University of Kent’s philanthropy module expands to take up to 100 students a year
Melanie May | 18 April 2024 | News
One of the first of its kind to be run by a UK university, the module has received additional funding from the Pears Foundation to expand the programme in the 2024/2025 academic year.
As a result, up to 100 students will be offered the opportunity to take it as one of their elective modules, with the module offered across different schools and courses at the University including Law, Politics and Business.
Learning by Giving – Philanthropy in Action sees students learn to lead decision making processes as a grant funder, with a £10,000 funding pot to be available in 2024/25.
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Students taking the module receive information about a number of local organisations each week on their work and the issues locally that they are trying to address before building consensus across the group about where they would like the money to go.
The module is run in partnership with Kent Community Foundation, which administers the funding and delivers several workshops to students, providing insight into the charitable sector, funding processes, and assessing the needs, strengths and challenges of charitable giving.
This year’s donations
This year, the University of Kent’s Centre for Philanthropy has worked with two undergraduate student cohorts to donate £3,250 to local community charities.
The students from the Kent and Medway Medical School and the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research awarded funding to The Church Street Project based in Folkestone, which offers creative and talking therapies to children and young people, SATEDA, a Kent Domestic Violence Service and KRAN, the Kent Refugee Action Network.
The funding pots totalling £3,250 were donated to the University by humanitarian David Jamilly, who has supported the module since its first cohort in 2020 and the Pears Foundation, which is a funder of both the Kent and Medway Medical School and Centre for Philanthropy.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.