Foundation Relations and Academic Development Support
The Office of Foundation Relations and Academic Development Support (FRADS) manages MIT's relationships with the foundation community and supports project-driven fundraising on behalf of the deans and faculty of the Institute's five Schools. Gifts from private foundations and charitable trusts for this fiscal year totaled $60 million, a 10 percent decrease from the previous year, reflecting a difficult economy, staff changes, and a significant reorganization.
Major foundation grants or pledges included support of the Computational and Systems Biology initiative, OpenCourseWare, faculty development, the Center for International Studies, the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project, the Alliance for Global Sustainability, and graduate fellowships. In addition, major proposals are now pending for support of faculty initiatives in cosmology, environmental sustainability, international water and petroleum resource management, and fellowships in environmental sciences.
Major changes included the arrival of a new director at the start of the year, and three new associate directors over the following six months. To better focus resources on full-service support of faculty needs, the offices of Foundation Relations and School Development Services were merged into a single unit (FRADS), and much of the prospect research responsibilities were transferred to ODRS. Additionally, FRADS adopted a prospect management system and deployed the staff into three teams assigned to meet the needs of the five Schools, and other units such as the MIT Libraries and MIT Museum.