Telephone Campaign 2026

During the 2026 Spring Telephone Campaign in April, our student callers had over 500 conversations with alumni from across the Trinity Hall community.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak with our students, sharing news, memories and reflections on their time at Trinity Hall, as well as valuable career advice and insights.

We are also incredibly grateful to everyone who chose to make a gift during the campaign. Your generosity helps provide vital support for our students and enables Trinity Hall to continue offering an exceptional educational experience for current and future generations.

Many of you will have made your first gift to the College during one of our telephone campaigns – thank you. A significant number of you have been giving consecutively for 10, 15 and in some cases more than 20 years and increased your generous donation – thank you. Your generosity and commitment to Trinity Hall has been truly transformational.

This year, 201 alumni made a gift to Trinity Hall, pledging an extraordinary £233,142 in support of College funds and projects. Thanks to the generosity of a few donors, the campaign also benefited from £15,000 in matched funding, helping to magnify the impact of donations by encouraging regular donations.

We were incredibly grateful that many long-standing supporters chose to increase their commitment during this year’s campaign. Regular donors continue to play a vital role in the life of the College, providing dependable support that helps Trinity Hall invest in its students, strengthen the community, and respond to areas of greatest need.

Every gift, regardless of size, makes a meaningful difference. Collectively, these donations help create opportunities for students and support the future of the College. We are deeply grateful to everyone who chose to support Trinity Hall, and for the generosity and commitment shown by our alumni community.

Your support

101 gifts were made to the Area of Greatest Need, ‘Think Ahead Fund’, raising £132K. We are especially grateful for these unrestricted gifts, which give the College the flexibility to direct support where it is needed most. By supporting the ‘Think Ahead Fund’, donors give the College the flexibility to support students, seize new opportunities, and address its highest priorities.

Donors generously pledged more than £24K supporting Postgraduate Students. These donations will help fund a Cambridge Trust Trinity Hall Master’s Studentship, enabling an academically outstanding student to pursue postgraduate study when financial barriers might otherwise prevent them from taking up their place. Donations will also contribute to a Trinity Hall Opportunity Master’s Studentship for a student who has faced significant disadvantage. This year, that support has been awarded to a student who will join Trinity Hall in October 2026 to pursue an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine.

This also includes £10K which has been allocated to the Christopher Padfield Fund, supporting research and travel grants, and towards the endowed PhD Studentship in Law. Looking ahead, the College aims to strengthen its postgraduate community through the 675th Anniversary Campaign, including the creation of five new endowed postgraduate studentships, one of which will be a PhD Studentship in Law.

Through their generosity, donors are helping ensure that talented postgraduate students can access the opportunities Cambridge has to offer, regardless of their financial circumstances.

Student Support received an incredible £43K, with many existing donors choosing to increase their regular gift in this area. These generous donations will help Trinity Hall provide enhanced financial support to undergraduates through the Cambridge Bursary Scheme. In 2025–2026, 78 Trinity Hall students, nearly one in three undergraduates, received a Cambridge Bursary, helping to relieve financial pressure, remove barriers to participation, and ensure that all students can make the most of their time at Trinity Hall.

Helping applicants from all backgrounds believe they can come to Trinity Hall, and thrive here, underpins all our access and widening participation activity. Through donor support the telephone campaign raised £20K to support the Admissions team’s wide variety of Widening Participation events both in College and in our link area in the South West.

Mental Health and Wellbeing received £2.4K in donor support, helping Trinity Hall ensure that students can thrive, not merely survive, during their time at Cambridge. Donor generosity helps fund a growing programme of wellbeing initiatives led by Trinity Hall’s first Head of Wellbeing, including popular Focus and Write Sessions, which provide students with dedicated time and a supportive environment to work alongside their peers. Together, these initiatives help foster a healthier, more connected and supportive student community at a time when many young people are experiencing increasing isolation and disconnection.

Your continued support

Over £4M has been raised since we began our telephone campaigns more than twenty years ago. This is an extraordinary effort and a testament to the power of cumulative giving. Gifts made in our telephone campaigns over the years have supported:

Additional financial assistance for undergraduates
Postgraduate research and travel to conferences
Widening participation and access initiatives
College teaching through the supervision system
Academic resources for the Jerwood library
Student mental health and wellbeing initiatives
Extra-curricular activity, including purchasing kit and equipment for clubs & societies
Refurbishment of student bedrooms on the main site and urgent building repairs and conservation

Thanks to your collective generosity, we can continue to offer the level of academic and pastoral care that makes Trinity Hall distinct.

Thank you.

If you wish to learn more about how you can get involved, please contact development@trinhall.cam.ac.uk.