The Anniversary Campaign

While most Full Blue clubs can rely on large endowment funds to support their members, the increasingly expensive activities of OUCCC are overwhelmingly supported by membership fees. We gain income from Teddy Hall Relays and receive a number of regular alumni donations, for which we are very grateful. Most expenditure, however, is raised internally, and by and large, students must pay their own way. Why does this matter? By 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, equipment), our 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 by making us reliant on a bumper membership each year to meet rising costs, it prevents us from achieving long-term financial stability. You will have the opportunity to help. By the end of 2025, we would like at least 50 new regular supporters. By the end of the club’s anniversary year in 2026, we would like to have grown this to 150. Our vision is ambitious, but its achievement would be truly transformative. Such sums would allow us to adequately remunerate our excellent coach, avoid membership fee increases, and improve the generosity of subsidies and other forms of financial support. At the same time, they would allow us to substantially increase our development funds, with the ultimate aim of setting up an endowment fund of £500,000, managed by Oxford University Endowment Management and with a guaranteed return, to safeguard OUCCC’s future for decades to come.