Financial summary of the MIT Campaign for a Better World

Dear Colleagues,

We write today with the update we promised to you last spring regarding the MIT Campaign for a Better World, which closed on June 30, 2021. 

At the end of this month, President Reif will write to the entire MIT community to thank everyone who helped us arrive at this significant milestone and highlight the ways it has helped MIT. In advance of that broader communication, we are providing you with a Campaign for a Better World Financial Summary.

This summary provides several ways to understand the impact of the campaign. As you know by now, the campaign surpassed its fundraising goal, garnering $6.2 billion. This represents approximately $1.7 billion more in new gifts and pledges than would have been achieved without the Better World Campaign; in other words, it enabled MIT to generate considerably greater donor support than we would have expected to raise based on average annual donor receipts pre-campaign. 

The campaign was thoughtful and purposeful, contributing to the growth of our endowment and expanding our operating base. With more than 112,000 donors contributing, our alumni and friends demonstrated their exceptional commitment to the Institute. 

Most importantly, it provided significant new funding to help advance education, research, and innovation (page 4 of the summary); modernize our campus; support our students and faculty; and increase MIT’s financial flexibility and resilience. Specifically, campaign gifts provided vital funding for the evergreen fundraising needs of the Institute: fellowships and scholarships (page 5), student life (page 7), unrestricted funds (page 8), building funds (page 6), and each of the schools and the college (page 10). 

Yet the campaign was about more than money. With your crucial assistance, we raised important new funds – and we also gained much more. For instance, we built new donor relationships and strengthened existing ones. We began implementing new fundraising policies on outside engagements and gift acceptance that align with the Institute’s mission and values. And we are developing new approaches to ensure our community understands MIT’s sources of revenue and how resources are deployed through our budget process.

After 10 years on an ambitious and deliberate climb, we now stand on a new plateau. From this vantage point, we can engage in meaningful conversations with you about how to shape our future funding and budgeting priorities. In early October you will receive an update on the current state of the Institute’s financials, providing valuable additional context as we jointly consider our goals and aspirations for MIT’s future. 

In this moment, we would like to recognize Julie Lucas, vice president for resource development, for her tremendous leadership, and offer our sincere thanks to the entire MIT advancement community for their extraordinary work throughout the campaign. 

We look forward to partnering with all of you as we continue striving to improve MIT and the world. 

Sincerely,

Martin A. Schmidt, Provost

Glen Shor, Executive Vice President and Treasurer