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Dear World,
You sent us Newton. We sent you gravity.
You sent us Darwin. We sent you evolution. You sent us William and Samuel. We sent you Wordsworth and Coleridge. What will we send next? A postal test for depression? A swallowable test for cancer? A theory of everything? For eight centuries, our impact on the world has been huge. But to impact all our futures, we need your support. Yours, Cambridge.

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Yours, Cambridge

Our ideas and innovations have shaped the world.
Our campaign, 'Dear World... Yours, Cambridge', will raise £2 billion
to help us shape all our futures.

 

 
 
 
 
 
Students climbing a spiral staircase in a College

Our ambition

For 800 years, the world has invested in Cambridge and Cambridge has delivered. We gave you gravity, evolution, computers and pulsars. Next we could deliver clean energy sources, longer lives, quantum computers and parallel universes. But first we need to ask more from the world.
Read more about our ambition
 
 
 
 
 
Sir James Dyson. Image courtesy of the James Dyson Foundation

Why Cambridge?

Because the best invention to come out of Cambridge is Cambridge itself. This University is a machine for thinking. Our collegiate structure, human scale and cross-disciplinary approach enables great minds to become more than the sum of their parts. It has led to vital breakthroughs. It can lead to more.
Read more about the impact of giving to Cambridge
 
 
 
 
 
College scarves

A Collegiate University

Cambridge is a unique community of 31 Colleges, and home to more than 18,000 students. The Colleges are the home of our signature supervision system, where students are mentored by some of the world’s leading thinkers. Our 9,000 staff are spread across six schools and more than 150 departments, faculties and institutes.
Read more about our community

Focus on our aspirations

For eight centuries, Cambridge has welcomed brilliant minds, set them free to collaborate and create, sending world-changing ideas in return. But we can never say: 'our work is done'. Help us ensure that our impact on the future will be as vital as our impact on the past.

Sir David Attenborough (image by Cate Gillon)

Saving our planet's biodiversity, for the world

Creating transformational solutions to environmental challenges: a partnership between international nature conservation organisations and University researchers.
Students in front of one of our Colleges

Global talent to shape our global future: supporting graduate students

There are thousands of students out there who could make their mark on the world.
A College supervision session

World-class teaching and mentoring: supporting undergraduate students

Teaching the next generation of leaders how to think, not what to think. Here, teaching is a two-way process, revolving around an exchange of thinking and understanding.
Family check-up

Anticipating and preventing disease

New approaches to the world's most debilitating health conditions
A Cambridge-Africa Programme workshop in Tanzania

Closing the research gap between Africa and the rest of the world

Supporting a new generation of outstanding researchers to create an African research culture.
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Combining efforts to fight cardiovascular and respiratory diseases

Creating Europe's largest concentration of scientists and clinicians fighting chronic diseases
A doctor giving a patient a CT scan

Creative collaborations curing disease

As threats to health become more complex and interconnected, so too will the solutions we develop to combat them.
Super conductor

Energy: the next big discovery

Making possible a new generation of discoveries that provide affordable, clean energy for everyone on the planet for generations to come.

View all aspirations

Gift announcements

Cambridge owes its world-leading excellence in research and teaching to the generosity of its supporters. Our history is synonymous with a history of far-sighted benefaction, and the same is as true today as it has ever been.

Gift announcement

Record-breaking year in philanthropic support for Cambridge celebrated

The Vice-Chancellor celebrated the power of collegiate Cambridge and the importance of philanthropy in his annual address.
The wetlands of the Camargue, France. Image copyright Josef Grunig and used under a Creative Commons licence
Gift announcement

Supporting conservation policy decisions: grant from the MAVA Foundation

The MAVA Foundation has given a £1.14 million grant to Cambridge’s Department of Zoology to support its 'Conservation Evidence' project.

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Impact of giving

Philanthropic giving is at the heart of the success of the Collegiate University, enabling us to make discoveries that change the world and to ensure that our students received an unrivalled education.

The Crossrail project
Philanthropic impact story

Smart partnership

Construction engineering was facing a series of unprecedented challenges that required new ways of thinking, new responses and the questioning of accepted professional practices.
An architects' drawing of the new Education Wing
Philanthropic impact story

Kettle's Yard: looking ahead

Fifty years on from becoming a University of Cambridge Museum, Kettle’s Yard has stayed true to its founder’s vision while attracting 70,000 visitors a year.

Read more impact stories