Colleges, Alumni and their donations

I was pleased to see on the Education Guardian website an article about colleges and alumni. Iain Mackinnon – from the governing body of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College – was suggesting that donations from alumni could become a major source of income for colleges as it has for many UK universities.

Ian MacKinnon gave examples of colleges generating income now:

Plumpton College in Sussex, for example, which has an international reputation for its wine-related training, was recently given £70,000 for research. Bournemouth and Poole College has raised over £1m in the last 15 years, from a wide range of supporters. The City Lit, London's most illustrious adult education college, raises tens of thousands every year, mostly from alumni, which it uses to help students with their fees.

I am aware of sixth form colleges seeking to generate donations from parents. This a wise move but parents are no longer when students move on – alumni are for life.

Following my earlier blog post on alumni donations, I googled to see how many colleges had alumni pages on their websites. The answer was very few. Not all of them may be using alumni to

EMA may be saved or, more likely, more than 10% salvaged. But its not likely. Students now could benefit from alumni donations and the associated Gift Aid. What is stopping colleges?