Impact of The Campaign for MIT
Ten years ago, MIT set an ambitious campaign goal of $1.5 billion.
It was an optimistic target for an optimistic time… in an economic
landscape that made anything and everything seem possible.
In the ensuing years, that landscape changed dramatically. The heady
confidence of the ’90s was replaced by the uncertainty of the ’00s.
But even in this new landscape, our donors continued to commit to MIT.
Just five years after we set our initial target—two years ahead
of schedule—we met our $1.5 billion goal, and set a new stretch
target of $2 billion.
Throughout the campaign, our friends and alumni responded with generosity
and vision. Nearly 70,000 donors came forward, and more than $1.35
billion of the total raised came from individuals. We now have 87 new endowed
faculty chairs, 227 endowed and 67 expendable scholarships, and 110
endowed and 224 expendable graduate fellowships. In addition, our extraordinarily
talented student body has vast new resources at its disposal. The Institute’s
work has taken on a far more global and interdisciplinary cast. Our
campus has gone from sometimes drab to frequently dazzling. This was an amazing transformation, in a relatively short period of
time. But the work is not done. (And if we thought it was, we would
not be MIT.)
The pace of change continues to accelerate, and we must keep up. We
must continue to focus on our core values and mission, and position ourselves
to undertake new intellectual agendas as they develop.
It is MIT’s great privilege and responsibility to lead the way, on
so many key fronts. We can only do so with the ongoing engagement of
our alumni and other friends.
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