Dear colleague,
Please find an update on the Financial Recovery Group’s discussions on the role of philanthropic income in our financial recovery together with wider news on fundraising.
Development and Alumni Relations - DAR - provide programmes designed to support the reputation and strategic objectives of the University and contribute to its long-term success and financial sustainability.
Philanthropic income helps contribute to our financial recovery by supporting key activities aligned to education and research. As the focal point for alumni activity, DAR works to establish, nurture, develop and effectively manage enduring relationships with our graduates to ensure they can stay involved and connected to the University.
Fundraised income and disbursements 2023/24
Over the course of the 2023/24 financial year £5.52M was disbursed to the University from the University of Aberdeen Development Trust SCIO – Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation - an increase from £5.29M from the previous year.
This comprised 316 disbursement applications covering a range of activities from scholarships, academic salaries, support for the Interdisciplinary Institute and for student experience projects. The disbursement of more than £10M over the last two financial years directly impacts the immediate and longer-term financial sustainability of the University.
Meanwhile, at the close of the last financial year, Philanthropic Funds Received (i.e. income received to the Development Trust SCIO or to the University directly) totalled £6.274M, surpassing targets set for the year. This is an increase of 135% on the previous year. Furthermore, New Funds Committed – an important measure of ‘new business’ – stands at £7M for 2023/24.
Our core programmes of giving include individual giving (alumni, non-alumni, staff and friends), corporate, trusts and foundations, community giving and regular giving.
We continue to benefit from the long-standing relationships, built over decades with our alumni, friends and supporters. Our legacy giving programme continues to grow and a significant level of income has been realised through years of close connection with those who have chosen to leave a gift in their will. This includes a hugely generous donation of £3.56M towards neuroscience and over £1M received as unrestricted legacy income. With approval from the Development Trust SCIO, this will be allocated to the Interdisciplinary Institute to support the work of the Interdisciplinary Fellows and PhD students across our five Interdisciplinary challenge areas under Aberdeen 2040.
Alumni & supporter engagement
Our alumni, along with staff and students, are among our most important stakeholder groups. Over the last year 12 new international chapters have been established in Boston, Dublin, Geneva, Guangzhou, Manila, Milan, Pakistan, Perth, Singapore, Toronto, Vienna and Washington and over 1500 alumni have attended 87 alumni events.
Highlights include our first in-person events in Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham and Belfast; our Aberdeen Connect series engaging alumni in and around Aberdeen; a series of European events including Athens, Brussels, Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Vienna and Vilnius, and activity around the Annual Tartan Day celebrations in New York. Our online alumni event series continued to have good geographic and demographic reach.
DAR also collaborated with the Business School in its events in Bangalore, Shanghai and Guangzhou; the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition hosting events in Beijing and Shanghai; and an event in partnership with the School of Law at the Supreme Court of Scotland in Edinburgh.
This year over 400 alumni engaged with our volunteering opportunities related to student employability such as career mentoring and work placement provision, as profile raisers, and to support student recruitment including alumni joining from Belgium, China and Singapore in the first ever alumni panel at one of the Virtual Open Days.
Our alumni appeals for student hardship and student experience raised over £51K this year.
Early engagement with new alumni is vital and, through our activity around graduations in June 1800 graduates completed the ‘stay in touch’ form to allow us to keep them connected to the University.
Effective relationships and collaboration between the DAR team and colleagues in Schools, research institutes, student recruitment, student experience, careers and employability, and research & innovation, is crucial to maximising the effective and coherent use of the valuable resource we have in our alumni and supporter community.
Plans for 2024-25
Several high-level actions have been identified to take forward over the next 12 months to support financial recovery and sustainability and increase engagement with our key internal and external stakeholders.
- Increase philanthropic income across all key income streams including individual giving (inc. major gifts and legacies), corporate, trusts and foundations, regular and community giving.
- Expand donor and supporter pipeline and increase engagement with our key audiences.
- In October 2024, launch ‘celebration of philanthropy’ to demonstrate the impact of philanthropy and alumni relations activity.
The next update from the Financial Recovery Group will provide a summary and update on actions taken in response to the ideas that have been received from across our community. As a reminder you can continue to submit ideas via the Group’s dedicated mailbox financialrecovery@abdn.ac.uk.
Best wishes
Karl
Karl Leydecker
Senior Vice-Principal