Imperial College disbands development office 4

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 4 Aug 2010

Imperial College has disbanded its department responsible for fundraising and merged it with communications, in a restructure which sees Judy Beard, current director of development, leave the university.

At a time when many universities are building their development, or fundraising, departments, Imperial has decided to move its alumni activities operations – which include individual giving and data support – into the communications division. The major projects team too will be shifted into communications, the changes came into effect on August 1.

Civil Society can reveal that the restructure of the development office has put nine positions at risk, but the College said that it will be consulting with staff about redeployment and voluntary redundancy in order to avoid compulsory redundancies. The decision follows a 30-day consultation.

The disbanding of the department will see fundraising legend director of development Judy Beard depart and her role abolished. Beard does not have any immediate plans for work, but is said to be exploring other opportunities.

While the alumni relations and development office has been dumped, the college will create a new ‘development board’ in September, which will be a sub-committee of Imperial’s governing council. The board will meet in the autumn to map out the focus of the college’s first fundraising campaign.

A spokeswoman for Imperial told Civil Society that the consultation and restructure is designed to “maximise the effectiveness of the two functions in the most efficient way”.

Facing a reduction in government funding in the future, universities across the UK have stepped up their development and fundraising activities in the last few years. The latest figures on record, produced by the Ross Case Survey, show that as a result of this, 18,000 more individuals and organisations gave to higher education in 2008-2009. The financial year saw a significant rise in philanthropic income to universities, from £430m in 2007-2008 to £511m in the most recent year.

Meanwhile, Imperial College’s financial accounts for 2008-2009 show an annual income of £672.8m, but do not account for any individual philanthropic income within the report. Research grants and contracts accounted for the largest proportion of the College’s income, at just under £287m.

Place a comment

Donald Campbell
5 Aug 2010

Imperial College's loss will undoubtedly be someone else's gain!

[Reply]

Siôn Lutley
Director of Development & Alumni Relations
University of Bath
5 Aug 2010

Get rid of your experienced Director of Development just before you start to plan the College's first major fundraising campaign - an interesting decision and not one I'd recommend!

[Reply]

Jeremy Payne
Director of Development
City University London
4 Aug 2010

Quite apart from the folly of letting Judy Beard go, many unis look to Imperial for a lead and it could be a chilly sector if this is replicated elsewhere.

[Reply]

Peter Maple
4 Aug 2010

Big mistake! in my book it works when communications becomes part of fundraising but when fundraising becomes a subordinate part of comms then results usually suffer as few comms specialists really understand fundraising whereas fundraisers have to be great communicators.

In these straightened times and against increasing competition in HE it will be interesting to see how Imperial gets on. Most organisations usually seperate out the functions after a year or two of poor results.

[Reply]

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