According to Harvard Business School’s recently released annual report, alumni donations to the school in 2013 totaled $22 million dollars. Alumni donations to HBS have increased 16 percent from 2012 to 2013 and 29 percent from 2011 to 2013. These numbers refer to unrestricted current use gifts only.
Alumni donations dropped during the financial crisis, hitting a low point of $12 million in 2009. However, donations began to rebound in 2011, and reached a record high in 2013.
Harvard Business School says that it will use the 2013 alumni donations to expand the school’s entrepreneurship offerings and programming. It also plans to boost financial aid and tuition assistance for MBA candidates. Half of HBS’s student body already receives financial aid. The average amount of aid per student rose to $30,725, more than half of the annual tuition cost, in 2013.
In a recent article, Businessweek notes that despite the record donations in 2013, HBS will continue to rely on donations from generous Harvard alumni to reduce operating costs for students. The article quotes Harvard Business School’s fundraising plan: “The [capital] campaign will be an opportunity to highlight the School’s alumni and the ways they are making a difference in the world.”
