Fundraising during a pandemic: The University of Manchester’s Student Hardship Appeal

This case study examines how The University of Manchester set about planning, launching and delivering a fundraising appeal during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to support students facing hardship. The Student Hardship Appeal mobilised teams from across the Division of Development and Alumni Relations as well as professional services and academic colleagues throughout the university. The appeal tested and embedded a number of new approaches to traditional higher education appeals, including creating a broad and inclusive project team, developing a crossinstitution communications strategy, using a campaign approach that explicitly involved major donors, putting retainable acquisition at the heart of the appeal strategy, and implementing tailored digital stewardship, in part driven by the wider lockdown landscape. The appeal was a success, raising over £1.6m, one of the highest sums of any UK university. Many of the new approaches tested during the Student Hardship Appeal have now been embedded in the division’s day-to-day fundraising activity.