Interview with Professor Chris Day, Vice-Chancellor and President of Newcastle University and Paul Tyack, Director of Advancement at Newcastle University
Founder and CEO of Cairney and Company, Karen Cairney, had the pleasure to meet recently with Professor Chris Day, Vice-Chancellor and President of Newcastle University and Paul Tyack, Director of Advancement at Newcastle University to discuss the launch of their exciting major new fundraising campaign From Newcastle For The World and to look at how the University is shaping their philanthropic endeavours to meet today’s needs, with people at its core.
Professor Day, The Higher Education sector has faced numerous challenges over the past few years with Brexit and the Pandemic, what gives you a reason, or reasons, to be optimistic about the future for your University?
Chris: Our people. They have seen us through this really difficult time with a combination of hard work, flexibility, and a willingness to do things differently, particularly during Covid.
And if we were in any doubt before Covid, going through this pandemic has highlighted how important the University is outside our four walls. As an employer and an organisation at the forefront of the global economy, leading sustainability and tackling these issues together as a city and anchor institution. It has brought us closer to the city council and the hospital trust for example, relationships which will last long into the future. We realise together we are stronger and there is a renewed appreciation for how important the University sector is to the future of the country and the cities we serve.
At Newcastle, we have been at the forefront of innovation in medicine and engineering since our inception 180 years ago. Today, our research remains just as critical to society and the economy of our region.
But most of all it is our students, a diverse group of brilliant, engaging, enthusiastic and determined young people who we are privileged and proud to support through this important part of their lives.
We talk a lot in fundraising about being ‘donor-led’ or being ‘project-led’ and that the magic happens when we can match these approaches. You have outlined six key areas or “causes” of focus for the Campaign, from support for students and the communities you serve to the role of technology and your place in the global cultural environment. Why are these the right causes for Newcastle, and how were they chosen?
Chris: Having looked at ourselves and other universities, I knew we needed to clearly articulate Newcastle’s strengths, both to our own community and to the outside world. These areas of strength are based on extensive internal consultation and represent the areas where we genuinely excel on a global stage.
They are deliberately broad because I wanted them to be inclusive pillars of expertise which most people at the University could relate to and see where their role fits into the organisation and how they, personally, are making a difference. And our key strengths had to have meaning and resonance outside the four walls of the University. From a government minister to a local taxi driver talking about what’s important about Newcastle to them, we should be able to explain to anyone who asks what it is that we are good at. The Development and Marketing teams have then taken those areas of strength and turned them into a value proposition for investment.
Paul: It’s the balance between being led by the University’s strengths and the interests of donors. There should be no tension between those. The strengths are broad, and they already reflect the interests of donors. We had an international alum visit us recently, who absolutely loved the American football team when he was here, and he wants to donate to the American football team. That’s wonderful. Ours is an all-embracing campaign that really does inspire giving to all of the causes identified that focus on the strengths that Chris has described.
In developing the causes, to what extent did this provide an opportunity for you and the team to engage with the internal academic community around the role of philanthropy and a campaign, and what role do you hope they will play in the execution of the Campaign?
Paul: We have every confidence in our academics articulating the University’s strategy and the University’s strengths. We are also fortunate to have the wonderful role of a Dean of Advancement, held by Professor Anya Hurlbert in addition to my role of Director of Advancement. She’s our Chief Ambassador in the academic community and ensures advancement is integrated in how the University thinks about planning and strategy.
Chris: From the outset, we formed a Campaign Steering Group comprising senior academics from each of the three main faculties. They have been involved throughout and have held us to account on the authentic nature of our causes and ensuring communication with their colleagues. It’s clear the campaign is a collaborative effort, grounded in the academic heartland of the University.
What will a campaign achieve for the University, and what do you hope the impact is on the role of philanthropy at Newcastle and the causes you are seeking support for?
Chris: There are 250,000 Newcastle alumni all around the world and my hope is that through this campaign we can build on that global community to offer even more support to our future students helping to ensure that they – and our research – continue to be a force for good in the city and wider world. I look forward to a blossoming of philanthropy amongst our whole community.
Paul: I would like us to inspire the spirit of philanthropy across our university community from students to colleagues, retired staff and alumni and instil that spirit of giving and volunteering as part of their identity when they become part of Newcastle. I hope that the campaign will boost all levels of giving and the opportunity for potential donors to engage with Newcastle as a place where they would see a really strong impact from their giving.
We know that Presidents/Vice-Chancellors in the US can spend more than 25% of their time directly on fundraising. Professor Day, in order to grow philanthropy here in the UK, do you think that fundraising and related time focused on building and maintaining key relationships needs to become a greater focus of time and attention for higher education leaders?
I have always envisaged philanthropy being a major part of the role. But, this campaign is something that anyone from the University community can get behind and support, not just me and my senior team. All of us have a role in developing the relationships with our alumni and supporters
We understand that you have a Campaign Volunteer Structure, to support the campaign, led by alumnus Sir Eric Thomas. What role will the volunteer leadership play in the Campaign?
Paul: Every fundraising campaign I’ve worked on that has had an advisory board has outperformed those that haven’t. The very first charity I worked for, Barnardo’s, is absolutely steeped in volunteer-led fundraising, and it’s one of the most successful fundraising charities in the UK.
We spoke about authenticity before. The level of authenticity that someone who is freely giving of their time and their reputation shows a level of trust in our organisation that really inspires other donors and gives them the confidence to give. There is a phrase which Sir Eric Thomas, our Campaign Chair, won’t mind me quoting him on which is, “when push comes to shove, you are paid to do your job, but the volunteer board members aren’t”.
Our board reflects the diversity of our alumni community and other supporters, and is well balanced in terms of areas of interest, business interest, professional interest, internationality and acts as a strong board of advocates for Newcastle.
Chris: The people on our board are all very successful in their own right and have great credibility. They understand the thought processes when making an investment. And just as importantly, they are successful because they are pretty tough and they don’t hold back.
We benefit from having constructively critical and tough friends, as well as their connections and networks, and the fact that they themselves have given.
If we consider the trends over recent years and decades in the UK and across Europe, we see a small number of institutions where philanthropic income and investment have consistently grown – some to very significant levels. We talk about building a culture of philanthropy for a university. A fundraising university and not just a university that fundraises. I was delighted to see that you highlight how Newcastle plans to approach philanthropy, on your campaign website.
What are the key factors that will ensure that philanthropy becomes more embedded and sustained over time at Newcastle?
Paul: I wanted to be absolutely sure that we had the processes in place to know exactly what we are going to do with every donation from the point it’s offered. When a donor chooses to give, they need to know that the organisation they give to has the systems in place to protect their interest.
We think it’s essential to have a board level-led philanthropy oversight group who take responsibility for the governance of philanthropy, different to the raising money side and hope that this embedding of philanthropy further builds levels of trust and confidence among our donors.
How can we embed an advancement culture and a continuation of investment over time? What can you do as Vice-Chancellor to help to ensure that a focus on fundraising and wider advancement can be built into the future?
Chris: Anya set up a faculty advisory group comprised of academics who are interested in the Campaign, from each faculty. What quickly became apparent is that, if we are serious about advancement, it should be a standing item on the faculty executive board, not run by a separate group.
That doesn’t crack the culture question by itself, but it says up front we are going to talk about philanthropy each time we talk about students, research, international. I think that very visible integration of this is now part of core faculty business.
I want philanthropy to be threaded through the organisation and for our academics to see the benefits it brings for research and for the students they teach and for many more to be able to experience engagement with philanthropists
Paul: I also want to advocate for the role of the senior team within Advancement. Shared leadership is really important in order to make the Campaign sustainable. Investment in the layers below director level being essential in getting us to where we are at the moment.
I couldn’t see a Campaign Goal on the website and wondered if this was deliberate and what you hope the financial and non-financial goals and impact will be from the Campaign?
Paul: I talked already about how the Campaign intends to inspire that spirit of philanthropy and to be very democratic in the way it approaches giving. We are genuinely as grateful for a first time donation of £25 as we are of something substantially higher. It is intended as a campaign that is for everybody at whatever level they are comfortable giving at. Equally we are ambitious and are transparent about it. Our goal is to raise £300m within 10 years. This is a substantial uplift in philanthropy for Newcastle. The ambition of the Campaign befits the importance of the University, its city and its region. It also creates opportunities for the small number of donors who may be thinking about a really transformational gift, it shows that our ambitions are at the same level as theirs.
Even more so than ever, transparency and due diligence are key factors in the success of major campaigns and in particular when soliciting and receiving gifts from overseas. What is the University doing to ensure that donors can put their trust in you when making a sizable gift and under what circumstances would you be prepared to say NO to a donor?
Chris: Ultimately, knowing when we will and won't accept donations is really important to our students and our colleagues, so we’ve done a lot of work around this over the past year. We now have all the policies and practices in place and our governing board, senior team and the University can be confident that due diligence will be done in advance of accepting any sizable gifts.
Paul: We followed the Charity Commissioner’s guidance around donor policies and this is advice I would give to people in a similar situation. Look beyond the higher education sector into the charity sector and use the guidelines to put in place strong, simple, effective systems that start with effective due diligence.
There are a number of universities in the UK either planning or have launched major campaigns and the pool of talent is limited with huge demand. How are you approaching recruiting for the team at Newcastle and ensuring you have the right team with the right skill set for success?
Paul: Although we had some tough times through Covid, the team is absolutely ready to get this campaign underway. Investing time and money in training, in building that sense of team spirit was the first thing to do before thinking about recruitment. First, how do we optimise opportunities and output within the existing team? In terms of recruiting new staff, we resisted the temptation to go stratospheric with salaries, or outlandish on the numbers of people to recruit. We have had investment to create a very effective fundraising team, not necessarily a very large fundraising team. The two things are a little bit different.
We have focussed a lot on the fundraising side of the Campaign but how will alumni relations and the campaign relate to each other both during the campaign and beyond and what do you hope it will mean for the University in the future?
Paul: The first thing we invested in were systems, processes, and governance. The second was communications, before fundraising. We invested in communications talent and we have an absolutely excellent team who have responsibility for alumni engagement as well as communications. From the outset, the role of the advancement office has been to do both. And this has already produced some great results. Our alumni engagement programmes have been fantastically well led over the last year and now sit perfectly alongside the Campaign for Newcastle.
What are you mindful of that might get in the way of the Campaign moving at pace and achieving its goals?
Chris: It’s going to be the financial environment that we find ourselves in. I think any VC would say this at the moment, that the financial environment that we are finding ourselves in means that we are all moving into difficult times.
However, my experience in fundraising has shown me that you can speak to someone for the first time and they write you a large cheque the following day. Equally, there are other times when you keep saying ‘perhaps another conversation will get them over the line’. You have to understand that this is long game. That’s the resilience that Paul and I can convey to our teams.
Paul: Keeping the team motivated, well trained, and well skilled is the area, beyond the outward facing fundraising, that I feel is most important. My biggest commitment to the team is to make sure they have all the confidence to go out and do their jobs. There will be obstacles but we need to keep up our resilience. We will have good and bad months, it will be bumpy on the fundraising front, sometimes we will go down the line where we think there is going to be an absolutely phenomenal donation and there isn’t. We need to be resilient to that. It’s all about the strength of the team and what we can do to ensure they can deliver.
Finally, looking to the year ahead, what would be your one piece of advice to advancement teams and professionals across the UK who may be struggling to demonstrate their institutional value?
Paul: The way that you shape your team and the way it adds value to your institution is all about culture and finding the proof points for effectiveness. Being able to get the right people, the right type of leadership, the right type of story, those are the things that will really drive us forward. The advice I would give is to closely align your team with your organisation’s institutional values and to be comfortable building up your programmes incrementally over a period of time rather than all at once.
Chris: Campaigns can force you to think much harder about what it is your university is about and that, in turn, will help you enhance your reputation and influence. The challenge I would give Advancement leaders is to think medium-term. What’s it going to look like in five years if we deliver what we say we are going to? That’s how you build sustainable success.