IRDF ... Because Everybody Can Use Some Help Around the House.

Fraternities, Sororities, and Independent Livings Groups (FSILGs) are part of the heart of MIT – and the Independent Residence Development Fund, the IRDF, is one way MIT and its alumni help keep this community going strong. From the start, FSILG alumni have supported the IRDF with great generosity – and with the added benefit that, unlike gifts to individual FSILGs, gifts to this common pool are tax-deductible and are often matched by employers.

On March 14 (Pi Day), the MIT Annual Fund has organized a 24 Hour Challenge for donors. Please consider a gift of any size to the IRDF Challenge in 2018. The 484 Phi Alpha Foundation will provide a $100 match for each and every donor to the IRDF on that day, no matter the gift size, up to 500 donors and $50,000.

The IRDF offers four kinds of funding assistance to FSILGs:

• IRDF Construction Loans. In place since the 1960s, the IRDF Construction Loan program offers long-term low-interest loans that FSILGs can use to make major capital improvements and renovations.
• IRDF Educational Project Grants. In 1997, MIT launched the IRDF Educational Project Grants program to help FSILGs improve and maintain educational areas, as well as make them accessible to students with disabilities, without having to take on debt.
• IRDF Educational Operating Grants. As part of a growing effort to help FSILGs manage their financial challenges, in 2004 MIT and its alumni developed this new grant program to partner with the FSILGs in supporting annual safety and educational expenses.
• IRDF Community-wide Grants. These are initiatives that benefit the entire community, such as the extension of high-speed computer networks throughout the FSILG community and the alumni-run Safety, Lincensing, and Inspection (SLI) program.

Learn more about how your gift can help FSILGs. Every IRDF donor is now recognized on a IRDF Donor Recognition web site, updated annually with the help of the MIT Alumni Association. The MIT Annual Fund also produced a new brochure, which summarizes the great work of the IRDF.