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Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama & Roman Kubiak, Hugh James

Mentor Bank

The Arts Organisation: Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD)

RWCMD, the National Conservatoire of Wales, provides specialist undergraduate and postgraduate training for around 900 UK and international young artists. The College prepares its students for work in Acting, Music, Musical Theatre, Arts Management, Opera, Theatre Design and Stage-management.

The Challenge

The College planned to mark its 70th birthday with the launch of a new legacy fundraising campaign. However, technical and legal knowledge was limited and the Development team was keen to enhance its expertise and skills in this complex area of charitable giving.

The Adviser: Roman Kubaik, Partner & Head of Contested Wills, Trusts and Estates at Hugh James.

Roman wanted to continue the development of his experience as a Mentor while supporting an organisation to develop its Legacy strategy. He wished to gain greater insight into the charitable sector in order to directly assist his role at Hugh James.

The Results

For Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

  • With Roman’s advice and guidance, the College has made huge strides in its legacy giving campaign. Over the past four years he has been instrumental in helping the team to establish an income stream from legacies.
  • Staff have gained a great deal of knowledge about the technicalities of writing Wills and how the Development Team should best communicate with donors.
  • A legacy brochure was designed with support from Roman.
  • The College’s first legacy giving event was delivered in partnership with Hugh James.
  • The team has secured pledges for support and enabled conversations about lifetime and legacy gifts with current donors.
  • The team secured a legacy gift of £60,000 to create a new piano scholarship.
  • Roman continues to mentor the Development team. Most recently, he brokered an in-kind partnership with Hugh James that covered the cost of the production of two short films.

For Roman:

  • Roman gained an in-depth insight into legacy giving in the arts and education sectors.
  • Roman expanded his experience of mentoring and has gained a great deal of satisfaction from having the opportunity to support an organisation which has become very important to him.
  • Roman has becoming a regular attendee of the College’s events and performances.
  • Roman won the A&B Cymru Robert Maskrey Award for Arts Philanthropy at the 2023 Ceremony.

The Endorsement

The development of the Legacy Giving strategy would have been impossible without Roman’s input, expertise, determination and enthusiasm for supporting the work of the College and enabling young people to develop their talent. Lucy Stout, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

It has been both an honour and an absolute pleasure to work with Marie, Sara and the rest of the fantastic team at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama over the years and I have been made to feel very much a part of the “family”. I have been privileged to see, first hand, the wonderful work everyone does, and the incredible talent showcased by the staff and students. Roman Kubaik, Hugh James