MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000
The past year has seen a transformation in private support for MIT. The Institute launched a $1.5 billion capital campaign, the most ambitious fundraising effort in history with a spirited celebration in November. The success of our efforts so far underscore the theme for our campaign, "Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions" as we reached new levels of charitable giving from alumni/ae, friends, foundations, and corporations. Gifts to the campaign since July of 1997 totaled $ 978.5 million at the close of fiscal year 2000.
Private support for fiscal year 2000 totaled $233.6 million and included the following: $226.5 million in gifts, grants, and bequests, and $7.1 million in support through membership in the Industrial Liaison Program. The total compares with $209 million in 1999, $143.9 million in 1998, $133.6 million in 1997, and $130.9 million in 1996. Gifts-in-kind for the past year (principally gifts of equipment) were valued at $12 million. By source, gifts from alumni totaled $113.2 million; non-alumni friends: $23.6 million; corporations, corporate foundations, and trade associations: $59.2 million; foundations, charitable trusts, and other charitable organizations: $28.7 million; and others: $1.8 million.
Expendable and endowed funds were designated as follows: unrestricted, $30.9 million; research and education programs, $67 million; faculty salaries, $29.9 million; graduate student aid, $16.7 million; undergraduate student aid, $31.2 million; undergraduate education and student life, $1.7 million; building construction funds, $33.5 million; and undesignated, $15.6 million.
During the year, there were six promotions in Resource Development, four men and two women. Twenty open staff positions were filled including fifteen women, of whom three were Asian American. Key appointments included Laure Morris as Director of Communications and Donor Relations, Judy Sager as Director of Gift Planning, and Christine Rinaldi and David Woodruff as Co-Directors of the Office of Campaign Giving. Resource Development continued its effort to recruit qualified women and minority candidates by working closely with Human Resources and others to identify new resources from which to draw its applicant pool.
Barbara G. Stowe
This year marked the public launch of the Campaign for MIT and the beginning of the next phase of this seven-year $1.5 billion effort. After two years of "silent" fundraising to build a nucleus fund of $549.4 million dollars from MIT's closest and most generous supporters, this first public year was characterized by beginning to engage the broader alumni/ae body in MIT's vision of "Calculated Risks, Creative Revolutions."
As detailed later in this report, five areas of emphasis were key to this first year of outreach. The Office of Individual Giving was restructured into the Office of Campaign Giving (OCG) to personally contact the highest number of alumni/ae possible in the next four years. Key open staff positions were filled including within OCG to increase the number of fund raising staff meeting with alumni/ae. The volunteer structure for the campaign was finalized and volunteers across the country were actively recruited. The initial communications efforts to publicize the Institute’s plans for the future and the role of the campaign were inaugurated with the campaign case, the campaign web site, and the campaign launch. Finally, organizational collaboration increased with the Alumni/ae Association and the development staff in each of MIT’s schools to better coordinate efforts to raise funds for critical campaign priorities.
When measured across key campaign priorities, MIT raised $104.1 million for faculty chairs, $75.6 million for scholarships and other undergraduate aid, $40.3 million for undergraduate education and student life, $60 million for graduate fellowships, $317.4 million for research and education programs, $181.9 million for construction and renovation, $165.8 million for unrestricted purposes, and $33.5 million remains undesignated.
With the staff, school and volunteer development organizations solidly established and the initial campaign messages articulated, Resource Development is well positioned to carry this early campaign momentum into the remaining campaign years.
Stephen A. Dare
The Office of Principal Gifts, directed by Lucy Miller, manages the efforts of the senior officers of the Institute to secure multi-million dollar gifts from individual prospects, and works to strengthen relationships between the most generous benefactors and the Institute. With the conclusion of the nucleus fund phase of the campaign, the Office of Principal Gifts shifted emphasis from those friends and donors most likely to support the campaign it its early stages to expanding the network to include new ones.
With the addition of one staff member and in collaboration with the Offices of Campaign Giving, Leadership Gifts, Capital Gifts and Legal Affairs, and Foundation Relations, as well as with the development offices in the five Schools of MIT, 45 individuals were cultivated and solicited, and the pool of individual donors with lifetime giving of $1 million or more to MIT increased from 139 to 170.
The Office of Principal Gifts, in collaboration with the Offices of Campaign Giving and Leadership Gifts, managed the activities of the Campaign Steering Committee. Chaired by Campaign Chairman Ray Stata 57 EE, this group of 16 alumni volunteer leaders cultivates and solicits mid- to high-level prospects for gifts exceeding $500,000. With an annual goal of $15 million, they raised $16.4 million in their first year, surpassing their goal by over $1 million.
Lucy V. Miller
Established in concert with the campaign kick-off in November 1999, the Office of Campaign Giving (OCG) has primary responsibility for the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of major gift prospects and donors. Under the direction of David Woodruff and Chris Rinaldi, more than 4,000 alumni and friends capable of making gifts of $50,000 or more must be solicited by OCG during this campaign. Members of OCG work closely with the administration, faculty, the many areas of Resource Development, the development efforts in the schools and the Alumni/ae Association to coordinate the cultivation and solicitation of these gifts.
To meet this ambitious goal, this first public year of the campaign focused on recruiting and training frontline staff and volunteers while carefully assessing their portfolios to focus on the highest priority prospects. As many staff assumed new regional responsibilities, four new major gift officers joined the staff this fiscal year, making it possible for the office to cover all major regional markets and emerging constituencies.
OCG also supported the efforts of campaign volunteers at all levels. In addition to staffing each member of the Campaign Steering Committee in collaboration with the Offices of Principal Gifts and Leadership Gifts, OCG worked closely with members of MIT’s Corporation Development Committee (CDC) while recruiting 75 new volunteers to serve on the Campaign Network (CN). Campaign Network volunteers serve for the duration of the campaign and assist the CDC and members of the staff in efforts to secure major gifts. The CDC and the CN met on campus in the fall for volunteer training in advance of the campaign kick-off; follow-up organizational meetings were held in New York City, Dallas, Chicago, San Diego, and Los Angeles during the course of the year.
Christine M. Rinaldi, David A. Woodruff
Directed by Judith V. Sager, the Office of Gift Planning (OGP) is responsible for managing the administration of gifts made through MIT Unitrusts, Gift Annuities, Pooled Income Funds, and bequests.
Gifts for Fiscal Year 2000 totaled $15 million, reflecting an 87.5% increase over the $8 million in gifts reported for Fiscal Year 1999. Half of the goal was reached through gifts by two donors, whose gifts both exceeded $3 million. Four donors made gifts in the $500,000 to $1 million range, which accounted for 20% of all gifts received. The remaining donors made gifts ranging in size from $2,000 to $500,000.
The Office of Gift Planning will work closely with the Office of Campaign Giving, the Office of Individual Giving, the Office of Principal Gifts and the Alumni Association to identify, cultivate, solicit and steward planned gifts to expand the base of capital campaign donors.
Judith V. Sager
The Office of Communications and Donor Relations, known as COMDOR, supports the editorial, cultivation, and stewardship needs of Resource Development and the Campaign for MIT through electronic and print publications, special events and donor follow-up. Under the guidance of Richard P. Anthony and Martha L. Ballard acting as Co-Directors, and more recently under the new leadership of Director Laure A. Morris, COMDOR emphasized two key areas in this fiscal year: the development and communication of key campaign messages, events and publications; and the assessment and start-up of more effective stewardship of campaign donors.
With an eye toward the campaign launch on November 1, development of the campaign case statement and the campaign web site, and preparation for the campaign launch were the top priorities for the first months of the fiscal year. Titled Knowing Where to Put the X and Calculating the Y Axis, the two-part campaign case statement described MIT's past and current contributions to a global society, while detailing the financial case and its vision for the future. The case statement won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education's Circle of Excellence Award. The themes and ideas of the case statement were echoed and expanded upon in the companion web site that can be found at (http://web.mit.edu/campaign/).
The campaign launch was designed to be a living demonstration of the campaign case. Building momentum over two days, the launch had three parts: campaign volunteer orientation and training during day one; a symposium during day two to showcase the breadth of activity and discovery in education and research across a wide variety of fields at MIT for those alumni/ae and prospects most likely to support MIT philanthropically; followed by an evening gala dinner and dance to celebrate the spirit of the MIT community. Over 60 speakers presented during both days, approximately 100 volunteers attended day one, and approximately 600 alumni/ae and members of the MIT community attended the symposium and dinner gala. By the conclusion of the dinner, those in attendance also cheered and applauded as a new commitment of $100 million was added to the campaign.
Post- campaign launch, COMDOR focused on developing a series of campaign collateral materials: brochures on fellowships, scholarships, and the physical development of the campus; and white papers on specific campaign priorities. A new campaign newsletter for top donors and prospects moved from concept to development by the close of the fiscal year.
In addition for preparing for the campaign launch in all its facets, COMDOR continued to produce a full range of publications while implementing a wide-range of events. The office redesigned Spectrum, a 16-page newsletter published three times a year for some 35,000 alumni/ae, faculty and staff; published and distributed MIT Facts; produced Fast Facts, a monthly electronic newsletter for key volunteers, alumni/ae and friends, and authored the "Donor Profile" series in Technology Review, featuring individual donors of planned gifts. Over 30 events for donors, prospects, and volunteers were organized in Cambridge and throughout the country including an April 2000 Campus Visit for key donors and prospects.
Stewardship activities included gift acknowledgement, event planning, facilitation of donor stewardship and the inauguration of the Catalyst Society, the society to recognize donors to the Campaign for MIT.
Laure A. Morris
Led by Shelley Brown, the Office of Development Research and Systems (ODRS) provides the information infrastructure to Resource Development and its volunteers. This year the office implemented a number of programs within its key strategic areas of research, information management, and technology.
Strengthened by the addition of a staff member, research activities focused on new prospect identification and tracking new information about existing and potential donors. Over 1000 potential individual campaign donors of $50,000 or more have been identified since 1998. The office continued to provide research support for staff and senior officer development activity, adding to its' client roster the members of the Campaign Steering Committee.
Since 1998’s successful conversion to ADONIS, (a new alumni/donor software package), work has continued on both developing new modules (such as the Events system used to support the campaign launch) and expanding online and production reporting capabilities. We are well on our way of achieving the goal of making ADONIS the single database of record for fundraising activity and have placed strong emphasis on staff training throughout the Institute.
The technology staff reported complete success in their Y2K compliance. Other activity this year included preparatory and on-site technical support of the campaign launch activities, a department-wide upgrade of all desktop configurations, as well as installation of new versions of Filemaker, Eudora, and Netscape. Regular training programs were conducted for Resource Development staff throughout the department and in the Schools.
Shelley S. Brown
Under the direction of John S. Wilson, the Office of Foundation Relations and School Development Services develops and strengthens relationships with the foundation community while providing development services to the Institute's five schools. Gifts from private foundations for this fiscal year totaled $28.7 million and continued to provide significant support for the campaign as well as MIT's educational and research programs.
Major grants or pledges include support of the Fund for Public Understanding of Technology and Science; the Museum Art Loan Project; the Starr Asian Internship Program; fellowships in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; and the Industry Studies Center for the Airline Industry.
The Office of School Development Services (OSDS) provided research support and project management for the fundraising efforts of the five schools, the Libraries, and the Office of Academic Development. OSDS assisted in moving forward MIT's capital campaign priorities, including Undergraduate Student Life, the environmental initiative, and Comparative Media Studies. OSDS also hosted an FYI series on Institute and school-based programmatic initiatives to educate the development staff in the department and in the Schools. Projects managed by OSDS included: the Aero Astro Learning Laboratory for Complex Systems fundraising and dedication events, Neuroscience and Cancer Research initiative planning, and Libraries development support.
John S. Wilson
Directed by Karl Koster, the Office of Corporate Relations (OCR), which includes the Industrial Liaison Program (ILP), creates and strengthens mutually beneficial relationships between MIT and other corporations and organizations. This past year OCR supported the efforts of the faculty and senior administration in establishing two more multi-million dollar corporate partnerships; staffed and obtained funding for Institute and international initiatives; and identified corporate support for discrete MIT research and educational programs. In fiscal year 2000, total corporate cash gifts to the Institute reached $59.2 million, up 47% from the previous year. Revenues from the Industrial Liaison Program totaled $7.1 million, up 3% from fiscal year 1999.
OCR continued to emphasize the development of strategic partnerships with key corporations. In fiscal year 2000 these efforts resulted in the signing of a five-year $35 million dollar agreement with E. I. Du Pont de Nemours as well as a five-year $25 million agreement with Microsoft Corporation.
OCR also continued to assist individual faculty and departments at MIT interested in securing corporate support for their programs. New commitments include the Ford Motor Company Fund in the amount of $3 million as well as other corporate partnerships and environmental initiatives.
The development of opportunities to establish collaborative relationships with corporations, MIT consortia and faculty represented another set of accomplishments for OCR during fiscal year 2000. Over 47% of ILP members currently support other activities at MIT, primarily research support.
Staff also worked to implement the OCR Faculty Liaison Plan. They met with department heads and ultimately the entire faculty to understand their goals and objectives and alert them to opportunities available through OCR to connect with the corporate sector. In addition to these meetings, a "Guide for Faculty and Staff" was published to assist faculty in engaging productively with OCR and the ILP.
The OCR recently created a new design for its corporate image, logo and tagline to be applied to a set of collateral material as well as the standard forms, documents and other products in daily use. More information about the Office of Corporate Relations and the Industrial Liaison Program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://ilp.mit.edu/.
Karl F. Koster
MIT Reports to the President 1999–2000