From the Nominator

At UCL we believe that fundraising success hinges on our ability to mobilise our academic community as campaign champions. Nowhere is this more important than in the health sphere, where successful clinical and academic engagement has the ability to transform an institution’s prospect pipeline. While cancer research is a priority area for the current campaign, UCL’s Advancement Office was not embedded within the clinical academic and research community of the UCL Cancer Institute prior to its launch in 2016. Since the inception of the campaign, our major gifts team has developed a targeted programme of training and engagement for academics and clinicians with the purpose of working in partnership with them to increase philanthropic referrals, particularly from within the clinical academic community. Designed and implemented in partnership with the UCL Cancer Institute’s leadership team and dean of the faculty of medicine, the programme has achieved over 60 successful academic referrals in the three years since it was established, representing 85.5% of total gifts secured for cancer research in that period. The programme is now the gold standard for clinical academic engagement with the campaign and our office, and elements of it are now being replicated in other areas of health fundraising and beyond.

From the Judges

University College London successfully implemented a giving program for its cancer center, working closely with UCL Cancer Institute leadership and other key stakeholders in the medical school to integrate clinical and academic engagement in fundraising. Relationship building with cancer center leadership, targeted events, and cancer-specific fundraising materials were key components of this initiative. Over 50 physician scientists were involved in the program, which resulted in £10,923,599 raised. We congratulate University College London for implementing this project, which demonstrates the importance of engaging clinicians in grateful patient fundraising activities.