SPORTS YEARBOOK 2011 (Including the 2009-2010 Review

Hawks’ Charitable Trust Awards
2009/10
The Trust was established in January 1996 with a
relatively small endowment capital donated by some
of the members to provide grants to current
Cambridge University students, male and female,
whose sporting activities were being inhibited by
financial constraints. A very generous bequest from
David Jennens (Clare College 1947-51, Rowing)
increased dramatically the size of the endowment
capital in 2003, and the capital fund now stands in
excess of £550,000, enabling a disbursement in 2010
of £20,000 (capital being conserved for the growth of
the fund). The Trust is now the single largest charity
devoted to funding sport in the University.
There are 5 Trustees, all Hawks - they are Christopher
Pratt (Chairman), Sir Roger Tomkys, John Marks, Guy
Brennan and Tim Ellis. Since 2007, to ensure joined-up
thinking, the Awards Committee has been joined by
Dr Joan Lazenby of the Ospreys. Information has,
since the inception of the Trust, been exchanged with
the managers of the Eric Evans Fund, which is the only
(and quite small) fund run by the University itself.
The Trustees’ policy currently is to provide a larger
number of modest awards rather than a very limited
number of larger sums. Applications have to be
endorsed by a University Senior Member to confirm
financial need; grants are normally only awarded in
sports of Blue or Half-blue status, taking into account if
need is equal, the level of sporting excellence and the
academic level.
In 2010 a sum of £20,000 was awarded to some
80 students.There are usually well over 100 applicants.
Awards are made in amounts ranging from £100 and
£750.The top four £750 awards are named for major
benefactors of the Trust, being David Jennens (Rowing
1949-51), Sir Adrian Cadbury (Rowing/Skiing 1949-52),
Bob Barber (Cricket/Athletics 1954-57) and Sir Arthur
Marshall (Athletics 1922-26).This policy will continue
and expand as account of further contributions allow.
6 Sports Yearbook 2011
Applications are normally submitted by a date which
is defined in the middle of the Lent term and
advertised to all colleges and sports clubs. The
trustees make their decisions before the end of that
term. Each year the awards are announced in the
University Reporter and either at the end of the Lent
Term, or early in the Easter Term, a reception is arranged
at the Hawks’ Club at which the awards are made.
The future? There is little doubt of the value of these
awards to the individuals who receive them, nor, to
judge from the number of excellent applications, the
fact that they are necessary in the current student
financial climate.The Fund is now by far the largest in
the University to provide help to sportsmen and
women and the Trustees are convinced that prudent
management will allow the total level of the awards to
be increased steadily over the years. Certainly this is
the aim, for there is even less doubt about the success
of those to whom awards have been given than their
need; their names have featured in summer and winter
Olympics, World, and European Championships and
Commonwealth Games, as well as myriad international
and national competitions across the sporting world.
In addition to expanding the current range of support
to individuals the Trustees would wish in the future to:
• Make occasional much larger individual awards
(where for example, major international potential
can be identified).
• Support Clubs or Teams on a general basis.
• Consider supporting the establishment or
development of sporting facilities.
To do this we need considerably more capital, and
attracting that is a fundamental objective.
In addition to its current activities the Trust can
facilitate the transfer of funds should any Hawk have a
particular project, within the charitable objectives, that
he wishes to endow.