In Challenging Year, Alumni and Friends Maintain Support of Yale SOM

Yale School of Management alumni and friends gave generously to the school in the 2019-20 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. Despite a pause in fundraising outreach in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 48% of alumni participated in the Alumni Fund, giving a total of $4 million and allowing the school to achieve a balanced budget. The total raised in new gifts and commitments was a record $120.6 million, including a historic $100 million gift from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation to develop new programs to improve K-12 public education in large urban public school systems.

This landmark gift from The Broad Foundation, received in December 2019, will fund leadership development, research, and policy efforts through The Broad Center at Yale SOM. These programs include a tuition-free master’s degree program in public education management and a non-degree, tuition-free, executive leadership program for senior-level public education leaders.

Yale SOM alumni demonstrated their support of the school in a variety of ways. The total given to the Alumni Fund was the second highest ever, and the rate of alumni participation remained the highest of any school at Yale. That participation rate was boosted by a $300,000 giving challenge in May 2020 by Jeffrey Schroeder ’90, Seth Goldman ’95, and an anonymous member of the Class of 2002. The challenge prompted 406 new donors to give, exceeding the goal of 300. 

“Dean Kerwin Charles and I are so grateful for the support of all of our donors. It speaks volumes that amidst the turmoil of the first half of this year, our alumni and friends continued to give to the school as generously as they have in the past, particularly as there were so many organizations with greater needs than ever,” said Joel Getz, Yale SOM’s senior associate dean for development and alumni relations.

Alumni also supported the broader Yale community in many ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, a group of Yale SOM and other Yale alumni in Asia raised more than $100,000 to purchase personal protective equipment for use at Yale New Haven Hospital and other facilities. 

“We were thrilled to see how the Yale SOM community galvanized to help make a difference during the pandemic, and in contributing to the fight for racial justice” Getz said. “In these difficult times, our alumni are truly embodying our mission to educate leaders for business and society.”