What’s really been happening in giving to universities in the past decade? Ten years back, the seminal Pearce Review of Philanthropy to UK Higher Education helped the sector change philanthropic gear. Now, CASE and More Partnership have collaborated to revisit the learning and the predictions of the well-thumbed Pearce Report. Digging deep into 10 years of data, interrogating the experience of higher education thought leaders and drawing on responses to a sector-wide survey, for the first time we can suggest evidence-informed recommendations for different kinds of institutions to make the best of the cards they are dealt by their history, geography and mission. As a new Vice-Chancellor, a Director of Development arguing for investment or an advancement professional contemplating your next move, what are the best options for your circumstances? Understanding your own playbook means that between us we can support an even stronger environment for philanthropy to advance the great ambitions of our institutions.

After seeing the devastation inflicted on universities by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Universities UK International – a sector body representing 140 UK universities – helped develop twinning partnerships between UK and Ukrainian institutions, providing vital sector support. UUKi developed the #TwinForHope campaign, to tell the story of the initiative, inspire more universities to join, attract funding and improve the UK public’s perceptions of UK universities. This campaign exceeded all of its objectives, delivering 100 partnerships, £5m of funding, and a 36% uplift in positive public perceptions towards UK universities. Hear how the campaign was developed, delivered and what lessons were learnt.

Delegates from schools are invited to join a gathering for informal networking and experience sharing.

Launching a new alumni engagement plan during a pandemic might be something familiar to us all but doing so for China, where restrictions remained and continued to change for a longer period than the rest of the world, might be less so. In 2020, in partnership with our Student Recruitment team, we launched a new alumni engagement plan and through collaborative working were able to overcome language barriers, limited budget, geographical distance, and the twists and turns that Covid-19 brought us to successfully lay the foundations for our alumni activity that will continue to grow in 2023.

Successful engagement of alumni is rather a happy teamwork than just the small Alumni Team's individual interest. It is beneficial for several entities within the institution. High time to involve and encourage them by drawing their attention to their benefits and letting them know what they can do for it? Let them understand that this is a win-win situation and by frequent brainstormings this process is much more simple than they think. Time to start a delightful cooperation within the institution. "Beautiful is what is beautiful without interest" but benefits are real benefits - worth working on.

While traditional major gift fundraising techniques often don’t fit with the culture of entrepreneurs and how they work, pre-exit philanthropy provides a new approach by asking entrepreneurs connected with a university to pledge to make a future philanthropic gift to the university if and when they experience a sale, IPO or another significant liquidity event. In this session we will discuss our experiences of establishing the first two programmes of this kind in the UK, what we wish we’d known when we started and everything we’ve learned along the way.

When the University of Warwick launched its new skills certificate, the Warwick Award, in September 2022, the team behind it hoped to have 1,500 students register in year one. By Christmas, they had over 8,000 - partly thanks to an effective communications campaign that hit the right notes despite it being managed by a 0.8 FTE and having no dedicated budget for communications or marketing activities. In this session, Dave Musson, that part-timer managing the campaign, explains how his team designed something that resonated with current students, made the most of what they had rather than pine for what they hadn’t, and what might come next.

Universities and donors alike look for greater impact, requiring institution-wide approaches beyond traditional boundaries. How do you construct and convey your internal pitch to get everyone on board while exciting donors? What if the interest of the Dean is in conflict with that of your President? Might your academics be secretly fundraising and not sharing their projects? Where do you even start if your institution is only beginning systematic fundraising? Join this interactive session and bring your own examples and questions! Let’s see how the sum can be a jackpot instead of being a zero-sum game...

The CAO processes applications for undergraduate courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and in doing so is responsible for application guidance/advice. They are the authority on university courses in Ireland. Each year the CAO produces a handbook. The handbook helps prospects find the right course and guides users through the process of submitting an application. Traditionally, the handbook had been a printed document, distributed across Ireland. In 2022, they transitioned to a digital-first approach. in this session, we look at the journey to digital, the results, and what's next.

Queen's University Belfast will break down its reputation campaign which aimed to interrupt the attention of academics worldwide and raise awareness of the university's research and its impact. By exploring paid media tactics with Net Natives, data, academic engagement and results, Queen's and Net Natives will discuss the recipe for success when it came to achieving goals that ultimately helped them climb Times Higher Education World University rankings in 2022.