50 | SPECIAL REPORT | FUNDING AND FINANCE
"VCs are terrified that there will be a freeze on fees, as the gravy days won’t last for very long as revenues become soaked up by institutional changes and improvements"
ABOVE: Nolan Smith, HEFCE’s Head of Finance and Investment
of new pledges – fell by £81m overall, but this was offset by median incomes rising, partly due to large awards and other universities increasing the funds they secured. This result in part seems to have been prompted by greater moves to stimulate engagement – with an additional 44 fundraising staff having joined the sector in 2012/13. Donor numbers correspondingly rose to 223,000, with the pool of addressable alumni swelling from 9.3 million, up from 8.5 million. However, dependence on giving does have
its limitations. Charity is seldom costless – with £80m invested by universities in their fundraising activities, primarily on staffing costs. At LSBU, giving is regarded as a source of top-up income, rather than an independent stream. “The purpose of fundraising is to enhance what other forms of funding are able to provide,” emphasises Simmons. Ross-CASE’s own measures also possess certain
drawbacks which, Simmons believes, do not fully reveal the full scale of charitable support across the sector – interactions which possess significant value, although they are rather harder to quantify. “There are other types of support which are very important – alumni and other supporters mentoring and speaking to students, offering work placements and recruiting students,” he says. “Sadly, the Ross-CASE survey does not reflect this kind of giving, which does a disservice both to the providers of this kind of support and the development offices which work hard to secure it.” Giving across the sector is also imbalanced, with the Russell Group making up 72% of contactable alumni making gifts in 2012/2013. “The Russell Group recruit, on average, students
from wealthier backgrounds. Until there are real improvements in social mobility in the UK, it is inevitable that those institutions will therefore,
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