From the 16 September – 4 October, 13 current Churchill students took to the phones in a socially distanced call room to connect with our alumni community and raise vital funds for our new Think Forward campaign.
Our student callers gained a huge amount of life insight and careers advice as well as raising funds for the College – watch out for our student call room video coming out shortly!
It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to return to the College site after so many months away and share their stories and experiences with a record-breaking 785 alumni, almost half of whom decided to make a gift in support of the campaign. A fantastic £200,000 was pledged over three years – rising to £400,000 when longer-term pledges are taken into account, but thanks to the incredible generosity of our Telephone campaign match donors these figures will be doubled!
The matching pot comprised over £200,000 from an anonymous alumnus for any gift made during the Telethon to a student-related fund (i.e. the Student Support Fund, Graduate Studentship Endowment Fund, Winston Churchill Top-Up Bursary Fund and Covid Fund), whilst a further £30,000 in matching pledged from an alumni couple for gifts made to the Winston Churchill Top-Up Bursary Fund ensured Think Forward got off to a fantastic start.
It is not too late to contribute to the campaign and you can find out more about the case for support and donate by visiting the Think Forward campaign website. Some people have mentioned that they do not feel able to give, as the amount they might feel comfortable with is too modest to be worthwhile. All donations, of whatever size, are very welcome and really do make a difference. For example, a one-off gift of £50 from everyone contacted on this telephone campaign would raise almost £40,000 for the projects we are supporting this year, before gift aid or match-funding is applied. Hence wide participation is really important and it encourages others to help us too. If you missed a call from a student, or would like to add your support, you can still donate online and we are tremendously grateful for every gift given!
