Welcome

Hello and welcome to Benefactors 2014

My name is Claire Hughes and I’m so pleased to be writing the first few words for this year’s donor magazine.

I study Philosophy and Literature at Warwick, where I also work as a student caller and as a volunteer with local children.

Really, I just wanted to say thanks for your donations, both as a student and as someone who personally believes in the cause of higher education.

I’m in the middle of exams and seem to be spending most of my time in the library these days, but I really feel that my studies are helping me to grow academically and personally. It’s my final year so I’m making the most of the opportunities on campus – I’ll be sad to leave but am also looking forward to lots of new challenges and my first job.

Last but not least, a special ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s taken a phone call from me or one of my caller friends. We still chat about the graduates we spoke with years ago who gave us great advice as well as talked about ways they loved Warwick – and we enjoy every phone call. Thanks for picking up, and perhaps speak to you soon!

Many thanks,
Claire

Thank you from the University of Warwick

As you read this issue, I hope you enjoy meeting some of the people whose lives you have changed, and that you will join me on campus and meet some of them in person at our 50th Anniversary Celebrations in 2015.

It’s truly incredible to look back on how much Warwick has achieved over just fifty years and how significantly philanthropy has played its part. Donations like yours ensured the foundation of the University, and will ensure its future too.

Donations like yours ensured the foundation of the University, and will ensure its future too.

Your gifts are changing lives: they raise children’s aspirations through outreach programmes; they let the brightest scholars study here and reach their potential; and they ensure that life-changing research takes place in a huge number of areas, from medicine to engineering.

As a Warwick donor myself, I am personally moved every time I see the results of gifts in action - and I know I am not alone in offering my gratitude for your continued commitment to Warwick and everything it represents.

With my sincere thanks,

Professor Nigel Thrift
Vice-Chancellor and President

You have changed lives on campus and beyond!

Donations to Warwick have world-wide impact.

Thank you for your ongoing support

Your gifts to Warwick change lives on campus every day: thanks to you, students benefit from better resources, more scholarships, and more opportunities. Your donations have also changed lives across the world.

• You help staff and students reach out to children in communities from the West Midlands in the UK, to India and Africa too.
• You help medical students to travel to desperately deprived communities in developing countries and help the local doctors.
• You help life-changing research which impacts medical practice everywhere.

See your gift's impact on campus and across the globe now!

You have helped to save lives

Giving extra time for the biggest questions

You have helped families

Your donations have helped couples to have a better chance with IVF (with a special thanks to the Warwickshire Private Hospital Charitable Trust)

Your donations have helped families to have healthy babies (with a special thanks to supporters of Grace Research Fund)

You have helped medical research

Your donations have helped to fund vital research into detection, prevention and treatments:
Cancer ⋅ Diabetes and nutrition ⋅ Healthy minds ⋅ Healthy ageing ⋅ Health of mother and child

You have helped new researchers get going

You have helped early career researchers in Biomedicine, Engineering and the Humanities
(with a special thanks to the Wolfson Foundation and the Wellcome Trust too)

You have inspired others

Giving us the means to reach out

You have helped us run outreach activities to local children

We run a variety of activities both on and off campus: we inspire kids to enjoy school more through homework clubs, arts projects, and student volunteering programmes; we run demonstration sessions for different subjects, and invite kids on to campus to see what University is like: four ways you have helped to inspire kids in the last year

You have helped students at Warwick

You have supported students with scholarships

Thank you to everyone who supports scholarships: in the past year you have helped over 130 undergraduate and postgraduate students at Warwick. Meet the students whose lives you have changed forever with scholarships at Warwick over the past year.

You have encouraged students with prizes

“It’s vitally important that people’s achievements are continually recognised and praised. At one end of the spectrum, a simple, timely, and sincere, “well done” can motivate someone for days. At the other end, the prospect of graduating (or not!) can motivate one for months and years – we still remember that feeling, and we both started Uni over 40 years ago!” (Donors Gary and Kate Freeman)

Read about one special prize at Warwick this year: the Claire Freeman Inspiration Prize

You have given more opportunities to students

The Opportunity Fund provides bursaries up to £1,000 in value to clubs, societies and other groups of students as well as individual students to help fund extra-curricular activities. They are one-off contributions aimed at supporting unique activities that will benefit the individuals involved and help enrich their Warwick experience: Meet some students whose lives you have enriched this year 

You have helped those in need on campus

"I can’t give you the names of everyone you have been able to support with the Senior Tutor’s Hardship Fund - but I can tell you that every single person has been fully deserving and in genuine need..." Continue reading about the hardship fund at Warwick and how it's helped

You have helped to expand horizons through work experience and travel

Your donations over the past year have funded 250 URSS bursaries, 3 Warwick Graduate internships, 35 Work Experience bursaries and top-up work experience funding for 29 students: Keep reading and meet some recipients from the past year

Why we give to Warwick

Your donor stories

Twins Andrew and Geoffrey Entwistle talk a little about why they support Warwick and what it means to them, and Ron Lockhart (Maths, 1965) invites you to think about leaving a legacy to Warwick.

How will you be remembered?

As an existing Warwick Benefactor, would you consider leaving a gift in your will for the cause you love at Warwick?

Whether it's the student hardship fund, research into deadly diseases, or the belief that everyone should benefit from higher education, we hope that you will give it some thought.

⋅ Every gift, large or small, can make a difference

⋅ Legacy gifts can reduce the amount you pay in inheritance tax

⋅ Memorial and tribute gifts can be arranged in consultation with the University

Most importantly, it means that the things you support the most will continue to benefit from your belief in them.

We can talk it over with you and find out what you want and how we can help - read more here

Thank you for thinking about a gift in your will to Warwick.

Thank you for all your donations from the University of Warwick!

 What did you think of this issue?

• Please give us some feedback by email or take part in our communications survey if you haven't already had a chance to do so.
• Update your details with us (and the alumni team)
• Make another donation to the cause you love: give online now

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