Leading the fundraising dance

Four years have passed since Eric Thomas, vice-chancellor of the University of Bristol, led the taskforce that produced the national Increasing Voluntary Giving to Higher Education report which suggested that UK universities could raise at least an extra £600m a year by adopting US-style fundraising approaches with their alumni and other ‘friends’. The report found that “leadership, investment, professionalism and hard work” are key to successful fundraising, recommended resources be found to support capacity building nationally and within institutions, and noted that “making sure that universities know how to lead and manage the business of fundraising will be the crucial change”. Dr Lesly Huxley finds out more from Thomas and the vice-chancellors of Loughborough and Oxford Brookes universities, as they debated that question at a recent seminar in London organised by The Times Higher.