditure per pound raised, with the median at 35p while Lancaster’s figure was 27 pence per pound.

The survey was carried out by CASE Europe, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.