INSEAD Is Halfway To A €250 Million Fundraising Goal

INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov, at the European launch of the campaign

INSEADA announced today (Nov. 13) that it has raised 59% toward a €250 million fundraising effort, the largest capital campaign in its history and one of the largest for a European business school. The school said that more than 11,000 donors have so far contributed to the effort, just under 20% of INSEAD’s 57,000 alumni network across 175 countries.

For a school in Europe, where higher education philanthropy is not well established nor widely accepted, INSEAD’s capital campaign is highly ambitious. It seeks to raise a total of roughly $282 million for a broad range of purposes, including endowed professorships, building enhancements and student scholarships.

“The Campaign empowers us to advance the school’s mission to develop responsible leaders who transform business and society,” says INSEAD Dean Ilian Mihov. “We need the support of the INSEAD community to develop a generation of global business leaders, managers and entrepreneurs ready to take on our global challenges and harness business as a force for good.”

U.S. RIVALS ARE IN UNPRECEDENTED TERRITORY FOR THEIR CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS

INSEAD big foray into fundraising follows several highly successful capital campaigns by rival U.S. schools. Harvard Business School recently topped a $1 billion goal and now expects to reach $1.3 billion by year end. The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, meantime, just upped its $850 million objective to $1 billion, after already raising $680.0 million. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business is in the midst of $950 million fundraising effort.

Each of those U.S. rivals are starting from a vantage point of already having fairly sizable endowments compared to INSEAD. When Poets&Quants last surveyed schools about their endowments two years ago, INSEAD’s endowment of $206.6 million was the largest among the top European business schools, but it was more than $3.1 billion behind Harvard Business School (see America’s Wealthiest Business Schools). At that time, 23 U.S. business schools, including Bentley College and Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, had larger endowments than INSEAD.

INSEAD’s campaign got a big boost in August of this year from Class of 1990 alumnus André Hoffmann and his wife Rosalie, who pledged a €40 million gift to the current campaign, the largest reported gift to a European business school in history (see Alum Gives INSEAD Largest Gift Ever).

MONEY TO SUPPORT THREE CORE THEMES

The school said its fundraising campaign is anchored on three key themes: values, vision and ventures.

Under “values.” the school says it is seeking to create “a more inclusive, global mindset in business and society.” Among other things, money will go to support the school’s new Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society as well as scholarships “to promote geographic, socio-economic and gender diversity.”

Under “vision,” the school expects to funnel some of its newly acquired funds to support – more endowed chairs and professorships as well as effort to “renew” its campus in Fontainebleau, France.

Under “ventures,” INSEAD says it plans to use some of the money it raises to support digital initiatives and to boost resources devoted to entrepreneurship and innovation.

The school has broken down how much of the €250 million goal will be used to fund each of these initiatives.

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