From the Nominator

"Bristol’s coronavirus research--accelerated by a 2020 emergency fundraising appeal--was crucial to the world’s understanding of the COVID-19 virus. In 2021, an opportunity arose to further this work and dramatically increase research to prevent future pandemics. 

The ambition was to expand the university’s high-security Containment Level 3 (CL-3) laboratories. Although Bristol’s researchers contributed phenomenally to the fight against COVID-19 and were boosted by donor funding, they were restricted in terms of existing lab space in which they could experiment with dangerous pathogens safely. 

The Development and Alumni Relations Office (DARO) secured a £750,000 pledge from the Wolfson Foundation toward the CL-3 Labs, but we had a limited time in which to raise the remaining £424,015 needed to complete the funding and realise the pledge. DARO moved quickly to share this urgent need with alumni, developing a common strategy across regular giving and major gifts: 

• Join the dots between COVID-19 press coverage of the research undertaken at Bristol

• Focus on detail, recognising our audience’s increased awareness of the science behind virus research

• Emphasise impact: gifts at all levels impact the global research response to COVID-19 and our preparedness to face future threats

The mass appeal results beat all our targets, totalling £70,881 from 344 donors--the largest response to a single appeal at Bristol outside of the 2020 COVID-19 appeal. Combined with major gift asks, which utilised the same appeal language and materials, DARO succeeded in reaching the total needed to greenlight the labs."

From the Judges

Effective design and excellent execution of packing a great deal of important information into a succinct package!