Rising Talents: An ambitious and international campaign that reflects EDHEC

The Rising Talents fundraising campaign at EDHEC aims to raise €30 million before the end of 2015, mainly from business organisations, foundations and individuals, particularly, but not only, our alumni; €30 million to bring to fruition new projects and programmes, grow our reputation in certain disciplines, increase the number and value of the scholarships awarded, and step up EDHEC’s international expansion.

Why get involved in fundraising today?
There are two main reasons:
After the gradual yet impressive growth of the last 25 years in the UK, fundraising from donations has developed in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and, of course, France. International competition between universities and schools has never been as fierce, whether to recruit students and top-flight professors, or to invest in new teaching and research opportunities. Today, fundraising is the only means available to finance academic institutions' growth or even just to maintain the level of excellence expected. There is no other way.

Examples of European campaigns (NB: in the UK, fundraising income is mainly from alumni and foundations, unlike continental Europe where business organisations provide the main source of funding).
Oxford: €1.3 thousand million, Cambridge: €1.2 thousand million, Bocconi: €150 million, LSE: €105 million, HEC: €100 million, ESCP: €50 million up until 2019, Polytechnique: €35 million (alumni only), ESSEC: €30 million
               
The second reason is that, as a wholly private and autonomous School, we need to develop a more professional fundraising structure so as to generate financial resources that will form a considerable percentage of EDHEC’s budget in the next 15 to 20 years. The best global institutions understand only too well: to be at the cutting edge requires huge financial resources, and for many of them, fundraising has become the main source of funding.