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Office of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni

Who we are

The Office of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni (OPPA) works with our alumni and our global community of volunteers and donors, including individual philanthropists, family trusts, foundations and corporations.

If you’ve worked with OPPA before, you’ll know how passionate we are about the work we do; collaborating with supporters from across the world to join the University in finding new ways to tackle inequalities, support society-changing research, and help every student succeed.

OPPA is responsible for:

  • Fostering Philanthropic Partnerships which provide support to our academic community and projects at York through York Unlimited.
  • Alumni volunteering, including the Alumni Ambassador Programme.
  • York For Life, our program of events, offers and opportunities for alumni.

Supporting Students

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."

Pierrick Roger, YUSU students' union president

Kira, Adult Nursing Student and York Opportunity Scholarship recipient

OPPA's philanthropy work helps to secure a range of vital scholarships that support access to education for students from less advantaged backgrounds. 

Kira, an Adult Nursing student and recipient of our York Opportunity Scholarship, explains how the scholarship has helped her:

"Life would have been extremely difficult without my scholarship. With extra help, I do not have to worry about missing any days at university or placement, and know that I can come home to my daughter and spend precious time with her."

"The scholarship has relieved so much stress for me, it has really helped my mental health. The support has allowed me to carry on, and after this degree be able to provide a better life for myself and my daughter."

The best part of my job is working with such inspiring students and knowing that I'm helping to open the door to university for future generations. Everyone at OPPA is so passionate about the causes we’re fundraising for; and I love that.

Helen Iredale, Senior Philanthropy Officer

Supporting Research

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.

One of our main goals is to ensure that significant donations leverage support from other sources of funding beyond philanthropy - particularly industry and research income. For example, a £10m gift from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation for the Assuring Autonomy programme was used to secure an extra £15m of funding. This has then gone on to unlock further significant philanthropic gifts from organisations (£4m+) and individuals (£2m+), alongside numerous research and industry partnerships.

The Institute for Safe Autonomy and the Assuring Autonomy Programme are great examples of this where philanthropic funding was leveraged to secure government and industry income to create new facilities, jobs and opportunities for the University.

Supporting Alumni

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.

Find out more

Our team

View our team structures and find individual contact details

UoY Board in America

See our aims and meet the Board of Directors

Our policies

Supporter documentation and Privacy and Complaint Policies

Alumni Research Service

Find out more about our alumni research service

Keep up to date with our philanthropy news

Contact us:

For contact details of individuals within OPPA please see our 'Meet the Team' page.

Phone +44 (0)1904 324467
Email alumni@york.ac.uk
Address

Office of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni
University of York
Alumni House
5 Main Street
Heslington
York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom