Published: 06 May 2021
We are now half-way through our annual telephone fundraising campaign, which began on 26 April and will be running until 16 May.
About the telephone campaign
Each year, our students speak to our alumni to ask them about their time at St George’s and what they have gone on to do since, talk about common interests and let them know how they can support us through donations to the St George’s annual fund.
This year’s campaign is taking place remotely for the first time ever, with our student callers receiving ongoing support from the Development and Alumni Team and an external call room manager.
This year, we know that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been felt by all of our students. Because of this, we have decided to focus this year’s fundraising efforts on hardship and mental health and wellbeing support, as well as supporting our doctoral students, whose studies have been particularly disrupted by the pandemic.
The impact of our alumni's support
The generous support of our alumni through this campaign will help us to enable doctoral students facing significant financial struggles to complete their PhDs. It will also help us to continue contributing to much-needed hardship support and mental health and well-being initiatives across St George’s, so that our students can continue receiving flexible remote support, wherever they are and whatever their circumstances.
So far, over 400 alumni have spoken to our student callers. It has been wonderful to hear about some of the valuable insight our alumni have been sharing with them.
Hear from the team
Associate director of alumni and development, Nike Alesbury, says:
“We’re thrilled to have such a remarkable group of student callers participating in this year’s campaign. Their infectious energy and passion for St George’s is being so well received by our alumni. As well as giving alumni the chance to hear about news from St George's, our Student Callers have gained a huge amount from the life experience that our alumni have to offer. Our requests to support the Annual Fund are driving a fantastic response and we are well on our way to reaching our target of raising £90,000 for student causes this year."
Second year biomedical science student and student caller, Natasha Wollen, says of her experience on the campaign so far:
"Calling alumni has reinforced my pride in being a member of George’s tightknit community during a time of increased isolation and reduced social interaction. Each shift I have felt more confident communicating with alumni in many different contexts, and more inspired to reach our goals to fundraise for such an important and worthy cause.”
First year medicine student, Josie Price, adds:
“It has been fantastic to speak to St George's alumni to hear about where their degree has taken them on their career journeys. Specifically, as a first-year medical student, hearing about doctors' student experiences at the university has been particularly interesting - as well as some of the alumni even being so kind to give advice on future applications.”
Find out more
Find out more about how you can support St George's on the support us pages of our website.