Report to Donors 2009 - University of Melbourne

REPORT TO DONORS » 2009
Generosity against the odds — A report from
the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (University Affairs) »
While many leading universities reported declines in giving in 2009, the
University of Melbourne was fortunate to benefit from a 14% increase in total
donations and gifts. Donor numbers expanded to over 4,500 (from 3,860 in 2008),
and the Chancellor’s Circle, the recognition program for donors who give more
than $1,000 per annum, grew to more than 900 generous donors.
Professor Bebbington and Dr Bernadette Taylor discuss
Dr Kloester’s acclaimed text Georgette Heyer’s Regency
World at a Heritage Society ‘Morning Tea with an Expert’ event
Among many highlights were the gift
from the estates of RCS and eMC
Webb of $4.7 million for an endowed
Chair in Cattle and Sheep Production
Medicine, an anonymous gift of $1
million for scholarships in business
and economics, the first $1 million
of a multi million dollar pledge from
the Jack brockhoff Foundation for
the Jack brockhoff Child Health and
Wellbeing Program, and $800,000
from the Myer Foundation to support
programs at Asialink.
The opportunities we provide for
donors to meet with staff and
students continue to expand, and
I was pleased to meet many during
our Festival of Ideas in June, at our
exclusive donors’ reception “A night
in Pompeii” at Museum Victoria in
october, and at our Heritage Society
lunch for bequestors in november.
We are also staying in touch with
page 4 »
donors twice a year through the
Report to Donors and the new Annual
Giving Update, with our bequest
donors through the Heritage Society
Newsletters, and with our major givers
through individual Your Endowment
Reports.
A significant number of our donors are
alumni, and our alumni engagement
continues to expand, with annual
events now held in most capital cities
and several Victorian regional centres.
over 9500 alumni attended our
events during 2009 – a rise of 52%
on the previous year. This included
over 500 alumni registering for the
Festival of Ideas, a sellout Potter
Museum tour series and 1500
attendees for “A night at Pompeii.”
Abroad, the Vice-Chancellor and
I accompanied a large delegation
to the 20th Anniversary Dinner of
the University’s Malaysian Alumni
Professor Bebbington with Professor Emeritus Samuel
Aroni and Mrs Malca Aroni enjoying the wine and cheese
alumni event in Los Angeles
Association in August, while successful
events were held in London, new York,
Los Angeles, Singapore, Shanghai,
and beijing, Hong Kong, Japan,
Toronto and Sri Lanka.
our focus for the coming year is to
work towards launching the ‘University
of Melbourne Campaign’, the first
campus-wide fundraising campaign at
the University in over 50 years. You will
hear more from us about the goals of
this Campaign over the coming months.
Meanwhile, to all our supporters whose
names appear in these pages, and
indeed to everyone who gave to us in
2009, my heartfelt thanks.
Professor Warren Bebbington
Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(University Affairs)