Development Director’s Report

Development Director’s report

BY JO RYAN

During another year of uncertainty, the incredible support of the Lucy community has been wonderful, enabling us to remain fully focused on

our mission. I would like to extend my thanks to you all foryour continued interest, involvement and generosity in somany ways.2020-21 was an exciting year. Along with colleagues

in other departments, our focus was on supportingpreparations for our first mixed cohort of standard agestudents - our most diverse intake ever. The year beganwith much to celebrate, as the global College communitygathered during LucyGives Giving Week 2020, raising fundsto:• improve students’ first year experience through our

Bridging Week and Student Lived Experience Researchprogrammes;• expand Library collections in step with our growing

student body;• provide 9 new Master’s studentships for students on

interdisciplinary courses who demonstrate an appetiteto make a positive impact on the world;• and to create a fund to ensure no student is prevented

from making the most of the co- and extra-curricularopportunities that Cambridge has to offer.With your help, the Giving Week raised more than double

our target figure, receiving £164,681 from 320 supporters- our heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributedfinancially or volunteered their time to help achieve suchtremendous results.Philanthropy has also enabled us to pilot some innovative

new projects, helping to support students at every stageof their journeys into Higher Education. ‘Get Set for LucyCavendish: the Blakey Mentoring Programme’ offeredfree academic tutoring to 27 Year 13 offer-holders fromunderserved communities in a range of subjects, as theyworked to achieve their required grades. We have securedfunding to run the programme again and to extend itsreach so that even more offer-holders are supported intaking up their Cambridge places in October 2022.A new postal ‘lending library’ was established to support already disadvantaged offer-holders who had additionally found themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide during the pandemic. The “hard copy only” library helps to make up for lost learning during the lockdowns by offering A-Level exam support materials as well as pre-course and first year reading texts.

Our new colleague, Rachael Burcher is leading on the brand new STEM and Enterprise Programme. Rachael, who is being supported by AstraZeneca, is building strong, mutually beneficial relationships between the students and the local life science community, and raising funds to assist the new cohort of undergraduate STEM students. Meanwhile, alumna Lili Schwoerer is the principal academic lead on a one-year, innovative Student Lived Experience Research project. Lili’s work will enable us to better understand the day-to-day experiences of firstyear students at Lucy who come from backgrounds that are currently under-represented at the University. The students will be paid co-researchers, working on data collection and analysis alongside Lili, and their findings will help us to implement systematic solutions to the problems students like them may face. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of both of these initiatives with you in the coming months.

Our Foundation Board continues to provide strategic advice and guidance on all aspects of fundraising and we are indebted to them for the time and energy they volunteer. We have established a sub-committee of the Board, based in North America. Members (who include Lucy alumna Disha Patel) are all well-networked leaders in their fields with a proven interest in the higher education sector. They are committed supporters of the College’s mission to widen access and to increase the proportion of outstanding international students from low-income backgrounds. They particularly wish to support those who will take postgraduate programmes related to the Sustainable Development Goals as defined by the United Nations.

The pandemic necessitated finding new and creative ways to connect with our alumni and friends and we have enjoyed meeting more of the Lucy community than ever before via Zoom, and hearing your individual stories. Our virtual Meet the President events have proved extremely popular and more are planned in the coming months - wherever you are in the world, you will have an opportunity to hear first-hand what is happening at Lucy now and the plans for the future.

Live from Lucy talks continue to be enlightening, stimulating and inspiring – please visit the website for the forthcoming programme. Our careers-focused virtual events for students and alumni who work in architecture, finance and law were well received and we are planning more events of this nature over the next 12 months. Please do get in touch if you have any suggestions as to topics or speakers. Recordings of previous online talks and lectures are available to view on demand via the College website: https://www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/events?tab=past-event-list

The first virtual Celebration of Lucy’s Benefactors and Legators took place in March and this event is now a regular fixture in the College calendar. The programme included talks from the President, the Lucy Development team, architect Kevin Myers from RHP on the Estates Development Plans, alumna and Shadow Minister for Mental Health Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, and alumna Cherish Watton. The event concluded with an uplifting performance by the Lucy Cavendish Singers.

On behalf of all my colleagues in the Development Office, thank you for your support and friendship. We hope it will not be too long before we can welcome you to College again, but in the meantime we will continue to stay in touch and share news via online events, the e-newsletter, publications such as this and on the website and social media channels. We love hearing from you so please do get in touch!