Alumni

[Preview] Leaders Give Challenge

Support MIT Sloan students and faculty. Create Opportunity. Generate Impact. Unlock $500,000.

A student smiles while working at a desk

At MIT Sloan, you gained the knowledge and skills to grow as principled, innovative leaders. By graduation, you were ready to create meaningful change in your organizations, communities, and the wider world. Your transformative student experience was made possible by alumni who generously supported the MIT Sloan community through their philanthropy.

Today, this tradition of paying it forward continues as alumni and friends make gifts through the MIT Sloan Annual Fund, which supports experiential learning opportunities and the pioneering research driven by faculty. The MIT Sloan Annual Fund is the engine that powers so many of the school’s core programs, such as Action Learning labs. It is flexible funding that allows leadership to best support the needs of our current students—as well as seed innovative research that explores solutions to the great challenges of our time.

Judy Lewent, SM ’72, chair of the MIT Sloan Americas Executive Board, and her husband, Mark Shapiro, are long-standing philanthropic leaders in our community. This year, they have offered a generous challenge that asks 500 others to join them in making Dean’s Circle-level gifts through the MIT Sloan Annual Fund.

Richard M. Locke, PhD ’89 | John C Head III Dean

The MIT Sloan Annual Fund plays a critical role in fueling new initiatives and advancing key priorities—including curriculum innovation, student experiences, faculty research and initiatives, and many other areas that shape the future of MIT Sloan.

2024-2025 Challenge Results

512
Dean’s Circle donors.
5.3M
contributed through the MIT Sloan Annual Fund by Dean’s Circle donors.
92%
of the $5.7M MIT Sloan Annual Fund total came from Dean’s Circle donors.

Here are some examples of these donors’ meaningful impact:

One Dean’s Circle Leader who gave $25,000 provided support for three student-led conferences.
One Dean’s Circle Director who gave $10,000 funded an iLead (Innovative Leadership) event featuring inspiring leaders changing our world.
One Dean’s Circle Partner who gave $5,000 funded a regional “MIT Sloan on the Road” event to meet potential applicants and admits around the globe.
One Dean’s Circle Investor who gave $2,500 provided two clubs with funding through the MIT Sloan Student Senate.
Two Dean’s Circle Investors who each gave $2,500 funded one Action Learning lab, which placed students with organizations to address real-world business challenges.