Supporters
Supporting education is the key to solving global challenges. Help us to educate future generations and enable further academic research, by supporting our students and Fellows, and by improving our facilities. Together we can safeguard our future as a place of outstanding education, learning and research. Thank you to everyone who has chosen to support us.
The Anniversary Campaign
2025 marks 675 years since the College’s foundation. This important milestone presents us with an opportunity to develop a vision for the future of Trinity Hall. Our Anniversary Campaign aims to raise £50 million to put Trinity Hall in a powerful, resilient and exciting position for the future.
By joining us in the Campaign you can show you believe in the difference Trinity Hall can make to students from all backgrounds, play a vital part in the community to which you belong and become part of our joint effort to ensure that Trinity Hall’s mission continues to excel in the modern world.
From its foundation in 1350, Trinity Hall has benefited from the vision and generosity of benefactors, who have endowed property, gifts and collections to ensure a centre of excellence rich in intellectual, cultural and spiritual values.
Our founder was William Bateman, successively bishop of Westminster, Norwich and Ely. Of the many books, manuscripts, and vestments and vessels for the Chapel which we listed in the founding charter, only the charter and the Founder’s Cup remain.
We also owe much to the generosity of former Masters, whose legacies and visions created Trinity Hall as we know it today. Virtually every major building and facility in this College, and many teaching posts and student support funds, owes something to a gift from Fellows, alumni, staff and friends of the College.
Support has come in a variety of ways, with donations large and small received from alumni, Fellows, staff and students of the College. Benefactions have also been received from friends of the College and from Trusts, Foundations and Corporations.
In 2016, we established Bateman Benefactors for those living donors who have donated over £500,000.
Some of the other key and interesting benefactions to Trinity Hall over the years include:
- Thomas Thirlby, Anglican bishop of Westminster, Norwich and Ely, gave Trinity Hall the advowson of five parishes in Huntingdonshire in 1557.
- Robert Hare, in 1604 gave Trinity Hall a collection of manuscripts and books, mostly on theology and history, which now forms the heart of the Old Library.
- The manuscript of the History of St Augustine’s monastery at Canterbury, given on the condition that if the monastery should ever be revived, the volume would be returned to it.
- An unusual benefaction to Trinity Hall was the blindfold Terry Waite wore while he was a hostage in Beirut.
Hear from Development Director, Rachelle Stretch, on the impact donations have had on the College throughout its history.
For some, public recognition is important, for others anonymity is essential. Trinity Hall honours the interests and requirements of all donors, and acknowledges the support of everyone.
The Development Office was established in the mid-1990s ready to mark the College’s 650th anniversary in 2000. Just over £13.5 million was raised. The Milestones to the Future Campaign was launched in June 2006 with the aim of regenerating the College’s buildings on the main College site and bolstering the endowment. We have now launched our 675th anniversary campaign and fundraising continues to be an everyday operational activity of the College.
Thank you for your support and interest in Trinity Hall and its future.
Doesn't Trinity Hall have an endowment? Why does the College need money?
In 2022–23, the deficit on the College’s Educational Account was over £5.7 million. This means that for every undergraduate student we accept, we invest £10,904 out of College’s resources on top of the academic fee, to subsidise the cost of their education. The nature of the Oxbridge supervision system increases the cost of educating our students by around 25% when compared with other UK universities. Income from the endowment also has to cover everyday running costs including maintenance of our buildings and provision of salaries, as well as funding bursaries and resources for the students. Markets are volatile and the value of the endowment is subject is change.
Despite the increase in fees to £9,250, there is still a shortfall between the income from government contribution and fees, and the amount it costs to educate students. This is because government funding (the HEFCE T-grant) has been reduced dramatically. The College still has to subsidise the cost of every student’s education every year. The agreement with OFFA which permits the University to charge £9,250 also means that a proportion of the fee will be spent on access and outreach initiatives.
Does Trinity Hall invest its money wisely?
The College has an investment committee made up of Fellows, asset managers and independent Professional advisers who offer neutral advice. We have diversified our portfolio and have increased transparency in terms of College’s accounts and investments. The portfolios have outperformed their underlying markets in recent years. Over the past ten years the College’s return on investment has outperformed the WM Index for Charities and is one of the highest amongst all the Colleges.
Doesn't the Fellowship cost a lot of money?
The majority of Trinity Hall Fellows are University Teaching Officers so the College only provides office space and pay for supervisions. Trinity Hall Fellows often have numerous College responsibilities as part of their role.
Can't some of the richer Colleges help others?
The ‘University Contribution’ ensures that the wealth of some of the ‘least poor’ colleges is given annually to those that are poorer. This redistributes £3 million per year to the poorer colleges; Trinity Hall is a net giver to this scheme. Our neighbour, Trinity College, does have a larger endowment than all the other colleges and distributes hardship monies to students of all colleges via the Newton Trust.
Doesn't Cambridge University have sufficient resources already?
Cambridge is one of the least well resourced of the world’s top ten Universities. Less than 3% of the University’s annual expenditure in 2012/13 was funded by the endowment, compared with figures of 57% at Princeton, 39% at Harvard and 23% at Stanford.
If I can only give a small amount, will that really make a difference?
Yes – every contribution does help. Eighteen telephone campaigns have together raised more than £4.7 million. This has enabled us to refurbish the Crescent room, new JCR and P and G staircases; to help alleviate student hardship within College, to improve resources for certain subject groups; to provide choral scholarships and also to assist college sports teams with purchasing new equipment. If every alumnus gave £20 per month it could cover the costs of the shortfall between income from fees and costs of educating students, which is currently met by using income from the endowment.
