Fundraising Report

The support the College receives from its alumni and friends is transformational and deeply appreciated. 2022-23 saw cash gifts reach £5.64m. This represents the second highest cash receipt in the last 15 years; second only to 2016-17 when the £25m donation was made by the H B Allen Charitable Trust.

How does that £5.64m break down in terms of origin?

The Talbot Fund

£1.6m was donated via the Talbot Fund; the 4th year running where Talbot Fund gifts have exceeded the £1.5m threshold. Many of these donations are part of pledges of manageable regular gifts set up by alumni over a number of years. 17% of our alumni have made the commitment to this kind of regular gift, be it monthly, quarterly or annually. Being able to count on this support is hugely important in our financial management and planning. Over 1,000 alumni have been giving to the College for 10+ years, and, in acknowledgement, receive a coveted golden dinosaur pin.

Overall 21% of our contactable alumni made a gift during the year — that’s 2,075 people. Given the difficult financial circumstances faced by so many, it is reassuring that Keble remains an important cause for alumni all over the world — these gifts coming from alumni in 42 different countries.

The online Giving Day in April was a terrific success, generating gifts of £275k from 316 donors, and the Telethon Campaign in June produced c£90k in gifts and pledges. Sincere thanks to all those who took a call, made a donation online, left a comment on the donor wall, signed up for a regular gift, and to those who helped us set up the challenges and matched funds.

The Talbot Fund has an important role in the lives of every single student, undergraduate and graduate, and the JCR and MCR are increasingly aware of the impact of the generosity of previous generations of Keble students. The Keble bricks are in high demand! 93% of our leaving students made a gift this summer in return for their foam brick.

Legacies

£806k of the total came through legacies, again our second highest in the last 15 years. One legacy gift has enabled us to create a Junior Research Fellowship in European Archaeology adding strength and depth to the research and teaching capacity in the Social Sciences.

Major Gifts

The remaining £3.24m came in the form of major gifts, including a generous 7-figure gift from the Stonehouse Educational Foundation to partially endow the Tutorial Fellowship in History held by Dr Ian Archer.

You can read more about the impact of all these donations within this report by clicking on the tabs below. We hope you find the stories of the individuals positively affected by this philanthropy both interesting and uplifting.

How much does raising all this cost?

Surprisingly, I’m very rarely asked about how much the College spends on running the Alumni and Development Office, but I’m pleased to report that it is a very positive answer in terms of efficiency. Net of event ticket income and direct event sponsorship, the cost of all our activity including salaries across fundraising, alumni relations and communications in 2022-23 was £601k. Against cash donations of £5.64m that is a return on investment of 1:9.40. In other words, for every £1 spent, we generated £9.40. Not too shabby!

The long view

This report focuses on the last full academic and financial year of 2022-23, and as you can see from the figures above it was a very good year indeed. To put this in context I offer here a longer view of the donations received over the last 15 years since 2008-9.

In that period the College has received £67m in cash donations. Of which, £16m came via the Talbot Fund, £6.76m via legacies, £44.24m in the form of major gifts.

Within this total £15.6m has been added to the College endowment fund, which has grown from £23.2m in July 2008 to £61.4m in July 2023. This growth comes from a combination of new endowment receipts and investment returns. The Bursar, Steve Cooke, explains the current financial position in his report here.

Of the £61.4m, only £22m is part of the general purposes endowment, the rest being restricted to fund specific projects such as bursaries, scholarships and fellowships. The annual drawdown at 3.5% provides c£770k towards meeting the annual costs of running the College.  Alongside unrestricted cash gifts, this sum is essential in helping the Bursar in his attempt to balance the income and expenditure each year.

Despite the growth of the endowment over the last 15 years Keble is still far from being a wealthy college. The graph above sets Keble in context in terms of comparative value of the endowment across all the colleges.

The College finances remain vulnerable to external forces. In the face of the current challenges we are more reliant than ever on the generous help of our alumni and friends, both in support for the endowment and cash gifts to help with immediate costs and projects.

Thank you for including Keble in your philanthropy.