Oxford University's campaign reaches one billion pounds
Howard Lake | 2 November 2010 | News
Oxford University’s international fundraising campaign has raised £1 billion. ‘Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford’ is the largest fundraising campaign ever undertaken by a European university and has a goal of raising at least £1.25 billion “to support world-class teaching, research and facilities”.
Fundraising began in August 2004 although the public element of the Campaign wasn’t launched until May 2008 at which point £575 million had already been raised.
Oxford’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, said: “For almost half of the six years that Oxford has been raising funds for the Campaign, the world has been in an economic downturn – yet our alumni and supporters have continued to give. In the last year alone we have raised more than £230m. Their generosity, which is a huge vote of confidence in Oxford, is fundamental to Oxford’s future at a time when government funding is so stretched”.
Professor Hamilton thanked Dame Vivien Duffield, the Chairman of Oxford Thinking since the official launch in May 2008, and who has decided to step down, for her work in the campaign’s success so far. She has herself donated £5.1m from the Clore Duffield Foundation.
Dame Vivien said: ‘This is a tremendous milestone, and the fact that such an astonishing target has been reached in such a difficult climate is a testament to all that Oxford has been, is now, and will continue to be for future generations. This represents a great sum of money for a truly great institution. I am deeply grateful to all those donors, alumni and friends who have helped us to reach this vital stage in our Campaign.’
www.campaign.ox.ac.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.