How alumni boost university coffers around the world

While the United Kingdom continues to wrestle with a post-Brexit identity, one area of ‘Global Britain’ has become firmly rooted: philanthropy. Philanthropy, as an economic activity, is notoriously difficult to track, but there is one particular form of philanthropic flow that speaks to the truly international character of Britain today.

In 2023, more than £155 million (US$208 million) flowed from the UK through dedicated charitable trusts set up by overseas universities, nearly four times the amount raised a decade earlier. In total, nearly £690 million has been channelled through these vehicles over the past 10 years.

In 2014, UK-registered charitable trusts supporting overseas universities raised around £40 million. A fourfold increase has taken place in the decade following. This growth reveals how the UK has quietly become a global hub for cross-border philanthropy and how international alumni giving has matured into a professionalised and rapidly accelerating field.

I have been tracking this data throughout this period, and what began as a mapping exercise has emerged as a long-term study of how international universities engage UK-based alumni and philanthropic networks. What it tells us is more than just numbers. It speaks to the development of university fundraising and to the globalised character of the UK.

Giving back

There are now around 100 such charitable vehicles operating in the UK, supporting institutions in at least 21 different countries. Roughly a third are linked to United States institutions, while 38 are associated with Commonwealth universities in countries such as Australia, South Africa and Canada.

These trusts allow alumni living in the UK to give tax-efficiently to their alma maters overseas. Many of those donors have international backgrounds and have built lives in Britain, yet retain a strong sense of loyalty to the institutions that shaped them. Their giving is often motivated by a recognition that the education they received helped set them up for success, and giving back is a way of expressing that legacy.

UK-registered charitable trusts provide a tax-efficient mechanism for giving and are appealing to alumni, philanthropists and foundations alike. They offer reassurance that donations will be used for charitable purposes, and they provide access to Gift Aid and other tax advantages.

Furthermore, it is often the case that UK foundations will only disburse funds to registered UK charities, making these vehicles a vital component of the fundraising infrastructure for non-UK universities.

Not all UK giving to overseas universities flows through these structures. Some donors, particularly large foundations, prefer to give directly to institutions abroad. While the income received by UK-based trusts is an important indicator of global university philanthropy, it does not capture the full picture.

This trend is also part of a wider global phenomenon, but regulatory transparency, another characteristic of the UK, means we can get a handle on these philanthropic flows in a way that is simply not the case in many other jurisdictions.

What does the data show?

There are some notable trends.

First, a small number of trusts now raise more than £1 million annually on a consistent basis. These are primarily trusts affiliated with major US institutions; 55% (£375 million) of giving has flowed to the US, reflecting the sophistication of international fundraising and alumni engagement among universities there.

The top three recipients over the last decade – the British Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Pennsylvania Foundation, and the Bologna Center of Johns Hopkins University – have together raised more than £210 million.

Second, newer trusts are catching up quickly. In the past five years, institutions such as Arizona State University, Lahore University of Management Sciences and the University of Pretoria have benefitted from recently established UK charitable trusts.

While building visibility and donor pipelines takes time, performance suggests that newer entrants are no longer at a structural disadvantage. Trusts established since 2010 have now raised, on average, nearly as much over the past decade as those formed in earlier generations. The globalisation of university advancement is now well established.

Third, a country’s distribution of trusts reflects deep historical ties. The United States leads with 30, followed by Israel and South Africa, and then Australia. This pattern mirrors flows of students, researchers and professionals and the educational mobility that underpins global alumni giving.

The charitable trust model itself is not new. The Weizmann Institute, a research institute rather than a university, established the UK’s first such charitable trust in 1950, followed by the University of the Witwatersrand in 1955 and Bar-Ilan University in 1957. These longstanding vehicles show that some institutions have been cultivating UK-based giving for generations.

These trends also offer a counterpoint to the political climate of the last decade. At a time when cross-border cooperation has come under pressure and universities have been subjected to populist critique, international alumni have continued to give. Their giving has not shrunk in the face of nationalist rhetoric; it has grown. That reflects civic and institutional loyalty that endures beyond borders and politics.

The UK, especially London, is one of the world’s most credible homes for philanthropic activity. Whether that continues remains to be seen, but these charitable trusts tell a story of a nation that has drawn in people from around the world, many of whom remain loyal to the institutions that helped shape them, even after moving thousands of miles away.

Bridges from the past to the future

For advancement professionals and policy-makers alike, this data is encouraging. It affirms the value of long-term alumni relationships, investment in international development infrastructure, and the need to understand that today’s donors live global lives and expect to give accordingly.

Through that lens, we should recognise that UK-based charitable trusts for overseas universities are not just funding tools. They serve as important bridges between people and institutions, countries and cultures, past educational experiences and future global impact.

Andrew Wigley is the head of international advancement for the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is the founder of UniversityPhilanthropy.com

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.