CASE Insights Survey

CASE Insights on Philanthropy (United Kingdom and Ireland)

Formerly the CASE-Ross survey
Participate in the 2022-23 survey

Key Dates

  • 2021-22 Report Published
  • Survey Preparation for 2022-23 -
  • Data Collection -

The first CASE Insights on Philanthropy (United Kingdom and Ireland), formerly the CASE-Ross survey, was carried out in 2002 (for 2001-02 data) and built on previous surveys undertaken within the Ross Group; the survey has been repeated annually since then. Participation is open to all higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The survey:

  • collects detailed information about gift revenue, fundraising costs, and donors to measure the philanthropic performance of higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland;
  • provides an estimate of the overall impact of philanthropy on the higher education sector;
  • is the only source of information on this subject and enables institutions to compare themselves with similar/peer institutions.

The survey asks for data on specific fundraising variables:

  • New funds committed (total, by source, by contribution level, largest confirmed new pledge or gift);
  • Funds received (total, by source, by contribution level, from legacies, largest cash gifts, from various triggers);
  • Fundraising and alumni relations programme (fundraising and alumni relations – staff, expenditure);
  • Donors (donor intentions, potential donors – total, individual, organisation, donor numbers – total, individual, organisations)
  • Institutional campaign(s).

Contact Divya Krishnaswamy at [email protected] or [email protected] if you have questions or suggestions regarding the survey and/or reporting guidelines.

 

How to Participate

 

The first step in the process is completing the Survey Contact Form. Once the survey is open for data collection, a member of the CASE Insights team will use the information provided to distribute the survey link along with instructions for completing the survey. Please contact [email protected] if you have any issues.

Once you have received the survey link and documents you can begin filling in the survey; the documents for 2022-23 are ready for download. It is possible to start the survey, save responses and resume the survey later but be sure to access the same survey link using the same computer and browser.

We have created two documents to assist with survey completion:

The first is a Supporting Document that contains definitions, counting standards, examples and question-by-question guidance. Please review this document carefully before you gather your data and complete the survey.

The second document is a Survey Data Collection Form (Excel) to use for assembling and checking the data prior to entering it on the online survey platform. The Excel sheet performs some automatic quality checks on your data. It is highly recommended that you complete the survey data collection form offline before entering any data on the online survey platform to minimise the risk of errors and to support data validation. Saving data in the survey data collection form (Excel) also provides a backup should you have issues saving data or have a connectivity issue.

Before the completed survey is submitted, we require that the senior most Advancement Professional/Director of Development reviews and signs off the reported data. You are also required to sign the Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) – this has been embedded within the survey itself. There is no hard copy required to be signed. The DSA is in place to ensure participating institutions do not share results outside of their institution and guarantees that results are only used for benchmarking purposes.

CASE conducts additional validation and may follow up about any perceived discrepancies. The data is run through rigorous checks to ensure that the data submitted is free from errors and as robust as possible. Once the data is validated, CASE will open up access to benchmarking capabilities. In addition, CASE will conduct data analysis and write a report on the findings; this will be distributed to participants and posted on the survey webpage.

Once the submitted data is validated, CASE Insights will open up access to benchmarking.

Previous year’s data (from 2014-15 till 2021-22) will continue to be available on the CASE Insights benchmarking toolkit (formerly known as the CASE Benchmarking Toolkit). The Benchmarking Toolkit How-To Guide provides a click-by-click guide to help you navigate the toolkit while benchmarking. Please use either the Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers to access the CASE Insights benchmarking toolkit as some features of the toolkit are not compatible with the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.

Please note that access to the CASE Insights benchmarking toolkit requires a CASE account. If you have previously logged into case.org, please use the same email and password to access the CASE Insights benchmarking toolkit. If you don't have an account you will have to create a new account. If you're not sure if you have an account you can look up your email address through our portal.

If you’d like to update your institution’s data for 2019-2020, 2020-21 or 2021-22, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

Editorial Board

The current CASE Insights on Philanthropy (United Kingdom and Ireland) Editorial Board members are:

  • TJ (Tania Jane) Rawlinson - Director, Development and Alumni Relations, Cardiff University
  • Frances Shepherd - Director of Development and Alumni, University of Glasgow
  • Tom Smith - Development Operations Manager, Loughborough University
  • Holly Salvona - Operations And Research Manager, University of Strathclyde Glasgow
  • Fiona Newell - Philanthropic Finance Manager, University of Birmingham

All editorial board members sign non-disclosure agreements with CASE to safeguard the data submitted by participating institutions. As part of the data querying process, editorial board members may get access to survey data for all institutions to enable them to conduct meaningful checks and use their experience and knowledge of the sector to flag any anomalies in the data (for instance, if a very small institution reports a relatively large alumni staff number).

Webinar and Resources

Watch our webinar to learn about the recent changes made to the CASE Insights on Philanthropy (United Kingdom & Ireland), formerly the CASE-Ross Survey.

Watch the webinar

These changes have been made inline with shared definitions and counting practices of the CASE Global Reporting Standards.

Insights for Building Strategy

Tags

Europe United Kingdom and Ireland Higher Education Fundraising