Highlight Reel: Giving Day 2022

Date Published: 23.05.2022

Our third Giving Day was a truly memorable one for the scope of participation and the generosity of our community.

Thank you for making a difference!

“The financial support shown by alumni is tremendous, and particularly meaningful given the current economic climate. It will make a significant and practical difference to the College’s ability to deliver on its educational mission this year.

The generous gifts from alumni all over the world will help us expand our Access to Excellence programme and enable students from all backgrounds to benefit from an Oxford education.

But beyond the fundraising, it was great to see people coming back together and the whole community, here and outside Oxford, meeting in different formats once again. I hope we will be able to thank many of you in person; please do come back to visit us this year.”

- Warden, Robert Hannigan

Highlights

Wadham’s third Giving Day concluded on Friday, 20 May, and was a remarkable success. It showed again the extraordinary generosity and warmth of our alumni community.

300 alumni from around the world have donated over £164,000

Alumni Give Back

With a programme of related activities spanning over three weeks, including a series of in-college and Zoom engagements with notable alumni, it also reflected other important ways of ‘giving back’. Students with an interest in the fields the alumni represented organised the questions for each session and were clearly honoured by the opportunity.

Community Spirit

It also marked the first Giving Day that involved a range of activities that involved students, staff and Fellows, including a pub quiz, a human chain around the front quad, drawing workshops and a tug of war.

Art Auctions

One alumnus, Alex Stavrou, donated four pieces of art in a gesture of thanks for the support he received when he was a student; our librarian, Tim Kirtley, donated a chalk drawing of the Warden’s gardens from the drawing sessions he led - both offers of artwork will bring in several hundreds of pounds towards the College’s areas of greatest need.

Dorothy Wadham lives on!

Dorothy Wadham was present throughout – she ‘hung out’ with students at Wadstock, joined the notable alumni who visited and featured in one of our Giving Day videos. She also 'appeared' in Singapore and Snowdon.

Her legacy truly lives on in alumni and colleagues around the world.

Indeed, our colleague, Angela Jefferson, who’s spent 34 years of her working life at Wadham, baked a Dorothy Wadham-themed cake and cupcakes to mark the Giving Day.

You can see a range of the activities – and make a donation if you missed it last week – at the link below.