External Engagement and Global Division
Global Advancement
We are responsible for alumni relations and fundraising and are in touch with 155,000+ alumni in 183 countries around the world, the University’s largest stakeholder group.
Most recently we worked on the Making the Exceptional Happen Campaign which raised more than £71 million and 100,000 volunteering hours to support key strategic activity.
Operations
We are the engine house of Global Advancement.
Our team manages a database storing the details of all alumni and supporters, their interactions with the university, communications preferences and fundraising potential. We will query this data to create tailored mailing lists for email communications as well as analyse it and report back on activity and trends.
We manage prospect research, identifying potential future donors, learning more about existing pools, and finding individuals for communications and other engagement activities; and stewardship of all major donors, making sure people know how their money has been used and that they are happy with the impact it’s having.
Another significant responsibility for our team is the processing of all donations from crowdfunding through to major gifts, and the management of the different funds alumni give to.
Supporter Engagement
We are responsible for building engagement with our alumni community and working with them to support different objectives across the University.
Firstly, we have a responsibility of creating an inclusive global community supporting our alumni throughout their lives, providing them with a breadth of social activities, professional networking, and continued learning opportunities, ensuring that they have a connection with Exeter Forever. In addition to providing career support forever, we are responsible for all mass communications such as email newsletters, the annual magazine, webpages for both alumni and fundraising, social media and other digital content.
We run alumni networks and groups based around shared interests such as sport or business, or through geographic location and will organise online and physical events to support these groups throughout the year, as well as larger events like the House of Lords reception, annual Carol Service, or an internationally based Vice-Chancellor delegation.
Through this support and the warmth that is created, the alumni community then supports the University in return.
We manage relationships with alumni volunteers, who benefit the University with their support – creating a pathway for support to generate greater numbers of influential alumni (including corporate connections) and donors for the future. Younger alumni involvement in employability and rankings assessments are crucial for the University, so the continued delivery of a virtuous circle of engagement across the generations is paramount.
The volunteering programme is designed to collaboratively work across Faculties and Directorates to impact upon the key strategic priorities, such as student experience and employability activities, rankings / accreditations and reputation, student recruitment, strategic advice, academic / curriculum support and development, corporate partnerships, global, peer-to-peer networking, widening participation goals of the University, research and policy, to name just a few.
Within this area of the team we also have responsibility for the Individual Giving programme – mass fundraising campaigns aimed at attracting large numbers of donors at a lower level, plus leadership level fundraising to the value of £25k (usually funding scholarships and bursaries), through to the delivery of the legacy fundraising programme. This takes place via email, an annual telethon, postal campaigns and online, and all of these activities and channels support key areas of the University – research, student experience, widening participation, amongst many others.
Supporter Engagement
We are responsible for building engagement with our alumni community and working with them to support different objectives across the University.
We manage relationships with alumni volunteers, who give their time to support careers activities, student recruitment and also peer-to-peer networking.
We run alumni networks and groups based around shared interests such as sport or business, or through geographic location and will organise online and physical events to support these groups throughout the year, as well as larger events like the House of Lords reception or annual Carol Service.
We’re responsible for all mass communications such as email newsletters, the annual magazine, webpages for both alumni and fundraising, and social media.
Plus we also have responsibility for the Regular Giving programme – mass fundraising campaigns aimed at attracting large numbers of donors at a lower level. This takes place via email, an annual telethon, postal campaigns and online.
Philanthropy
We are responsible for relationships with high-net-worth individuals and organisations.
Our team regularly meet one-to-one with current and potential donors to discuss areas of interest and will write tailored proposals to persuade people to give to specific areas. These donors will often fund an entire research project or PhD, as well as named scholarships and bursaries.
We also organise smaller fundraising events around certain themes, in order to showcase research at Exeter to key stakeholders and allow them to speak directly with academics.
In addition we’re responsible for all bid submissions to Trusts and Foundations where there are aligning priorities.
The Internal Communications team delivers key information to University colleagues across our campuses, to ensure that staff are aware, engaged, and up-to-date with all the latest news and information.
Our channels of communication include the University’s Weekly Bulletin, the VCEG-led Team Brief, and popular Rumourbuster, and we also maintain a network of key contacts in every service and College to ensure consistency and uniformity of message. In addition to internal communications, we also hold responsibility for communications on behalf of University stakeholders, including the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor.
The Press Office is the official link between the University and the external media, and we manage the University’s media profile.
We work with local, regional, national and international newspapers, magazines, online and broadcast media in the following ways:
- Writing and issuing press releases on news-worthy activity at the University. This includes working with academics to generate coverage for research.
- Publicising major developments at the University and coordinating media coverage for our events.
- Coordinating responses to media enquiries about the University and its research.
- Supervising media visits to the University, including filming by TV news crews and documentary companies and press photography.
- Pre-empting and managing potential ‘bad news’ to ensure the University gets its messages across to the media in the most effective way.
We are also responsible for media monitoring and produce a weekly report of the University’s media coverage, as well as managing and maintaining the news section of the University website. If you would like to receive our weekly media report by email, please contact us.
