Harvard Business School‘s recently released annual report notes, among other achievements, that the school received a record-breaking $22 million in unrestricted current use gifts from former students in 2013.
This unrestricted funding was crucial in allowing the school to expand entrepreneurship programs at the Harvard i-Lab and to pursue other strategic initiatives without drawing on unrestricted reserves, the report reveals.
In addition to expanding entrepreneurship programming, the donations also helped increase the amount of tuition assistance for MBA students. HBS sets MBA tuition and fees at levels that don’t fully recover annual operating expenses, and the shortfall is offset primarily by income and gifts from alumni and friends of the school.
Roughly half of the school’s student body receives fellowship support, and the average amount of aid per student rose three percent in 2013 to $30,725, more than half of the annual tuition bill. First-year MBA tuition in fiscal 2013 was $53,500—near the midpoint among the seven comparable schools tracked by HBS.
The Harvard Business School Campaign, which launches in April, “aims to find new ways to engage with alumni as it seeks to fulfill the School’s mission of making a difference in the world.”
Noting rising operating costs across the school and lower margins at Harvard Business Press and Executive Education, the school anticipates even greater pressure to grow revenue from gifts and endowment distribution in the coming year.
