Lancaster University invests in fundraising

Lancaster University is set to make a major investment in its fundraising activities, following a successful bid for £100k per annum in a new three year Government scheme to boost voluntary giving to Universities.

The University will match this funding bringing the total new investment in this area to £600k over three years.

Lancaster will be recruiting for up to five new fundraisers who will build the University’s links with external donors, alumni givers and charitable trusts, as well as identifying new philanthropic opportunities.

Lancaster is one of 27 universities whose bids for funding were successful in this pilot project, announced by the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) and Universities UK (UUK) this week. DfES will provide up to £7.5 million over three years to 27 higher education providers to match fund investment to increase income from private donations. 78 bids were submitted

Recent external donations to the University include a major gift of £5million from The Bowland Charitable Trust and £500,000 from Lady Joan Smith, The widow of the late Professor Sir Roland Smith, who in 2005 funded a chair in strategic management within Lancaster University's six-star (6*) rated Management School. These donations have combined with other fundraising activity, including a further £1 million from Lancaster alumni, to bring the total for Lancaster's Development Programme to £7.6 million since 2001.

This year, Lord Hesketh chose to deposit a rare and valuable book collection at Lancaster University. The collection, housed in the University’s Rare Book Archive, contains books and manuscripts, the earliest of which dates back to the 11th Century, including John James’ Audubon’s illustrated Birds of America and a Shakespeare First Folio.

Director of Alumni & Development at Lancaster University, Chris Fancy said: “Lancaster is a relative newcomer to fundraising, but winning a share of the money in this scheme shows that we have been building the right foundations for a long term development programme. We now have the opportunity to take a significant step forward."