The Rhodes Trust has now reached its Campaign for the Second Century goal, having raised over £150 million to secure in perpetuity the 83 Scholarships existing at the start of the campaign.
Warden Charles Conn commented: “This is a real moment of celebration. We are incredibly grateful to Second Century Founder, John McCall MacBain O.C. and a broad coalition of enthusiastic donors who gave momentum at the start, and to donors who pushed us over the line to raise £153 million against our £150 million target. For more than a decade we faced the dual challenges of challenged investment returns and sharply increasing graduate student fees. Now that has finally been overcome. Over 2,500 people and organisations have come together to achieve our goal.”
The Rhodes Trust now has an endowment that should ensure forever that talented young leaders from around the globe will be able to have the transformative experience of being a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford. The vision of the Scholarships for their second century has been refreshed and the Trust has greatly increased the number of thematic convenings and collaborative projects which it hosts in Oxford and also further afield.
The addition of new Rhodes Scholarships around the world in recent years has been funded entirely separately from the Second Century Campaign, with a further £50 million raised. These new scholarships have mainly been funded by donors from outside of the Rhodes Scholar community. The annual number of Scholarships has increased from 83 to 95 under this expansion, with Scholars from China, Malaysia, Israel, West Africa, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates now joining the historical jurisdictions. Over the coming years, the Rhodes Trust is planning further expansion to make the Scholarships truly global.
The third area of recent strategic expansion has come with a partnership with The Atlantic Philanthropies in 2016. This organization is an international, limited-life foundation established by entrepreneur Charles F. Feeney. The Rhodes Trust is now working with an interconnected set of Atlantic Fellows programmes through having created the Atlantic Institute, a central convening and knowledge-sharing hub for a global network of Atlantic Fellows. Dynamic, accomplished leaders and thinkers, Atlantic Fellows are researchers, teachers, health professionals, activists, scholars, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, government officials and others dedicated to tackling global challenges to health, equity, opportunity and inclusion.
Combining the Campaign for the Second Century goal, fundraising for the new countries added, and the recent Atlantic partnership, the total amount raised in recent years totals £250 million. This is counted towards Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford.