Ross-CASE survey reveals scale of UK university fundraising in 2006/07
Howard Lake | 12 January 2009 | News
UK universities raised £548 million from alumni, other supporters and charities during 2006/2007, according to the latest Ross-CASE survey of Gifts and Costs of Voluntary Giving.
This included £413 million in cash, with the remainder in the form of pledges or gifts-in-kind. The total amount raised has increased by £168 million in two years, having grown consistently since 2004/5 when universities between them raised £380 million.
The survey collected data from 144 universities in the UK, including nearly all of the largest and oldest institutions.
Established fundraising programmes
Universities with established fundraising programmes raised the bulk of the sector’s total. Oxford and Cambridge raised £279 million, just over half of the overall total. They and 27 other universities that had been operating a fundraising programme for more than ten years accounted for 75% of funds raised in the year.
It was the established fundraising universities that secured the highest cash gifts. Of the larger cash gifts, the median value was £115,000. The most common sources of the largest gifts were trusts and foundations, followed by individual donors.
Costs, income, and staffing
Overall UK universities spent £55 million on fundraising activities. Universities that had been fundraising for more than ten years had median costs of £500,000, while those that started in 2003 or later had median costs of under £100,000.
The median value of funds raised was £376,000. Universities that had operated a fundraising programme for more than ten years enjoyed a median value of £3.1 million, while those that started fundraising in 2003 or later achieved a median value of just over £140,000.
The Ross-CASE survey reports that 871 staff were engaged in fundraising during 2006/2007. The median number of fundraising staff at a university was three, with the median figure for universities that had been fundraising for more than ten years rising to ten.
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New matched funding scheme
Publication of the findings coincides with the start of the new matched funding scheme for voluntary giving (2008-2011) which is being managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Funding is available to match eligible gifts raised by English universities and directly-funded further education colleges (FECs).
Mary Blair, Director of Development and Alumni Relations at The London School of Economics and Political Science, said: “This survey is crucial for capturing an accurate picture of the state of fundraising in the UK. As you see, it reflects a rapidly growing sector achieving significant success”.
The Ross-CASE Survey of Gifts and Costs of Voluntary Giving to Higher Education in the UK is carried out on behalf of the Ross Group of university development directors by the National Centre for Social Research.
The study is supported by the Ross Group, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Sutton Trust.
www.rosscasesurvey.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.