Lucy Cavendish College Donor Report

Your Impact 2020–2021

Message from the President

I

want to thank you on behalf of the Lucy Cavendish College Fellowship for your kind support in the past year.

Your generosity is enabling Lucy Cavendish to become the vanguard of needed change at Cambridge, ensuring that the brightest minds regardless of background can access the many benefits of a world-class university education.

Despite the challenges of the past year, your support has enabled us to implement our plans to welcome our first ever mixed cohort of students, aged 18+, this coming October. They will undoubtedly be the most socio-economically diverse year group ever admitted by any Cambridge College, with 82% of incoming UK undergraduates coming from schools in the state sector.

Lucy is therefore well on the way to achieving its aim of becoming broadly representative of UK society by the middle of the decade, thereby providing many more opportunities for exceptional students from underrepresented backgrounds to thrive at the University of Cambridge.

Whether you made your first gift in 2020-21 or whether you have supported Lucy for many years, your gift is helping us to expand our outreach work, to provide more studentships and bursaries than ever before, and to establish innovative student support programmes which help us to close those otherwise persistent gaps in academic attainment and career progression. Our extended student induction initiative, Bridging Week, goes from strength to strength. Meanwhile October will see the launch of the Student Lived Experience Research Programme, in addition to the Lucy Cavendish Life Sciences Community project which will deliver mentoring, careers advice, networking and internship opportunities for our growing STEM student population linked to leading companies in the Cambridge Cluster.

The construction of our new Passivhaus building is on track to be open for students in Michaelmas Term 2022. It will have 72 en-suite student bedrooms, a new café-bar area and informal learning spaces. The University has provided a loan to fund the construction but we are most grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for a generous grant towards the overall costs of the building and particularly to help cover the digital infrastructure which underpins its forwardlooking and collaborative learning facilities.

Last October’s LucyGives Giving Week was a wonderful testament to the generosity of the worldwide Lucy community. Donations are already being used to expand the Library collections and to establish Interdisciplinary Master’s studentships as well as setting up programmes of financial support to make sure all our students can make the most of Cambridge opportunities regardless of their financial status. You have helped us ensure that we level the playing field for all our students from the moment they arrive at Cambridge.

At this inflection point in the College’s history it is worth repeating that Lucy’s attributes as a welcoming, supportive, diverse and inclusive community continue to underline everything we do. It is early days, and there is still so much more for us to accomplish, but thanks to your generosity we are building foundations for a very successful future for the College and its students.

Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins

9th President of Lucy Cavendish College

Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge CB3 0BU Tel. +44 (0)1223 332190 www.lucy.cam.ac.uk | development@lucy.cam.ac.uk  @LucyCavColl  @LucyCavCollege  @lucycavendishcollege Editor: Tom Hawker-Dawson Design: Dan Gould Design: www.dangould.co.uk Front Cover: Assistant Librarian Amanda Hawkes alongside just some of the books purchased through philanthropy in 2020-21

The Year in Numbers £762,396 raised from 404 donors – up from £634,000 and 240 donors last year

£5.05 raised for every £1 spent on fundraising - up from £4.21 last year

9.2% of contactable alumnae made a gift – up from 4.9% last year



160 supporters gave to Lucy for the first time — up from 82 last year

Supporters in 26 different countries donated — up from 19 last year



104 people have pledged to remember



85 Regular Givers (Direct Debit, Standing

Lucy in their wills — up from 89 last year

Order or Recurring Cambridge in America gifts), donating an average instalment of £35.75

137 non-alumnae supporters made a

gift, in addition to 18 Trusts, Foundations, Corporations and Organisations



34 supporters have donated at least



191 alumnae and friends volunteered



2800+ participants joined us at one of

once a year for the past 10 years

their time

50 alumnae and supporter events held virtually

YOUR IMPACT 2020/2021

3

Your Impact in Numbers

Widening participation

Closing the gap

1200+ attendees at 55 Outreach

68 undergraduates hit the ground

events, including application workshops, subject masterclasses and College Open Days

69 Year 12 students registered for a Widening Participation Careers event

82% of incoming UK

undergraduates in October 2021 are from state schools

13 training sessions held for

teachers in schools in our growing network

270 entries to the Cottrell Essay

27 disadvantaged offer-

holders took part in a mentoring programme to improve their chances of making their Cambridge offers

30 eighteen-year-old women

welcomed to the Lucy student community in October 2020 in response to disruption to A-level results caused by Covid-19

47 Academic Skills Workshops took place

Prize for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine from Year 12 pupils or equivalent, worldwide

636 books purchased for the

£107,219 unlocked by the Lucy

80 undergraduate and 45

community in year two of the Harding Challenge

The Harding Challenge 4

running thanks to Lucy’s second fully inclusive Bridging Week

YOUR IMPACT 2020/2021

Library collection

postgraduate students received financial support from the College

Established through the generosity of David and Claudia Harding, the Harding Challenge is a wonderful opportunity to enhance the impact of your generosity and multiply the power of your giving. Eligible gifts

towards student support in 2020-21 unlocked a matching contribution to a special University fund, which in turn is supporting the new and enhanced Cambridge Bursary Scheme starting in October 2021. As we enter the

Supporting student success

82% of ‘classed’ students achieved a 1st or 2.1

10 students received awards from the Traub Sports Fund

17 students received support to

cover conference and travel costs related to their courses

192 hours of College Nurse provision and 420 hours of

College Counsellor provision made available

50 (or 9.1% of) Lucy students received Hardship funding

9 Interdisciplinary Master’s

studentships funded through LucyGives

59 prizes awarded for academic or sporting success, or for contribution to College life

Harding Challenge’s third year, gifts toward student support initiatives from the following donors will unlock additional match funding, pound for pound: • any supporter who has never given to the collegiate University before • supporters who have made a Harding Challenge-eligible gift in its first and/or second year • supporters who last gave a gift on or before 31 July 2019

Delving into the distant past, to understand future climates ‘Foraminifera are fascinating. Their fossil shells are time capsules, allowing us to reconstruct paleoclimate through geochemical analysis. I am thrilled being able to carry out the foraminifera culturing experiment in Taiwan, and to take part in climate research which has become increasingly vital under a high CO2 world.’

Thanks to support from the Thriplow Trust, Winnie (PhD Earth Sciences, 2020) will receive funding to travel to the Green Island Marine Research Station, Taiwan, to continue her field studies alongside an international team of interdisciplinary researchers. Winnie’s research focuses on the biomineralization process of foraminifera - marine single-celled organisms with calcite shells - which act as proxies for paleoclimates and the environmental conditions of the deep past. An understanding of

foraminifera can therefore improve our knowledge of paleoclimate reconstruction, and help us to model and predict both current and future climate change scenarios, such as the potential effects of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Helping offer-holders make the grade To help counter the drastic effects of the pandemic on education in the UK, Lucy established The Blakey Mentoring Programme with the support of a generous donor. The programme was implemented in conjunction with educational charity Causeway Education, to help 27 of our most disadvantaged offer-holders to achieve the grades required to meet their Cambridge offers.

The programme consisted of one-to-one introductory sessions for the students with their tutor, followed by monthly group classes in each strand (sciences and economics or arts and humanities) and monthly smallgroup, supervision-style seminars. Teaching focused on key skills and knowledge for the courses the students are due to study, and was designed to supplement what they are receiving in school, rather than to detract from their A-level studies.

“It’s no stretch to say that this programme could not have taken place without philanthropy. An offer of a place at Cambridge is a potentially life-changing opportunity, but it is not simply enough for us to give the students this

chance – we must support them to take it up. Philanthropy has enabled us to do so this year, and I cannot thank the donor enough.” Dr Mark King, Admissions Director

‘I absolutely love the tutor. I really enjoy doing the sessions with them. It’s really nice to explore my ideas…’

‘Having to go into these sessions and do mathematics in

a different context has really opened my mind and kind of motivated me to think at a high level.’

‘I’ve definitely grown in confidence.’

— Thoughts from programme participants YOUR IMPACT 2020/2021

5

Lucy’s first Giving Week raises an incredible £164,681 “Now more than ever, we need to attract abundant raw talent and radical thinkers.

Those who are academically exceptional, who want to change the world for the better, but who believe – either because of their background or limited financial capacity – that Cambridge isn’t for them.”

It is with these words that College President Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins launched Lucy’s very first LucyGives Giving Week, taking place over seven days between 18-25 October 2020. And it is these words which

encouraged members and friends of Lucy Cavendish worldwide to come together, showing their support for our College’s ambitions. We are so grateful to everyone who helped make the LucyGives 2020 such a phenomenal, community-driven success.

All gifts made during LucyGives are already directly supporting Lucy’s renewed mission to boost social mobility, tackle global issues, and create a real movement for change at Cambridge. Gifts are helping us ensure that: • the barriers faced by students from underserved communities are identified and overcome, from the moment they arrive in Cambridge; • students make the most of the opportunities Cambridge has to offer through participation in co- and extracurricular activities; • no student is disadvantaged by being unable to access the course books they need as we expand our College Library resources in step with the growing student body; and • more studentships are available to Master’s students from low-income backgrounds taking one of the many interdisciplinary courses focused on the global issues facing humanity.

7 days of Giving | 4 key priorities | 49 LucyGives Ambassadors helped spread the word

£164,681 raised | 320 supporters | £50,000 in match funding fully unlocked | £16,174 raised in

Gift Aid | £60,449 unlocked through the University’s Harding Challenge | Gifts received from

donors in 24 countries | 130+ students can take part in Bridging Week 2021 at no cost to them LucyGives gifts are co-funding 12 Student Co-researchers and a Programme Coordinator

for the Student Lived Experience Research Programme | The Making the Most of Cambridge

Fund is enabling students to enjoy a truly enriching university experience, irrespective of their financial capacity | 360+ Library books purchased thanks to LucyGives to date, expanding collections in all subjects | 9 new Interdisciplinary Master’s studentships funded in Social

Innovation, Conservation Leadership, Bioscience Enterprise, Sustainability Leadership, Modern South Asian Studies, Biotechnology and Holocene Climates.

“Thanks to your support we are expanding the College Library collections across all subjects, and have already established brand new core collections in some STEM subjects for the first time. Providing fair and equitable access to library books is crucial if we are to close the attainment gaps which persist in limiting social mobility – and thanks to LucyGives we will be able to ensure all our students have an outstanding academic experience at Cambridge, whatever their background. Thank you so much to everyone who supported the Library during Giving Week.”

Suzanne Tonkin, Librarian and Fellow

6

YOUR IMPACT 2020/2021

“I couldn’t be more thankful for everyone’s generosity during Giving Week. Students are so often unable to take up their places at Master’s level because of limited funding streams, but thanks to LucyGives supporters, we’ll be enabling a new cohort of interdisciplinary Master’s students to do just that… to join us at Lucy and to acquire the knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to lead in solving a range of twenty-first century challenges.”

Dr Jane Greatorex, Senior Tutor

The Anna Bidder Society enjoys record membership Founded to celebrate the commitment of those who so generously pledge legacy gifts to Lucy Cavendish, the Anna Bidder Society meets regularly with Society President (and Former College President and Honorary Fellow) Baroness Pauline Perry of Southwark. All those who remember the College in their will are invited to join the society and to attend regular gatherings and College events. We extend our thanks to all 104 members of the Society who have pledged their support to Lucy Cavendish in this significant way.

Society President Baroness Pauline Perry comments: “It gives me great pleasure once again to offer my heartfelt thanks to all members of the Anna Bidder Society, and indeed to those who are presently considering remembering Lucy in their will. As we take these exciting next steps in the college’s journey, it means

so much to know that more than 100 people have made such thoughtful commitments to our College to date through legacy giving.

The past year saw many significant achievements, thanks to the foresight of our Legators. Legacy gifts received in 2020-21 have enabled us to establish two new student awards in perpetuity: the Ernest Hecht Science Studentship and the Ernest Hecht Studentship for Mature Women. Legacies have also funded the Alex Saville English Bursary for one year, the Betty Grantchester Studentship for the next four years, as well as a range of core activities underpinning Lucy’s renewed mission at this historic time.”

If you would like to receive more information about remembering Lucy in your will, or to discuss your intentions, please contact development@lucy.cam.ac.uk.

Message from the Development Director The unwavering support of the worldwide Lucy community continues to inspire and energise us as we prepare to admit our first mixed, and most diverse, student body. Your extraordinary generosity in the past academic year gives us the confidence to take these exciting steps.

academic and career development opportunities. In doing all this, we are beginning to make a real and lasting impact at Cambridge and further afield, boosting social mobility and confronting the problems of the 21st century.

Thank you for making this possible.

For example, together we raised £5.05 for every £1 spent on fundraising, an increase of 20% on last year. The number of supporters increased by 68%, while the participation rate (that’s the proportion of contactable alumnae who have made a gift) and number of first-time donors almost doubled. We had set ourselves the target of reaching 100

Looking to the future, as Lucy Cavendish continues to grow, our students will be motivated to succeed thanks to the support shown by the College community. Philanthropy will be crucial as we seek to boost the College’s financial stability into the long term. To this end we have set bold targets for the coming year: to increase our alumnae

members of the Anna Bidder Society by the end of the year - we surpassed this by four, increasing membership by 17%. Despite the obstacles we have all faced through the pandemic, the global College network has rallied to Lucy’s cause in 2020-21 with vigour and conviction.

Thanks to you, we are levelling the playing field for more people with exceptional academic potential than ever before. Through initiatives such as the Summer Preparation Programme for Year 12 students, we are inspiring talented individuals from a full range of backgrounds to apply to world-leading institutions, assuring them that Cambridge in particular is an opportunity which is accessible to them. We are supporting the brightest minds from admission to graduation with financial aid, where necessary, and through a multifaceted programme of personal,

participation rate to 11%, to receive gifts from supporters in at least 30 countries worldwide, to reach 100 Regular Givers and to grow membership of the Anna Bidder Society to 120.

My warmest thanks to you, once again, for your kindness in making a gift to Lucy Cavendish College in 2020-21. We look forward to embarking on the next chapter of our shared story with you.

Jo Ryan

Development Director and Fellow YOUR IMPACT 2020/2021

7

Recognising Your Support We are so grateful to all our supporters for their impactful generosity to date. All supporters of Lucy Cavendish College receive an invitation (Covid-permitting) to the annual Bumps Picnic Party on the banks of the River Cam and are encouraged to participate in the range of College events taking place throughout the year. They receive the monthly e-newsletter and are welcomed into the College community, with opportunities to meet with our students, staff, Fellows and alumni. All supporters are listed in the Annual Review each year, while those who sponsor the purchase of library books are also recognised by having their name included on a book plate.

Those who kindly pledge legacy gifts to Lucy in their wills are invited to join the Anna Bidder Society and to attend regular gatherings hosted by Society President Baroness Perry of Southwark.

Supporters who have donated a cumulative total of £10,000 or more are known as Benefactors of Lucy Cavendish, and are listed on our virtual Benefactors’ Wall: https://www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/our-benefactors Benefactors and Anna Bidder Society Members will receive a special invitation to our Celebration of Benefactors and Legators, taking place virtually on Saturday 30th April 2022.

Lucy Lyttelton Fellowships are conferred upon all those who donate over £250,000, at a special ceremony in their honour. They also become members of the University’s Vice-Chancellor’s Circle. Those who donate in excess of £1 million will be nominated for membership of the University’s Guild of Benefactors.

Lucy Cavendish College

Website: www.lucy.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge CB3 0BU

Call: +44 (0)1223 332190

Lady Margaret Road United Kingdom

Email: development@lucy.cam.ac.uk

Registered charity number: 1137875