Development Office
BACKGROUND
The College has set up a Development Office
in order to secure new and sustainable income streams for the
future.
Why Development and not Fundraising, you
might ask... We aim to create a long-term programme which will
underpin the College’s strategic priorities as we go forward into a
new era. Whilst we will, of course, be delighted to receive
donations at any time, we want to ensure that the Development team
will concentrate on long term and significant projects.
PROJECTS
In order for Psychiatry to grow and thrive, we need to
recruit the best medical students into the profession. This
is a key objective of the College and is therefore one of the
priority projects for Development. We are delighted that we will
launch The RCPsych Pathfinder Fellowships early in
2012. These Fellowships will be awarded to medical students
in their penultimate year of medical school and will run for three
years. Our plan is to award at least 10 Fellowships each
year.
Having identified that some clinical psychiatrists might benefit
from a professional break during their careers, we are planning to
create a Mid-Career Sabbatical programme. We hope
to attract doctors who have been practicing for 8 – 10 years who
might benefit from a short research-focussed break. The
College, and the profession, will therefore be enhanced by the
output of these research sabbaticals.
It will come as no surprise to many of our
members that the College will soon need to move from its building
in Belgrave Square. This will provide the Development office with
an opportunity to secure funding so as to ensure that the result is
an outstanding facility for all our members – somewhere where we
are able to hold our receptions and lectures; our examinations,
dinners and council meetings. We will create a space to last our
College well into the future. The building
will also enable us to have all of our London based staff working
together in a modern, state-of-the-art building. This move will
ultimately be of service to all people with mental health issues as
we concentrate on delivering our exemplar training and standards,
and continuing to support psychiatrists in their work across the UK
as well as overseas.
As part of the government’s commitment to
reducing carbon emissions, the College is committed to funding a
two year RCPsych Research Fellow into Sustainability in
Mental Health. Working very closely with the Centre
for Sustainable Healthcare and partners at Warwick and Nottingham
Universities, we hope to attract a funding partner for this very
important and globally significant initiative.
In addition to these specific projects, the
Development team will be initiating Legacies and Lifetime
Giving opportunities as well as An Annual
Fund. More details will follow.
GETTING
INVOLVED, GETTING IN TOUCH
None of this can happen without the
engagement and support of our Members. Starting anything like
this is a challenge, not least given the economic environment in
which we currently operate. We will, however, work not only
to ensure the continuous excellent of The College but also with
innovative ideas and people as we move into the future. We
really DO need you to help us, please.
You will have read “Development
Office” above several times. However, this is just one
person to start with. Ann Paul joined the College in
September and invites you to contact her for chat – she really
values the insight and views of members – as well as your active
support need to talk to more people, to engage more widely with
your circle of friends.
Ann is always available in her office for
coffee and a chat. You can find her on the 4th
floor at 17 Belgrave Square.
Alternatively, you can email on apaul@rcpsych.ac.uk or phone on
020 7235 2351 ext 6161 or on her mobile 07718 191458
Please contact Ann on the above contact details for further
information about making a donation to the College.