The Million Pound Donors Report 2012 - University of Kent

eakfast with the Vice Chancellor! I hadn’t contributed
anything before then but I went along and was introduced
to their fundraising department – although I think they
have a more subtle name for it! – and that began a
relationship which coincided with their attempts to
complete the historic Aston Webb semi-circle of buildings
on campus. They’d already raised most of the funding and
as I was in the building business I went in and said, as a bit
of a joke really: “how much do you need to finish it so I can
put my name on the building”. They said, “that’d be £2
million” so I said, “fine!” and that was how the Bramall
Music Building came about. I can’t get over it; I’m still
shaking when I talk about it. It’s just incredible. Joking
aside, we’ve done a lot of soul searching about how much to
attach our name to the projects we fund, because it’s in our
nature to support in a more low key way. But in the end
we’ve agreed to do it because we’ve been told that it helps
so much in encouraging other donors. It’s also partly to do
with us only having daughters and because I have no
brothers, it’s a way of keeping the surname alive for a few
more years.”
Liz: “We did want to keep a low profile because we are fairly
private people. There are a couple of times we’ve helped as
a result of reading something in the paper. There was one
where a charity was taking disadvantaged children on a
Christmas trip. They’d been let down by a funder and we
sent them a cheque for £10,000 so they could still go to
Lapland. They sent a thank you letter that still brings tears
to our eyes.
There’s just one word to describe what philanthropy feels
like: amazing. It is just a wonderful, wonderful feeling
when we meet the people that we’ve been able to help. We
met a young woman in Doncaster who’d been on drugs,
she’d been as low as you can get, and now she is very
successful. I really admire people who can come back from
such depths.”
Terry: “I know I couldn’t have recovered like some of those
young people have done. I couldn’t have faced that
challenge, and that’s what I really admire. We were both
blessed with good childhoods and now we want to bring
hope to those young people who are not having that
privilege.
We receive many applications and consider them all at our
trustees meeting. We look at how worthy they are and how
well they fit with our objects. It’s not a precise science but
if we feel they deserve support and we’ve got enough
income left to distribute then we’ll do it.”
the MIllIon PoUnd donors rePort 2012
Liz: “We wouldn’t normally visit charities that are only
asking for a one-off donation of £5,000 or £10,000, but we
do visit those we support on a regular basis or to whom we
give larger amounts. The visits are partly about making
funding decisions but we also get so much pleasure from
seeing the results of our contributions.”
Terry: “We do enjoy visiting the charities but we also feel
some obligation to go as well. We’re not just here to
distribute money, even if that’s what it looks like. We also
need to help get the best performance from our
contribution.
We could employ a staff to maintain contact with the
charities but we don’t want to go down that route. We’re
still learning how best to run a foundation but we knew
from the start that we didn’t want to found a new charity or
start something that would employ people and have
expensive administration costs. you only have to open your
eyes and your ears to realise there are plenty of charities
out there doing good work but need finance. We thought
we could get much more immediate results by identifying
charities that could deliver the outputs we wanted, and
then our job is to monitor how the money is being spent.
The foundation’s income comes from the investments of
the original principle, so we also have to manage the capital
to get the highest return we can. We do now have two extra
trustees to share the load, in addition to the four family
members. And because of their professional expertise, they
can advise us on legal and financial matters.
I don’t think I’ve regretted any of the donations that we’ve
made, and I couldn’t pick out a favourite because I don’t
think of them being in a league table. I’m pleased with
everything that we do, big and small. Whether it’s the very
emotionally rewarding response to that small donation to
send the terminally ill young people to Lapland, or whether
it’s the statistics about how many people are being assisted
and getting opportunities as a result of our donation to The
Princes Trust. The rows of statistics are not so highly
emotional but it’s still very satisfying to see what we are
helping to achieve.
I think we’ve done pretty well so far and I hope that the
future holds more of the same. We will endeavour to
become more and more expert at what we do. We will also
be bringing on the next generations, our children and
grandchildren, who we want to get involved. We do see it as
a family enterprise.”
Liz: “I’m so glad that we set up the foundation. There is a
limit to how much money we need, so when we sold the
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