Wanted: Bright Ideas

The photograph below this article shows the recently unveiled plaque celebrating the generosity of our major donors. This is an ongoing work – more names will be added from time to time and in due course the hope is that the expanded plaque will become as venerable as the scholarship boards in the Main Hall. By Nigel Paton (66-76), Chair RGS Bursaries Campaign.

Major donors and Fellows of the RGS, Brian and Christine Daglish with Dr Bernard Trafford The modern-style plaque is also intended as a recognition of the many smaller donors to the campaign whose names do not (yet) appear but whose contributions make such a difference. However, the focus of this article is a group of ONs who are, understandably, mainly absent from our list of donors, and don’t appear on the plaque –young ones.

Last year we conducted two surveys aimed at helping us understand our constituency better; one of donor ONs and one of active ONs who did not donate. One of the (unsurprising) findings was that most people only consider donating in later life i.e. when the mortgage is paid off and children are grown up. More interestingly, we found that people do not actually become aware of the campaign until they are in that position. It’s filtered out as not relevant. There is, therefore, a clear challenge for the campaign to stay in touch, and resonate with younger ONs over a period of some 20 to 30 years. As a result, I’ve recently had the pleasure and privilege of speaking with a number of such folk with a view to improving our communication; all had clearly expressed views, as ONs of all ages almost always do. The upgrade of our ONA and fundraising database, amongst other things, will make communication between year groups and other networks easier and more in tune with modern life. I’m also pleased to say that we have co-opted Christian Gardner (00-07) onto our committee.

However, I also recently met some other ONs of the 03-10 vintage in different circumstances at my son’s wedding (including one who was very insistent that I should drink a number of shots with him –you know who you are, Parky). I was struck by their dynamism and sheer busy-ness as they build careers and lives. It’s not, generally, reasonable to ask such people to donate at this stage in their lives, but we won’t forget you and we don’t want you to forget us. So, if any of you have any bright ideas as to what we could do better, do drop us a line, or drop in when you are in the North East. We’d love to hear from you. After all, we’d like to see your name on the plaque one day…