INSEAD Community says "We’re here" for Giving Day During Pandemic

With the global pandemic affecting life as we know it for millions around the globe, the school made the difficult decision to postpone its highly anticipated Giving Day that had been planned for 17 March 2020.

At the same time, COVID-19 has presented many organisations with significant financial challenges and INSEAD is no exception. Simply put, it is difficult to be The Business School for the World in these unprecedented circumstances. 

New Giving Day surpasses expectations

With careful deliberation and after many discussions with alumni volunteers and the INSEAD community, the school decided to forge ahead with a revised Giving Day on 25 June – one of the few business schools in the world to do so.

What followed was truly extraordinary. In a powerful demonstration of the strength of the INSEAD spirit, along with the invaluable help from our many dedicated volunteers, a total of 2,164 members of the INSEAD community came together between 1 March and 10 June to raise an incredible €2,316,254 to help the school address urgent needs during this critical time.

Countries UK, Canada and Japan held the title for highest donor numbers* while MBA’07J took the top spot for the highest participation rate, with the Classes of MBA’00J, ’75, ‘09J and ‘99J following closely behind. Reunion classes also contributed greatly to this success, translating their class spirit and solidarity into much-needed support for the school!

This INSEAD spirit also clearly shone through on the school’s online and social media platforms, which were abuzz with numerous people posting selfies with personalised messages of solidarity saying why they are “Here for INSEAD”.

Securing the future

The funds raised by the INSEAD community – in addition to the significant support from faculty and staff this Giving Day  – is core to all that we do as a school. They enable us to provide talented students with much-needed scholarships and financial support. They fuel ground-breaking research and new initiatives to transform business and society. They give us the resources to pursue more digital initiatives that advance our programmes. Most of all, they help us equip more global leaders to make a difference in the world.

* Giving Day country results by donor numbers: UK for large NAAs 1,000+, Canada for medium NAAs 500 – 1,000, Japan for small NAAs – below 500