Office of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni

Supporting students is at the heart of what we do as a department. Our mission is to ensure that every student at York can succeed, as a University of Opportunity. Our philanthropy work allows students to access a life-changing education and enhance the student experience.

Students Union President Pierrick Roger shares more about the impact of YuFund, our fund established to support Clubs and Societies:

"As the University of York Student’s Union President, I have seen first hand the massive impact that YuFund has on the student experience in a number of different ways. YuFund provides the specialist funding that we need to get a lot of groups off the ground and functioning at the highest level possible."

OPPA supports university research through building strong relationships with charitable funders, supporting funding applications and collaborating with professional services on transformational funding opportunities. Our work here is led largely by the Corporate and Foundation team and done in tandem with colleagues across academic and professional services.

To cultivate good relationships OPPA supports in organising campus visits for charitable funders, facilitating conversations in senior leadership and delivering bespoke relationship management for donors. The most significant of which is The College of Benefactors; our network of transformational level charitable funders at York.

OPPA’s work is done in close coordination with colleagues in RIKE and across Faculties, tailoring our involvement based on the opportunity's scope. Our focus on working closely with York’s charitable funders enables us to bring insights to enhance applications of any size. We also work with industry partners to build support for research and scholarships into future relationships with York.

Earlier in 2023 we launched York for Life, our new program of events, offers and opportunities for alumni. York for Life encompasses our entire alumni engagement and covers three key areas: community, learning and careers. For the future we are continuing to look for more ways to connect and involve our staff and student community.

We continue to communicate with alumni through our social media channels, Alumni Voices blog, alumni webpages and monthly e-newsletter. If you'd like to submit a piece of news or event for our alumni newsletter, please email alumninews@york.ac.uk.