Legacies

Our Legacy Brochure provides helpful information about how you can leave a gift in your will. 

If you have included Newnham in your will or are intending to, please let us know by completing the Legacy Pledge Form.

Please rest assured that any details you provide will be kept in the strictest confidence. This pledge does not commit you in any way, but is a statement of your present intentions and will assist the College in its long-term planning. It also enables us to show our gratitude for your gift during your lifetime and gives us the opportunity to invite you to become a member of the Sidgwick Society.

If you have any questions or you need more advice, please feel free to contact us at development@newn.cam.ac.uk.

Since 1871, legacies have played a central role in the development of Newnham College and the lives of its people. From the building of the College estates, including the Library, to the establishment of dedicated research centres such as the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies and the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies, to the endowment of academic Fellowships including the Gibbs Travelling Research Fellowship, Newnham’s international reputation and academic successes are built on a foundation of legacy gifts. 

Legacy donations have provided hardship funds, bursaries and academic prizes. Legacy donations have enabled the College to purchase books, sports equipment and music tuition for our students. Legacy donations have endowed academic posts and graduate studentships. Legacy donations have funded capital developments and improvements to our buildings, refurbishment of our spaces and investment in our gardens and grounds. 

The College of today is the legacy of those friends and supporters of yesterday

‘At Newnham I have stepped into my power’. 

I came to postgraduate study after five years working as a special needs teacher in London. As an Australian, there is no way I could have come to Newnham without financial support: fees for overseas students are just too high. 

Part of my funding has come from the Rhoda M. Dorsey Graduate Studentship Fund which was established in 2014 from a legacy given to Newnham by Dr Rhoda Dorsey (NC 1949). Rhoda Dorsey came up to Newnham as a Fulbright Scholar, and went on to a successful career as a historian and academic in the United States. 

I study the history of feminism and I feel a strong thread of connection to the strong Newnham women who have come before me, in this place which is part of that history. It feels fitting that the legacy of one of these women has brought me here. Newnham has changed my life and enabled me to grow into the person I was meant to be.

Rosa Campbell (NC 2016)

The Sidgwick Society is a group for all those who notify us of their intentions to remember Newnham in their will, irrespective of the size of the legacy. 

The Sidgwick Society was relaunched as part of the 150th anniversary, and members are invited to an annual event with a guest, an opportunity to visit the College and meet the Principal. 

Please let us know if you have pledged a gift to Newnham in your will so that we can make sure that you are included in the invitations to Sidgwick Society events.

I am proud and pleased to serve as the Patron of Newnham’s legacy group, the Sidgwick Society. Nothing has so enriched my life as my time at Newnham and I acknowledge with gratitude what I owe to my old College. I urge all of you who feel as I do, that others must have the same opportunities and range of experience that we did, to include a gift to Newnham in your will. Your bequest will allow Newnham to continue nourishing succeeding generations.

Miriam Margolyes OBE (NC 1960)