The Community Service Fund reinforces the talent, time, and effort that members of the MIT community dedicate to community service. Through its allocation of funds to local recipients like Just A Start, Shelter, Inc., and Project Manna, CSF sustains programs that prevent school dropouts, combat homelessness, and help feed the hungry.

MIT is a community of doers.   We're proud of that quality, and of the Institute's reputation for serving others.   But sometimes you need financial resources to effectively perform community service.   CSF is here to make sure that our volunteers get that financial backing.

If you want to teach kids to read, CSF can help buy books.

If you want to help victims of domestic violence, CSF can help the shelter where you work pay the rent.

If you want to clean up the banks of the Charles, CSF can buy the tools you need for the job.

Because CSF supports student projects and organizations where MIT people choose to spend their time in service, donations to CSF allow your colleagues and the students in whom we take such pride to reach out to our neighbors.   Giving to CSF is like supporting the home team.   The ingenuity and spirit we have at MIT are rare commodities; CSF helps leverage them.

MIT volunteers participate in a wide variety of community service activities ranging from educational outreach to emergency food assistance to arts and recreational programs. MIT student groups work closely with the Cambridge Public Schools to provide tutoring and curriculum enhancement, recreational activities, and holiday celebrations for local young people. The MIT Public Service Center (PSC) manages many student-initiated community service programs. For more information about volunteer opportunities, contact the PSC at (617) 253-0742, or visit the PSC website.

The CSF was established in 1968 by a vote of the faculty to provide financial assistance to support MIT students, faculty, and staff volunteers in community service projects. Any member of the MIT community or Cambridge-based organization where MIT volunteers are at work may apply for a CSF grant. The Fund is managed by a board of trustees appointed by the president of MIT, whose members are drawn from students, faculty, staff, Lincoln Laboratory, the MIT Corporation, and alumni. The board meets several times a year to review grant applications and make funding decisions.

View a list of recent grant recipients.