Harding Challenge: Lucy community unlocks over £300,000
Thanks to your generosity, all challenge funds for the College have been unlocked, ensuring our students thrive at Cambridge.
A community-driven success, Lucy’s Festival of Giving was a 4-day campaign for a better, fairer future.
Over four days from 6pm on Thursday 12 October 2023, alumni, students, staff, Fellows, Associates, and friends joined together to raise £137,205.44* (including £60,028.94 in gifts made during the campaign, £66,000 in unlocked match and challenge funding, and £11,176.50 in Gift Aid) towards priorities vital to Lucy’s important mission.
416 College members and friends made a contribution from across the worldwide Lucy community and beyond, with gifts received from donors in 20 different countries. We are immensely thankful to the group of Lucy alumni and friends who generously pledged match and challenge funding ahead of the campaign, which was fully unlocked during the week.
Funds raised during Lucy’s Festival of Giving will be directed towards the College’s Core Fund. This ensures Lucy Cavendish will continue to deliver all aspects of its ambitious mission, helping - for example - to support our students through projects such as:
- students from low-income backgrounds can participate in the many clubs, societies and other activities that the College and University offer;
- financial aid is provided for students who experience unexpected financial need, often precipitated by the rising costs of living, so that their wellbeing and academic results are not adversely affected;
- outstanding students from low-income communities can take a Cambridge Masters course particularly those focussed on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs);
- students from marginalised and disadvantaged backgrounds can take part in career-building opportunities such as work shadowing and internship schemes.
During the Festival, we were delighted to hold two virtual Meet the President presentations, a Clothes and Book Swap, a Ceilidh, and our virtual Celebration of Lucy’s Benefactors and Legators. Students, staff and Fellows took part in the celebrations via exciting activities at our Hub, and we were thrilled that members of the Lucy community took part in our Sustainability Challenge, traversing 7,149km (659km more than our target goal) from Lucy Cavendish College to the COP locations of Dubai (4,690km) and Glasgow (561km).
Together, we're building a better, fairer future. Lucy Cavendish College has always opened the door to those with exceptional talent from groups who are under-represented in the University. We are proud to be, now, the most diverse college in Cambridge. And, with your support, we can make an even greater impact.
We have the boldest ambitions of any Cambridge College - but paradoxically the most limited resources. It is with the help of supporters that we will enhance our role as the vanguard of positive change. Lucy’s Festival of Giving is our opportunity, together, to open the Cambridge door even wider to the world’s brightest minds committed to making a positive impact on society.
Thank you to everyone who participated, helping to make Lucy’s Festival of Giving a huge success.
It is not too late to make a donation! You can do so via the button below.
*The figures reported in this article were amended after publication to reflect further Festival of Giving donations which have been received since the initial posting.