Time for the Alma Mater to ask for a hand-out

Starved of cash, universities are increasingly resorting to fundraising techniques to supplement empty coffers. Some are tapping alumni for money, offering credit cards, sweatshirts or crystal glasses bearing their motifs. Even Oxford has got in on the act. It is marketing whisky in the Far East, report Nicole Veash and Xenia Gregoriadis.

This year more universities than ever before are using slick marketing techniques, usually associated with American fund- raising programmes, to raise thousands of much-needed pounds for their cash-strapped establishments.

American universities on average raise 10 per cent of their annual turnover from graduates, whereas British educationists have thought there was something unsavoury about tapping old boys and girls for money.

Colin Boswell, director of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, says: "There was a time when some British universities felt they really shouldn't have to think about fund-raising.

"They thought it was the first step on a slippery slope of excusing higher education cuts. But things have really changed now."

Case, a non-profit making organisation set up in America in 1974, arrived on British shores only in 1995. Universities pay a yearly subscription fee and are given an insight into the American fund-raising model.

"By the time we were established in this country, some universities realised that raising money either through income generation or through alumni donations was becoming essential," says Boswell.

Apart from Oxford and Cambridge, who for years have tapped into the accumulated wealth of their many successful students, universities have been slow to jump on the bandwagon.

Even now, only 60 higher education establishments out of 176 have joined Case, although two-thirds of the remainder are estimated to have at least one full-time alumni officer.

"Most universities have one person in charge of alumni relations, but not all have recognised the financial potential of ex-students, beyond the goodwill gestures of the traditional dinner and dance do," says Boswell.

University College London cottoned on early. It now has one of the most developed systems outside Oxbridge. Simon Pennington, head of UCL fundraising, has had six full-time staff working with him in the development office since September 1994, dedicated to raising money from graduates.

"Fund-raising is taken very seriously here because it provides a small but critical amount of money," explains Pennington. "Last year we raised just over pounds 20m out of an annual turnover of pounds 300m using fundraising methods. We do use some of that money for student hardship, but mostly it enables us to develop new projects."

UCL's current team of 24 students are working on a co-ordinated telephone campaign, canvassing dozens of graduates each week over the phone, asking them to consider donating money to their old institution.

During this annual seven-week campaign, up to 4,000 graduates are contacted and around pounds 300,000 is raised. But UCL say they have another, far more successful way of raising money. Former students earning more than pounds 100,000 a year are invited to an informal face-to-face chat with an alumni officer and asked to donate substantial amounts to specific projects.

This astute marketing strategy means UCL is now one of the big university fundraisers. "The programme as a whole is very successful and we expect to raise pounds 10m in the next 10 months," says Pennington.

At Durham University similar techniques are being employed. Adrian Beney, deputy director of development, says the key to improving alumni relations and increasing cash-giving potential comes down to making sure universities remain central to former students' lives.

"Graduates are more likely to contribute financially if they are familiar with what is happening ... and can be persuaded that their donation makes a real difference," says Beney. "Maintaining that link is really important and we do this through reunions and an alumni magazine."

Using an American database system, the aptly named Raiser's Edge, Durham maintains contact with 56,000 potentially philanthropic graduates. Many universities are now investing heavily in this system.

"Fundraising is essential if Durham is to maintain its academic edge and its reputation and we simply cannot do that on government funding alone," says Beney.

Not all universities are as far advanced as Durham. Sussex University, which was established in 1961, does not have such developed fundraising, largely because the graduate base is still relatively small.

In 1991, it founded an alumni and development office, which established a short term project called the annual fund. Former students are given the opportunity to make modest donations, of around pounds 25-pounds 50, by responding to a request form in their twice-yearly alumni magazine.

Robin Street, development officer, says this is Sussex's way of building a database of students willing to give money to their Alma Mater.

"This is the first building block in our fundraising programme. We're preparing for the future and aim to establish regular patterns of giving for when students have a greater disposable income," says Street.

Apart from asking alumni for their financial support, universities are using a variety of other methods to raise money. The University of Manchester has established a trading organisation, Concourse Enterprises, which produces a memorabilia catalogue containing sweatshirts and college scarves as well as crystal glasses and engraved paperweights.

Oxford University, on the other hand, has taken to marketing its own whisky, available only in the Far East, and that quintessentially Oxfordian item, the bike.

Royal Holloway, part of London University, is one of a number of establishments to offer its own credit card. More than 600 people have accepted their "affinity" card. For every new account opened, RHUL get pounds 20 and 0.15 per cent of all future transactions.

Anne Uttley, the public relations officer, says: "This is the first stage of our fundraising programme.

"Unlike other universities we don't offer the card to our current students, because we don't want to be responsible for them getting into any further debt.

"All the money we raise is channelled into a scholarship programme and not into building or environmental maintenance projects. So far we are very pleased with the results."

The Americans may be light years ahead in the fundraising stakes, but, as Colin Boswell says, the Brits are catching up fast.

"Given that universities have only just realised the potential of fund- raising and income generation in the last few years, most have developed these new techniques pretty quickly," he says. "Although we are nowhere near the Americans yet, in the current financial climate we soon may be."