The Think Forward Fund
The College’s invested capital currently stands at £100 million – income from these endowed funds is essential to providing education and covering operational costs. This income funds core activity such as teaching, pastoral costs, and operational costs such as building maintenance. The College endowment generates around £3 million per year, depending on investment performance. However, in a usual year the expenditure on these costs is well over £12 million.
Last year, the College received just over £4 million in fees and academic charges. It spent over £5.7 million in delivery of education including tutorial and teaching support and awards, leaving a funding gap of nearly £2 million. The shortfall in funding is usually made up of a mix of donations expendable in the year, endowment income, and conference revenue. Therefore, given the uncertain nature of the revenue from conferences in future, and other events that may affect fee income, the College aims to build up its endowment to generate at least £5 million per year, this would require at least another £37.5 million of endowment. The Think Forward Fund will be an unrestricted fund where surplus income is invested to add to the endowment of the College.
The more endowment funding the College can accrue, the more secure its future, and less subject to circumstance, which as we have seen with Covid-19 can greatly affect our income streams in other areas. In this campaign we aim to raise at least another £3-6 million every year to add to the College’s endowment – either for unrestricted purposes, undergraduate or postgraduate support.
Donation and endowed income is essential to the long-term future of Churchill College. Those colleges that have existed for many centuries have the security of a larger endowment to offer more financial security. With your help we can secure the funding of the College for the educational benefit of future generations and ultimately for society as a whole.
Every gift made in support of our new unrestricted Think Forward Fund, however modest, will enable us to continue to provide the best education in the world, to open minds to new ideas, and to Think Forward.
