The Second Annual Campaign Report 2018

Surpassing all of our expectations and (for some) our wildest dreams, we have raised 85% of the funds needed for the new building and more than 75% of the Campaign target of £25,000,000.

We have received gifts from 1,353 Members and Friends during the past year which means that one-fifth of the wider Magdalene community has chosen to support the Campaign, a truly wonderful result. Pleasingly many of our youngest Members responded very generously to the offer from an anonymous donor to match gifts received from them pound for pound and almost 80% of those called made a donation to Magdalene last spring. Their generous contributions added £50,000 to the total funds raised this year, an impressive number given the financial pressures young graduates face.

You will know by now that the Campaign aims to provide the best possible facilities and support for our students to reach their full potential whilst at Cambridge. The new building, whilst at the heart of the Campaign, is just one aspect of our efforts to achieve our goal. We are committed to increasing financial assistance for those students who are in need of help and our undergraduate bursary scheme, now in its seventh year, has had a very real and significant impact on the lives of dozens of students, indeed hundreds of students if we include those who have benefitted from partial bursaries too. We are also able to fund travel bursaries, research projects during the summer, provide assistance for medical electives and of course fund many prizes. Everyone at Magdalene is very aware that we are only able to do so because of the support we have received from benefactors past and present. We are enormously grateful to each and every one of them.

We are also engaged in seeking new funding for postgraduate scholarships so we are able to help more gifted young people from around the world in their quest to come to Cambridge and Magdalene to pursue their studies. We are delighted to partner with Standard Bank who supports the Standard Bank Derek Cooper Studentships for African students. We continue to welcome new Mandela Magdalene Scholars to Magdalene every year and look forward to offering further new scholarships for students from other parts of the world. We simply couldn’t do it without you. Thank you!

Corinne Lloyd, Development Director