The Queen's College Record 2020

Old Members’ Activities
DEVELOPMENT AND OLD MEMBER
RELATIONS REPORT
To echo the remarks of others, the 2019-20 academic
year was obviously not quite the year we were expecting
in the Old Members’ Office. Indeed, it was very much
a year that moved from excitement, to uncertainty and
then to disappointment as we were forced to cancel Old
Member events as the year progressed.
Yet while the Old Members’ events programme divided
into two very distinct halves, the disruption caused by
COVID-19 was surprisingly not mirrored in the year’s
Justin B. Jacobs
overall fundraising totals. Fundraising at Queen’s during
Director of Development 2019-20 was some of the strongest the College has
seen with 659 donors contributing to a New Funds
Raised figure of £5,413,600 – only the third time
Queen’s has ever surpassed the £5M New Funds Raised total in a financial year.
This figure is a clear reflection of the continued goodwill, willingness to support and
generosity of Queen’s Old Members and friends, and their collective desire to ensure
the College is as well-positioned financially as it can be to meet the challenges
its students and the tutorial system will likely face in the years to come. In the
Development Office, we tend to see this support as also having something of a
historical and enduring quality to it, as it is due in large part to the support of previous
years (to which this year’s donations will be gratefully added) that Queen’s finds itself in
a position to ride out some potentially very turbulent seas.
84 The Queen’s College | College Record 2020