Financial summary of MIT’s Campaign for a Better World released
Campaign received $6.2 billion from 112,703 donors over course of the past decade
MIT has released a financial summary of the MIT Campaign for a Better World, a fundraising effort calling upon alumni and friends of MIT to make donations to “support the visionary and talented people of MIT in working to meet humanity’s urgent global challenges.”
According to the summary, the campaign saw 112,703 donors — including over 56,000 new donors — who donated a total of $6.2 billion.
Of the $6.2 billion, the largest percentage (35.5%) was donated for departments and faculty, the second largest (17.7%) was donated for research, and the third largest (14.2%) was donated as unrestricted funds. The remaining donations were for building funds, fellowships, professorships, scholarships, other restricted funds, and student life.
The summary reports that since the campaign began, MIT received $1.7 billion more in donations in the past decade (fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2021) than it did in the previous decade (fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 2011).
As a result of the campaign, MIT has received an additional $332 million for professorships, $531 million for graduate fellowships (a 105% increase from the previous decade), and $239 million for undergraduate scholarships (a 36% increase from the previous decade).
Additionally, MIT received $602 million in building funds through the campaign, allowing for 26 construction projects including the renovations of the Hayden Memorial Library and the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel, the new theater arts and music buildings, and the Earth and Environment Pavilion.
Of the campaign funding, expendable gifts comprise around $4.1 billion and endowed gifts comprise the other approximately $2.1 billion. Expendable gifts can be spent over a short term or immediately per the gift agreement, whereas endowed gifts are held in perpetuity, where a portion is distributed annually based on Institute protocols and spent per the gift agreement.
During the campaign, MIT has seen a greater dependence on philanthropic gifts for supporting operations, with endowment support and expendable philanthropy increasing from 33% of campus operating revenue in fiscal year 2012 to 43% in fiscal year 2021.
The campaign funding also provides support for the schools at MIT, with the School of Science receiving $695 million, the School of Engineering receiving $664 million, the Schwarzman College of Computing receiving $527 million, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences receiving $398 million, the Sloan School of Management receiving $359 million, and the School of Architecture and Planning receiving $241 million.
The financial summary writes that going forward, MIT will work to “build connections between MIT’s advancement community and its academic units” to improve collaboration for fundraising activities, to continue “cultivating” the support of alumnis and friends for donations, and to strengthen the Institute’s gift acceptance and outside engagement policies to better align with MIT’s mission and values.