Development Report

What an extraordinary year this has been. July 2019, where my report begins, seems like another lifetime. Back in the summer of 2019, the College had just launched The Campaign for Old Court on a fabulous mid-summer evening in June where our Campaign Co-Patron, Sir David Attenborough (1945), spoke about what this place means to him. If you have not yet listened to his speech and would like to, you can find it on our YouTube page, or get in touch via email. Much of the work being done to Old Court is the necessary restoration of the historic heart of Clare. However, the works are also expanding and transforming forgotten spaces, improving access, and enhancing our members’ experience.

The new River Room will provide much needed seating and dining capacity and, out of term, can serve as another conference venue for the College. You will understand from the Bursar’s report how crucial this revenue stream is for Clare’s educational operations.

Thanks to generous support from so many, and the outstanding leadership of our Campaign Board, The Campaign for Old Court has now received £19 million in commitments towards its £25 million target. With this support secured, the College has been able to continue the works throughout the pandemic despite the financial pressures it caused, with social distancing and additional site safety measures in place. The project remains on time, and more importantly, on budget. For more detail on how the works are progressing, see the Buildings Report.

Thanks to so many of you who are reading this, I am pleased to share that the financial year 2019-20 was one of Clare’s best fundraising years in our history, which, in the circumstances, could not have been better timed. I would like to say how grateful I am to all of you who have supported us, in whatever way you were able. Kind words and offers of help, financial or otherwise, have been gratefully received.

The Emergency Fund, which Clare launched in April, has been a lifeline for the College. So many of you supported our efforts to help our students and staff through the Fund and reached out with messages of care in response to the appeal. Those donations have enabled us to ensure financial support and assistance to our most vulnerable students, from helping them to get home after Clare was forced to close, to ensuring they had the equipment they needed to continue their studies remotely through the Easter term.
From the staff – our housekeeping teams, porters, gardeners, catering department and many others besides –who could not continue to work through lockdown, I would like to pass on their thanks too. The Emergency Fund helped the College to maintain the salaries of those furloughed at 100%, so they were not left with shortfalls in their income.

This year, the Fund will continue to be important to Clare. The College expects to see an increasing number of students in need of bursaries and hardship support. The Emergency Fund will continue to meet that need alongside our existing student support funds. Unrestricted donations will also help us to respond quickly over the next year, directing support received to the area of greatest need in College. As conferencing income continues to suffer, donations are more important than ever, no matter the amount.

One thing I must say is how proud I am of the Alumni and Development team for their ingenuity and adaptability. As many of you will have realised from our communications, we have continued to work throughout, and strived to provide updates, interesting content and a friendly ear to all our alumni in need of distraction. We have dramatically increased our digital offering in a short space of time.

We were pleased to host our first Zoom event in May, as we virtually welcomed our Samuel Blythe Society supporters, with an update and several interesting talks. We built on the experience and launched our Digital Gala Week in June, culminating in a virtual ceremony for those graduating in absentia that week. So many alumni from all over the world, were able to join us for our week-long programme of talks, workshops and demonstrations. If you would like to catch up on any of the recordings from that week, you can find them all at here.

None of this would have been possible without the Fellows, staff, alumni and students who have participated. In particular, many thanks to our musicians, past and present, for their many contributions to our digital programmes. We now know that digital integrations which allow more people to take part remotely are here to stay.

Thanks to those who have come before, Clare continues to benefit from strong support which enables the delivery of its educational and academic missions. It is at times like these that we see the true importance of those missions, the impact that knowledge and experience can have on the world, and the legacy of that support. So, I remain optimistic and I am proud to be a part of Clare.

As a College and as a community, I know we will work through whatever is thrown our way, safe in the knowledge that our members will continue to provide meaningful contributions to the world now and in the future.

If you’d like to learn more or become involved, please
do get in touch with the Development Office by calling 01223 333200 or emailing development@clare.cam.ac.uk.
Bill O’Hearn