Development Director’s Report

SARA KALIM

In a challenging year for the whole Somerville community, we were encouraged and uplifted by your continuing warmth, loyalty and generosity.

In 2020-21, an incredible 1,319 of you chose to support your College by making a gift. This represents the largest number of alumni donors to Somerville in a single year that has ever been recorded. We cannot thank you enough for the trust you place in us to use your funds for the greatest need and for the greatest impact. Somerville can honour its tradition of making an impact on the world though groundbreaking research and supporting the development of young people who are committed to making a positive difference – thanks to you. We do not take your trust lightly. Our use of funds is guided by a commitment to integrity, transparency and effectiveness. As the pandemic continued to wreak havoc on our teaching, research and the student experience, your support enabled us to help those most affected. Our Treasurer, Andrew Parker, was able to commit a level of discretionary financial support to our students (through waiving accommodation costs over the lockdowns and making hardship awards available as and when needed) at a level that has never been witnessed before in College history. This was only possible because of the resilience of our endowment, which, over recent years, has been transformed by the magnificent philanthropy of our alumni community. From legacies to regular direct debits to one-off gifts via our crowdfunding projects: no support is ever too small to make a difference.

Last year, I wrote to you about our Covid Hardship Fund, which was established by alumni donations to our digital platform totalling almost £150,000 to support students in need. The ripple effects of those funds continue to be felt as they are used to benefit the community, with grants available to every Somerville student to enhance the technology they use to learn, buy the books they need, and access any additional teaching required to reach their potential. Innovation, creativity and - dare I say - fun defined our activities this past year. One of our most creative fundraising moments was surely the wonderful evening of opera at Wigmore Hall organised by Sophie

Recording footage for the Somerville Auction

Amongst the greatest strengths of this community is its commitment to social justice and inclusion.

Forsyth in September 2020. The sublime cadences of that evening were heightened by knowing we were raising the necessary funds to give our lockdown-deprived 2020 Leavers a fitting graduation experience. We also held our first auction for two decades which, thanks to Covid, had to be a digital experience. Going online brought many coincident benefits, such as allowing Somervillians across the world to participate. The auction culminated in a star-studded live broadcast event, and we are grateful to Natasha Kaplinsky, Susie Dent, Xand Van Tulleken, and the many others who helped to make the evening so entertaining. Our final tally of funds raised was over £100,000, with a further £100,000 in the sale of art via professional galleries. This broadcast was made possible by the AV equipment Somerville has acquired through our Digital Fund. Thanks again to alumni support, we now have the capacity to create videos which can be broadcast to our community wherever they may be in the world. While we would always much rather welcome you back to in-person events held either in College or beyond, the impact being made by these new technologies is clearly evident in the sheer numbers of you who have joined us online. A silver lining, indeed. Our Alumni Carol Concert was one such occasion. The UK’s winter lockdowns ruled out an in-person event so we created a recording of our wonderful Choir, led by their equally wonderful Director Will Dawes. Their performance was paired with readings from three incredible guests: the actor Simon Russell Beale, the theatre producer Matthew Maltby and the writer, Ella Road. The resulting Carol Concert broadcast has been viewed almost 2,000 times, with alumni from Australia to Germany to India able to share in the celebrations. We also welcomed over 500 of you to our online Supporters’ Celebration in February. There our Fellow in Experimental

Professor Charles Spence in his lab. Photo: Sam Frost/The Guardian

Psychology, Professor Charles Spence took us on a journey through the world of gastrophysics, showing how sensory innovations from the high end of haute cuisine can nudge us towards a more sustainable food future.

Amongst the greatest strengths of this community is its commitment to social justice and inclusion. The work Somerville does to support refugee students and academics perfectly encapsulates this. Many of you gave in support of our Sanctuary Scholarships this year and we see ever-growing interest in this work. Your generosity means that last year’s Scholar, a tenacious Libyan medic called Marwa Biala, has completed her Master’s in Radiation Biology. We have also welcomed our new scholar, Asif. Five years after a long, dangerous journey to the UK from Afghanistan as an unaccompanied minor with no previous schooling, he now starts his undergraduate degree in History and Economics. You can read more about Asif’s story on page 10. None of our work would be possible without the unwavering support of our volunteers and ambassadors. The Development Board, chaired by Ayla Busch and Sybella Stanley, which could only meet virtually this year, brought incredible ideas and energy to our appeals and helped us to raise £2.8 million this year. We owe them all our gratitude. In addition, our Development and Alumni Relations team at college has never been more entrepreneurial in coming up with ways of keeping in touch. I am constantly in awe of their commitment and dedication to the Somerville Community, and feel very grateful to be in the company of colleagues who believe so much in Somerville’s spirit and purpose. Looking ahead there will be a new Somerville Campaign to meet our future challenges focusing on excellence, sustainability, and inclusivity. We will meet those challenges together. For now though, a million “Thank Yous” for your belief and support.

AYLA BUSCH, CO-CHAIR, SOMERVILLE DEVELOPMENT BOARD

“The pandemic brought great challenges to us all in 2020: moments of anxiety and uncertainty, separation from our loved ones, and fewer personal interactions. During these hard times, Somerville and their team managed to stay close to us, they cared. Even more, they were able to bring the global Somerville community together through an abundance of wonderful online events: lectures, discussions, celebrations and even the auction were shared online by Somervillians of all ages, from all around the world, including our friends and families. In these moments of joy, I realized that there is a glue between us all, there is something that makes us distinctly Somervillians. My warm thanks to Team Somerville for all their hard work in these testing times. On behalf of the Development Board, I would also like to convey immense thanks to each and every one of you who has supported the College this year.”