As University ‘trust and foundation’ teams look to grow their involvement with charitable research funders, they discover it’s a little like an iceberg; 10% of the work seen - the solicitation itself, 90% navigating labyrinthine committee structures and distinctly grey areas of responsibility – often invisible at the outset. With over a decade of combined experience of growing and leading charitable funding teams, join us as we go through the keyhole and take an honest look at the nitty-gritty of modern day ‘trust and foundation’ fundraising at Universities - revealing the good, the bad and the ugly along the way.

August 2022, the Associate Dean (Internationalisation) is in New Delhi and the Business School Alumni Team has organised for him to meet the alumni community there over a lavish buffet. Attendees: 3, one non-alum included. This is the story of how Durham University’s Business School and the central Development and Alumni Relations team collaborated after this failed event, and built a thriving network without ever setting foot in India. The talk will use this case study to explore the themes of how to manage international networks without travelling, recruiting volunteers, and the enormous potential of Business School and DARO collaborations.

"The campaign has put us on a pathway to not just getting our technology out into the real world, but also potentially for acquisition." June 2022 saw the launch of the University of Bath's Research With Impact campaign. The storytelling campaign, which would go on to win Best Use of Content in the 2023 CIPR Awards, was designed to position Bath as a leading choice for industry collaboration and academic partnerships. The session will share how the team designed and delivered Research With Impact and how research was shaped into compelling stories that attracted new partnerships, commercial opportunities, and collaboration.

Legacy fundraising is a rapidly growing area of interest across charities for good reason and HE institutions shouldn't miss out on benefiting from the growth in gifts in wills. If you are wondering about how to begin legacy fundraising, what motivates this type of giving or where to go with concepts like blended giving and a major gifts approach, join Adale, Barrie and Thomas who will share the latest evidence based research and lots of practical advice - even if you have no budget.

UCL has been on a journey to embrace being data driven – using innovative reports to understand what behaviours impact this year’s income and our future success. Our journey has used expertise from across the office but in particular, it has showcased the strength of our operations teams. From getting the data structure right, gathering and tidying the data well, reporting it clearly, establishing trusting but candid relationships and then using these to make specific recommendations to increase effectiveness. We took a theory on how best practice could strengthen all our activity and ultimately transformed how we work.

This roundtable session will be an opportunity to discuss some of the challenges (and opportunities!) around a growing donor base as well as share ideas from different institutions on how to tackle an increasing number of donors whilst still maintaining a high level of stewardship for supporters at all levels. This will be an interactive session where we'd love to hear from colleagues across the sector about their experiences.

In December 2023, Newcastle University welcomed a team of external experts in higher education philanthropy and alumni relations to conduct a independent Peer Review of the full spectrum of philanthropy and alumni relations activity. The purpose of the Review was to seek advice on our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to promote continuous improvement and to inform the development of a new strategy for University Advancement. In this session, we will describe how we went about commissioning the Review, the Review process itself and the actions that we have taken in response to the findings.

UK universities have grappled with the concept of branding and marketing as a credible discipline over the past 15 years. This session will showcase numerous examples of how UK HEIs have tackled rebranding repositioning their organisations. Striving to create a 'unique selling proposition' has evolved over these years which has been challenging as the discipline of marketing as a strategic driver has evolved.