Support us
The Anniversary Campaign
Securing the future of OUCCC
OUCCC is fantastic. In many cases it transforms the lives of its members, through experiences gained, successes attained, and friendships made. Yet, while most Full Blue clubs benefit from large endowment funds to support their members, the increasingly expensive activities of OUCCC are overwhelmingly supported by membership fees. Rendering our sport far more expensive (a fully committed member can currently expect to pay over £1,500 per year on membership fees, transport, race entries and accommodation, pre-season training camp and equipment), OUCCC's current financial situation poses barriers to participation. By preventing us from investing in our coach and athletes as much as we would like, it obstructs the attainment of competitive excellence and is a barrier to participation at all levels. Furthermore, it makes us reliant on a bumper membership each year to meet rising costs and prevents us from achieving long-term financial stability.
Your opportunity to help
£500,000
Endowment Fund
Starting with a pot of £30,000, our ultimate aim is to fundraise for an endowment fund of over £500,000. This would provide annual interest of over £20,000, safeguarding OUCCC’s future for decades to come and giving us the opportunity to cover essential and increasing annual expenses such as coaching and competition costs.
150
Regular Donors
We aim to increase our group of regular supporters from ten at present to at least 50 by the end of 2025 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Women's Varsity Match.
By the end of the Club’s 150th Anniversary year in 2026, we aim to have grown this to 150 alumni.
A Community for
Life
We welcome and encourage you to be part of our ‘community for life’, a core principle that we will emphasise throughout the Anniversary Campaign.
We aim to expand our alumni network and deliver a succession on alumni-friendly events, building off the success of the Bannister Miles celebrations.
What your help could achieve
Removing barriers to participation
Costs associated with key events like Varsity and BUCS have doubled since 2020. This is principally due to the soaring cost of transport hire. Members are increasingly asked to self fund travel to important races, a challenge for many.
Your generous support would give us the opportunity to:
- reduce the cost of the BUCS weekend from £150 to £20
- avoid membership fee increases
- provide means tested financial support
Commitment to excellence
We want to continue to be among the best university teams in the UK, consistently medalling at BUCS and attracting talent from near and far. This means providing a high-calibre coaching apparatus and ensuring that athletes have everything they need to thrive.
Your generous support would give us the opportunity to:
- adequately remunerate our excellent coach
- employ an assistant coach
- subsidise physiotherapy
Long-term development
There are many exciting ideas which, with the core costs covered, the Club could develop. OUCCC can be more than just a university sports club, taking a leading role in the local running community.
Some long term goals include:
- scholarships for high performance athletes
-
supporting strength & injury prevention services to a wider range of members
- funding for new community athletics club based at Iffley Road
- expansion of outreach initiative to local schools and coaching for kids
Why your support is so important
Coaching provision and University support
OUCCC vs Birmingham
Coaching Provision
OUCCC
1 (part time)
vs
Birmingham
4 (2 full time)
University Funding for coaches
Oxford
£1798
vs
Birmingham
Employed by the University
Case Study 1
Currently the club barely has enough funding to cover the costs of one coach, who does a fantastic job, but is spread across over 200 members on a part time basis.
Rival clubs such as Birmingham have lead coaches and assistant coaching support to cover both genders and all abilities. In addition, the coaching costs are covered by the University whereas our University funding falls significantly short (£1798 of funding vs £10,800 of coaching costs).
We want to ensure our existing coach is paid for the hours we would like him to provide, with assistant support, so that all groups are supervised and given the individual feedback which helps fuel enthusiasm and success. This would also help us to retain our outstanding coaches, rather than lose them to more secure roles in other Universities.
Case Study 2
Entries, transport to and from BUCS, two nights accommodation and food are together a significant cost for members wanting to participate in the biggest University competition of the year – more than yearly membership fees!
However, many clubs, including OUAC, are able to subsidise this significantly by using money from their endowment funds, something OUCCC currently cannot do.
This places a barrier to participation which goes against the inclusive nature of BUCS cross country.
Weekend at BUCS
OUCCC vs OUAC
Cost of a weekend at BUCS
OUCCC
£120
vs
OUAC
£15
Endowment fund explained
Our ambition is to raise an endowment fund of over £500,000 by Varsity 2026 via one-off donations and regular gifts of any size.
This endowment would be managed by Oxford University Endowment Management which generates on average a return each year of about 7%. The fund pays out about 4% a year, providing a regular annual income stream of £20,000, while protecting the fund from depreciation due to inflation.
In the meantime, interest on funds accrued will be used by The Trust to fund specific improvements. Our vision is ambitious, but its achievement would be truly transformative.
Regular giving explained
For those who are not in a position to donate a lump sum or for those who would prefer to give over multiple years, including after Varsity 2026, regular monthly or yearly giving is a perfect way to contribute.
Predictable and regular income from donations are crucial for the Club and a central part of our Anniversary Campaign.
Community for life explained
Everyone has the opportunity to help and we very much hope you will become a friend of the campaign, whether that is through financial support, sharing our ambition with other friends of the Club and/or coming to one of our milestone events in the lead up to the 150th Anniversary.
Whether or not you are in a position to support us financially at this point in time, (and we fully understand if this is not the case), we welcome and encourage you as an OUCCC alumnus to be part of our ‘community for life’, a core principle that we will emphasise throughout the Anniversary Campaign through a succession of alumni-friendly events.
Please get in contact and share any thoughts you have around this campaign, as well as spreading the word and asking people to sign up to our regular newsletter.
© The 1876 Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1207635)