FROM THE DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Matthew Moss MVO, Director of External Relations and Development
36 ANNUAL REVIEW DEVELOPMENT
W
hat distinguishes an institution from a community? It was an easy question to answer this year, because Homerton-as-a-community has been on daily display. As everywhere, the pandemic has had some effects that are the same for everyone (every current student, Fellow and staff member sorely misses the camaraderie of lunch in the Great Hall, for example) – but in other aspects, Homertonians have been affected very differently. Some report feeling more connected than ever, since it has become natural to use video calls to meet colleagues and friends regardless of distance. Others have felt totally cut off from support. A strong community connects all its members, and the Development Office team set about providing that connection to Homertonians in new ways and with a new sense of mission. Communications Our External Communications Manager, Laura Kenworthy, found that social media in particular gained in importance during the pandemic. She uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep alumni, staff and students connected to Homerton, and found a great appetite from alumni to learn about how the College was responding to the challenge. As a forum to share our concern and support for students, to update the community on how we were responding to the challenges of self-isolation, and to celebrate news of the extraordinary work of Homerton researchers, social media allows for an immediacy and an intimacy which filled a real need.
“Social media has enabled us to connect, casually and regularly, with the College community as a whole,” says Laura. “At a time when everyone has been scattered and isolated, it has allowed alumni, however long ago they left, to be in regular contact with the College and to know that they are part of a wider network.” Over the Spring, realising that the intellectual life of the Homerton community could continue and reach new audiences despite being scattered, we devised the Homersphere (www. homersphere.org), an online magazine carrying articles from Homerton researchers, senior and junior, on topics that take their fancy. The result has been a delightful variety: everything from the stories behind Fitzwilliam Museum artworks, to the conservation of rhinos, via cricket and plumbing and David Foster Wallace. Ease of encountering ideas from other disciplines is the defining feature of a Cambridge College, and we are proud that, necessity being the mother of invention, Homerton now has this terrific new forum to share ideas. Do have a look. Alumni Relations Also in the front line was our new Alumni Relations Manager, Sally Nott. Sally joined Homerton a matter of weeks before the first lockdown in March (there are still many colleagues she has not seen outside a square box on her computer monitor!). We were very conscious that not every one of our alumni used social media, and that this was the group most likely to be feeling isolated – not just from Homerton, but from everything else. Using our database, she quickly began calling our alumni aged over 70, with no email address listed. By the end of the first lockdown she had had 190 conversations with alumni – not only a sign to our alumni that
