Professor Lorna Fox O'Mahony.

The invaluable support of our alumni, staff and friends has been crucial in helping our University fulfil its ambition - from educating the next generation of talent to carrying out pioneering research.

But we have many bold and exciting plans for the future, which is why we want our spring 2016 telephone campaign to be bigger and better than ever.

Launched in 2002, our successful telephone campaigns have proved vital in reaching out to our philanthropic supporters to help us realise our vision. Since then more than £500,000 has been raised, funding everything from scholarships and student projects to sports and arts events. We are a charitable organisation and every penny you donate goes directly to the cause you choose.

Our first telephone appeal of 2016 – from 11 April to 5 May – will focus on our Women of the Future Appeal and Click, Essex’s crowdfunding platform.

The Women of the Future Appeal is the first Chancellor's Appeal in Essex's history. Led by Chancellor Shami Chakrabarti, it seeks to raise funds for 25 masters scholarships at Essex. Places will be awarded to bright and inspirational women from across the world, who will use what they learn here to effect positive change in their communities.

With your help, we aim to raise £500,000, an investment we know will reach far beyond the 25 women, and into the communities they will support and lead.

Click, is a platform where students, staff or alumni of our University can put a project forward for crowdfunding – where a project is funded by raising lots of small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the internet.
Our aim at Essex is to match fund student projects on Click and during the month-long telephone campaign more than 1,800 alumni will be contacted to ask for their support.

Alumni Relations Officer James Martin, who is co-ordinating the telephone campaign said: “Our supporters have been so generous to us over the years and we hope that 2016 will be no exception. We value every single penny which is donated to the University and we hope our generous alumni will dig deep again for these two very worthwhile causes.”