The members of this group are the heads of the fundraising offices or others at the member university responsible at a policy level. Not all LERU members are actively engaged in this working group, but all members are invited to the meetings of the group and can decide to join the group at any point.
The Philanthropy Thematic Group focuses on issues of common interest and exchanging best practices regarding fundraising, Philantrophy fostering R&I at research universities.
Activities/Topics:
The Charitable Funding Thematic Group is discussing issues of common interest and exchanging best practices on topics such as ethics and fundraising, fundraising boards and large Campaigns.
This working group is handling LERUs role and impact on issues relating to charitable funding in the development of research projects, compared to other sources of research funding and what type of lobbying is expected from LERU.
This Group drafted the publication LERU_statement on_Philanthropy_at_research intensive universities, published in 2014. Here LERU wants to make a case for fundraising from philanthropy: Philanthropic donations are important for the future of Europe’s research universities.
It is meant as a stimulus for universities to invest in fundraising from philanthropic sources, which for many institutions is still very much undiscovered ground. Philanthropy cannot substitute for public funding. Successful development activities require a strong support and active engagement of university leadership. The note can help to convince incoming university presidents, rectors or vice-chancellors to consider these activities a crucial part of their new role in the institution.