London Business School; alumni scholarships appeal

Key thought:

‘The personal can be universal’

Whenever I interview someone, I am always listening out for a ‘golden nugget’; something personal but with wider resonance that may provide the lynchpin for the story. In this case, when chatting with Machela about her time at London Business School, she introduced the concept of ‘Ubuntu’ which she grew up with in South Africa. This roughly translates as ‘I am because you are’ – and this was an ideal parallel with the ask. Scholarship recipients (like Machela) are only able to make the most of their time at LBS because ‘you’ (dear alumni donor) ‘are’. This thought helped to create a sense of ‘all in this together’ – as well as the platform for a compelling ask.