Advancement

In the second half of the year, four MBA reunion weekends saw a total of 18 classes celebrate 5, 10 and 15 years as INSEAD alumni, as well as bringing together nine of our most senior classes – to mark 50, 55 and 60 years as INSEAD alumni. 

2021/2022 began with the continuation of virtual events and encounters. In September, we kicked off the academic year with another online celebration of Global INSEAD Day, which brought together more than 3,000 alumni from across the world. This was followed by two massive digital alumni reunions in October, convening ten MBA classes for their 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and 45-year reunions, as well as gathering some of our most recent graduates – those just one to five years out of INSEAD.

In the second half of the academic year, four MBA reunion weekends saw a total of 18 classes celebrate 5, 10 and 15 years as INSEAD alumni, as well as the coming together of nine of our most senior classes – to mark 50, 55 and 60 years as INSEAD alumni. In addition, nine Executive MBA classes returned to the Europe Campus for the combined reunion and elective courses in the summer.

Finally, we began to feel the impact of a new INSEAD Alumni Association presidency, as Frans Blom MBA’90D and IDP-C’20June completed his first academic year at the helm. Working with his dynamic executive team, he has embarked on realising his vision of streamlining and internationalising the Alumni Association with a special focus on projects such as young alumni engagement, the membership value proposition and, together with the school, the development of a mobile application that will make it even easier for alumni to connect with each other.

As we prepare for the end-of- Campaign celebrations, we would like to thank all our donors and volunteers, not only for their generosity and support but also for contributing to the enormous impact that the Force for Good campaign has had across the INSEAD community and more.

By the end of 2021/2022, the Campaign total had reached €295M from 14,534 donors, well surpassing the original €250M goal. Through the end of this past academic year, some 48% of MBA alumni and current students contributed to that total, putting us within touching distance of our 50% alumni participation target.

Giving highlights of the year

In 2021/2022, the impact of our research into business and society on the wider world was further strengthened through a remarkable gift of US$3.675M in support of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre for the Study of Wealth Inequality and the endowment of the Chair in the area.

Similarly, the creation of the Kurt Björklund Chair in Innovation and Growth will support another of INSEAD’s growing research strengths: the economics of innovation, productivity, firm dynamics, entrepreneurship and growth. It will also further enhance research excellence at the Economics of Innovation Lab.

Details of other donors and donations over the period covered by this publication are given in our “sister” Donors Report 2021/2022, but highlights to mention here include six principal gifts of over €1M and 58 major gifts of between €50K and €1M. Indeed, there was a 70% increase in large individual gifts to INSEAD in 2021/2022, compared with the previous year. In addition, there were some hugely successful reunion giving campaigns. Several classes exceeded 30% participation and four classes – MBA’81, MBA’82, MBA’90D and MBA’97D – raised over €1M each.

In terms of impact, there were also some inspirational foundational gifts to kickstart the Europe Campus Renewal fundraising, including one remarkable donation of €10M and another of €3.5M specifically for the renovation of the Euro-Asia Centre building and the Asia Campus library.

The INSEAD Fund, which is the main regular collective giving vehicle for alumni and friends of the school, raised €4.5M from 3,506 donors, with the help of 530 fundraising volunteers. Of that total, €2.2M from 1,436 donors was gratefully directed into the Dean’s Fund for immediate impact. With 67% of this unrestricted giving going towards MIM and MBA scholarships, donors have the satisfaction that their generosity is felt both individually by current students and strategically by the school.

Giving Day 2022 supplied the INSEAD Fund and the Dean’s Fund with its usual annual burst of momentum, despite being postponed from March to May due to the invasion of Ukraine. This year, there was another exceptional total: €1.5M from 2,221 donors. The theme was “We stick together” – complete with quirky sticky-note, Post-it-style imagery – and indeed we did just that! The MIM’22 class achieved an unprecedented 100% participation in their Robin Hood Scholarship Campaign which they ran on Giving Day. This is one INSEAD record that will never be broken.

The Class and reunion gifts often excel, thanks to “matching challenges” from generous individuals. In 2021/2022, there were 14 such gifts, all successful. We would like to thank all those whose individual generosity inspired such phenomenal collective giving during the year.

Lifelong giving

In total, over the year, there were 653 first-time student donors, who gave through Robin Hood Scholarship Campaigns of the MBA’22J, MBA’22D and MIM’22 classes. We are also pleased to announce that the Georges and Edna Doriot Society for legacy giving had 59 members by the end of the year, including six new members. To put this in perspective, we began the Force for Good campaign with just seven alumni who had informed us of their intention to include INSEAD as a beneficiary in their wills – a step that can be taken at any age.

Another innovative giving platform is the Founders Pledge. Launched in 2019, this is a way for alumni entrepreneurs to promise a portion of their future profits to INSEAD and to network with other INSEAD innovators and investors. In 2021/2022, a further six alumni joined the existing 18 members. We look forward to welcoming more – and to many pledges turning into gifts – in the years to come.

In the shorter term, we are already putting the finishing touches to the end-of-Campaign celebrations in Singapore, London and Fontainebleau in 2023. But long after the parties are over, the extraordinary impact of your giving will reverberate throughout the school and the INSEAD community. While fundraising must, of course, continue to keep making an impact in the future, for now, we will celebrate and say thank you to all our donors since 1 September 2013, when we started counting towards the Campaign. May the Force for Good be with you for many years to come!