# Universities to receive matched government funding for private gifts

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/02/13/universities-receive-matched-government-funding-private-gifts/
- Published: 2007-02-13T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The Guardian reports that the Prime Minister will this week announce that the Government
will provide £1 from public funds for every £2 donated to 75 universities in England
by an individual or business.
The matched gifts are designed to help UK universities
establish endowment funds similar to those created by US universities, although 
there will be a cap of £2 million on matched funds available to each university.

The Prime Minister is said to believe that this new scheme will help develop and
embed a culture of charitable giving to universities.

Some UK universities have established endowments, but even Oxford University and
its colleges hold only £3.6 billion, compared to Harvard University in the US which
holds £14.9 billion.

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The Guardian claims that in the UK “there is no culture among former students of
giving small donations en masse”, which would probably be disputed by the development
professionals in UK universities, some of whom have been running fundraising programmes
for well over 10 years.

The initiative follows the publication in December 2006 of a report by the Sutton
Trust, which supports education opportunities for students of underprivileged backgrounds,
which concluded that UK universities needed to adopt a similar fundraising approach
to US universities.

The initiative does not cover Scotland. The Scottish Executive told The Scotsman
that it has no immediate plans to introduce the scheme in Scotland. Howver, ministers
would be monitoring the impact of the system in England.

 * **[Charity Performance Guide 2007 published](https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/02/14/charity-performance-guide-2007-published/)**(
   14 February 2007)
 * **[Tony Poderis on "how US-style fundraising can work in your country"](https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/02/17/tony-poderis-quothow-usstyle-fundraising-can-work-your-countryquot/)**(
   17 February 2007)
 * **[Charities set to benefit from £37 million cash boost](https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/02/23/charities-set-benefit-37-million-cash-boost/)**(
   23 February 2007)