Driving Purpose—The Yale SOM Campaign Impact Report 2018-2026
Thank you for advancing the school’s mission, strengthening teaching and research, and building a stronger community committed to leadership for business and society.
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From the
Dean
As we share this year’s annual report, we reflect not only on another academic year, but with the closing of the Driving Purpose campaign, we look back at eight years of shared effort and accomplishment. My reflection begins first with gratitude—for your leadership, your engagement with the school, and your generosity and involvement in Driving Purpose since its launch in 2018.
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I became dean of the Yale School of Management during the early months of the campaign. My deanship and this campaign have witnessed momentous change to the school, the university, and society more broadly. The activities of the campaign introduced me to the many members of the SOM community who are committed to the idea that management education should serve both business and society. And that exchange has informed and bolstered my own sense of the importance of our school’s mission. The campaign close finds us in a different place, and I can confidently say that the fundraising and engagement achieved during this campaign will ensure that we are able to rise and meet the moment.
The results of the campaign have been successful by any measure—with $432.7 million raised and thousands of alumni engaged. Just as importantly, we have rallied purposefully around our community’s values. The major themes of the campaign have reflected the motivating passions of our community; in turn, the success of the campaign has empowered us to advance those priorities.
Developing Leaders
It has been a goal of mine since beginning as dean to increase scholarship support across the board for all degree programs. This ambitious goal would not have been possible without the support for scholarships driven by this campaign, and we can now help more deserving students attend our programs than ever before.
Advancing Knowledge
This campaign has seen the school attract and retain some of the world’s leading scholars. Funds for faculty support, research, and growth were essential to bringing new talent to SOM and remain essential in retaining talent and furthering our distinctive, engaged intellectual culture.
Amplifying Impact
SOM’s impact must extend beyond its campus. It does so through programs such as The Broad Center, whose study of systems-level leadership reaches into the schools and classrooms of urban districts around the country.
The coming year will also be especially meaningful for another reason: the 2026–27 academic year will mark 50 years since the first students entered SOM. We look forward to together reflecting on both the history of our shared community and the future of our school and its role in shaping management education.
We have much to celebrate in the coming year. Even within the context of fiscal headwinds and continued uncertainty, we know we have the support of the SOM community, and that support will enable us to continue to move forward with a sense of purpose and mission. I look forward to celebrating and reflecting on our collective success in raising funds and on our 50 years as a community producing leaders for business and society. Thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do for SOM.
Warm regards,
Kerwin K. Charles, Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederick W. Beinecke Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management
The 2026–27 academic year will mark 50 years since the first students entered SOM. We look forward to together reflecting on both the history of our shared community and the future of our school and its role in shaping management education.
A Momentous
Campaign
2018-2026
From 2018 to 2026, Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign raised more than $432 million and engaged every class of alumni as well as donors and friends around the world. Thanks to those alumni and friends, the school has been able to meet the challenges of a turbulent and demanding period while positioning itself to contribute to the betterment of business and society far into the future.
The school has built out programs that convene resources and brainpower around issues at the nexus of business and society in order to advance both knowledge and action. The Broad Center at Yale SOM, which elevates the leadership of public school systems through training and research, launched in 2019–20. In 2024, the Program on Social Enterprise, Innovation, and Impact expanded the ways it applies business skills and rigor to social challenges. The school also launched the student-led Meng Impact Investment Fund, the Swensen Asset Management Institute, and other initiatives.
During the campaign, Yale SOM faculty have pushed forward the horizons of understanding on issues that matter. Their research has helped organizations and governments respond to emergent challenges, like the COVID pandemic and the rapid rise of AI, as they unfolded. At the same time, faculty have investigated fundamental questions of human behavior, organizational and team effectiveness, and market dynamics, producing work that will inform leadership practice for generations.
More students than ever before have experienced the school’s growing portfolio of degree programs, and more of them have benefited from scholarship support. They have gone on to play pivotal roles in major institutions, launch new ventures, and bring an ethos of principled leadership to their work across regions and sectors.
Alumni have been critical at every step of the way. They’ve rallied classmates to invest in the school; they’ve hosted events and volunteered to assist with admissions; they’ve served as mentors, sounding boards, and friends; they’ve joined together to start new affinity groups and confront big issues. Each connection strengthens the community and increases our shared potential for impact.
What’s next? The campaign has positioned Yale SOM to lead as our society undergoes seismic shifts and grapples with persistent problems—the climate crisis, healthcare disparities, poverty, inequality, financial risk. It’s clear that the world needs leaders with the training, the commitment, and the passion to attack problems from all angles. The end of the campaign coincides with the beginning of the school’s 50th anniversary celebration. This conjunction provides a reason to reflect on how shared effort over decades has enabled the school to make a difference in lives and communities around the globe. It is also reason to recommit to our mission of educating leaders for business and society. Our sense of driving purpose continues beyond the campaign. Together, we will turn that purpose into accomplishment, practice, and impact.
Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign: 2018-2026
Developing
Leaders
Through scholarships and other forms of student support, new degree and executive education programs, and innovative learning opportunities, Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign made it possible for more students to access a Yale SOM education and prepare to make a meaningful impact in their careers.
New and Expanded Degree Programs
- Master’s in Asset Management
- Master’s in Public Education Management
- Master’s in Technology Management
- MBA/Master of Science (joint degree with the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science)
- MBA for Executives
Questions for Namrita Kapur ’97 about returning to the classroom
Kapur, a veteran impact investor, has taught Sustainable Finance to Yale SOM EMBA students and in other Yale programs.
What do students gain from learning with you and other alumni practitioners?
Students gain exposure to the reality of execution, where the path from idea to impact is far more complex and uncertain than theory suggests. For example, when we work through financial models for conservation finance, there are no clean answers. Discount rates, asset valuation, and revenue predictability for nature-based solutions are inherently ambiguous. And yet, capital is being raised and businesses are being built. I help students understand how practitioners navigate that ambiguity.
What are you learning from conversations with students?
Teaching gives me real-time market intelligence on how the next generation of practitioners is thinking about risk, opportunity, and innovation. I’m also consistently struck by how much more interdisciplinary and systems-oriented students have become. They are less bound by traditional sector silos and more comfortable integrating policy, technology, and capital into a single frame. That has pushed me to think more expansively about how solutions actually scale—and how different parts of the system need to move together for impact to materialize.
Practitioners in the Classroom
Donor support enables Yale SOM to bring active professionals—many of them alumni—into the classroom, giving students direct access to current industry insights. Other frequent lecturers include former treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, investor and famed short-seller James Chanos ’80 BA, and Paula Volent ’97, former vice president and chief investment officer, and now senior advisor, at The Rockefeller University.
Advancing
Knowledge
With support from Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign, Yale SOM has built the community, infrastructure, and technology that faculty need to pursue ambitious, far-reaching inquiry.
2018 → 2026
New and expanded centers and programs
- The Broad Center at Yale SOM
- Program on Social Enterprise, Innovation, and Impact
- Program on Stakeholder Innovation and Management (Y-SIM)
- Swensen Asset Management Institute
- Thurman Arnold Project
Teaching Through a Technological Revolution
Teaching on the cutting edge
Donor support allows faculty to create new courses in response to evolving technology and student demand. Here are a few of the many courses that were developed with funding raised through the Driving Purpose campaign.
Patterns in Entrepreneurship
A.J. Wasserstein, Eugene F. Williams, Jr., Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Management
Financial Econometrics and Machine Learning
Bryan Kelly, Frederick Frank ’54 and Mary C. Tanner Professor of Finance
AI for Business Decisions
Tong Wang, Assistant Professor of Marketing
Strategic Social Networks
Minjae Kim, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior
Speculation and Hedging in Financial Markets
Stefano Giglio, Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Finance, Management, and Entrepreneurship
Behavioral Science and Social Good
Deborah Small, Adrian C. Israel Professor of Marketing
Expanding the possibilities of research
By applying machine learning to mobile phone records, Mushfiq Mobarak, Jerome Kasoff ’54 Professor of Management and Economics, and his collaborators identified the Bangladeshi households most in need of government aid faster and at far lower cost than traditional surveys.
We can’t observe everything we need to about people to run programs effectively. So we need to think creatively about what types of data already exist based on people’s daily behaviors, and see how best to make use of it for social good.
Amplifying
Impact
Through Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign, the school strengthened the connections, expanded the reach, and fortified the values that allow each member of the community to maximize their impact.
2018 → 2026
SOM Connect
Alumni Affinity Groups
- Black Business Alliance Alumni
- Q+: Yale SOM LGBTQ Alumni
- Women in Management Alumni
- SOMos Yale: Latino/Hispanic Alumni & Friends
- Yale SOM Veteran & Military Alumni Community
- Yale SOM Chinese Alumni Alliance
Professional Alumni Groups (PAGs)
- SOM & Society
- SOM Entrepreneurs Network
- SOMers in Supply Chain
- Sustainability Career Accelerator Group
- Yale AI & Impact Makers (Y-AIM)
Gatherings
How The Broad Center at Yale SOM Changes Lives for Students Nationwide
A Gathering of Loyal Alums
In November 2025, more than 100 graduates convened in Evans Hall to strengthen their connections to SOM and one another. The event, the Donaldson Alumni Leadership Summit, both celebrates the school’s most dedicated alumni and shapes the future of the school. Matt Broder ’81 BA, ’87 told us what it meant to him.
“I came away with a renewed respect for the degree to which SOM alumni are so committed to the school, to greater Yale, and to the concept of volunteer service. I’m from that era in SOM history when it wasn’t clear whether SOM would survive. To see, so many years later, how SOM graduates have assumed volunteer leadership roles across the university strongly validates Yale’s investment in graduate management education. In short, the summit made me feel proud to be an SOM alum.”
Investing
in Yale SOM
Dear alumni and friends of Yale SOM,
This is a truly historic occasion for the Yale School of Management. With your dedicated generosity, participation, and engagement, we have successfully concluded Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign. Dean Charles and I, along with our faculty, students, and staff—especially the members of the Development and Alumni Relations team—are immensely grateful to you for investing in the school at this pivotal moment.
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Since the campaign’s start on July 1, 2018, your outstanding support has helped increase scholarship funding for SOM students; expand degree programs; strengthen local, national, and international partnerships; create dynamic learning environments; and engage communities around the world. Your contributions have not only supplied resources for cutting-edge research and teaching but also provided critical funding for the school to address top priorities through gifts to the Alumni Fund and Fifth Decade Innovation Fund. You have shared your time mentoring students as they pursue ambitious careers and your expertise helping to guide the school through unprecedented circumstances.
Our goal of raising $325 million at first seemed like a stretch. Not only did you surpass this goal two years before the campaign ended, but we went on to achieve together a record $432.7 million in support for the school—demonstrating once again that the Yale SOM community never fails to meet a challenge. Moreover, an astounding 85% of those commitments have already been received. Our alumni are more engaged than alumni from any other school across Yale, with the highest rates of volunteering and Alumni Fund participation.
In addition, this campaign reflects a turning point for the school, with the majority of support coming from SOM alumni and friends. We are profoundly proud and grateful that Driving Purpose achieved this and so many other milestones for SOM.
As the school celebrates its 50th anniversary this academic year, the success of Driving Purpose provides a strong foundation for SOM to continue transforming management education by advancing its distinctive mission of educating leaders for business & society. There is much more to be done to ensure that future students can access formative experiences that propel their careers while preparing them to address tomorrow’s challenges and drive positive change across sectors and around the world.
We are so excited to celebrate with you the close of Driving Purpose — The Yale SOM Campaign and to express our deepest gratitude to you for your important role in this success. We hope you take pride in all that has been accomplished over the past eight years. You are ensuring that over the next 50 years, the school will build on its pathbreaking first half-century to achieve even greater impact.
Thanks to you, the best for SOM still lies ahead.
Warmly and appreciatively,
Joel A. Getz, Deputy Dean Alumni, Development, and Special Initiatives
Thank you!
Driving Purpose —The Yale SOM Campaign has positioned the school for the next 50 years and beyond, raising $432.7 million over eight years—over $100 million above our original goal—while heightening alumni engagement and participation. Throughout the campaign, the SOM community has united to support the school through generous philanthropy, volunteer leadership, and expanded engagement, enriching our distinctive learning experience and growing connections among alumni and friends worldwide.
Together, you surpassed the ambitious preliminary goal set in 2018 of $325 million and advanced three campaign priorities. You Developed Leaders by increasing scholarship support for SOM students, bolstering loan forgiveness, and creating opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovative learning. You Advanced Knowledge by investing in faculty excellence through new centers and programs, endowed chairs, and resources that fuel research, teaching, and curricular expansion. And you Amplified Impact by engaging and extending the SOM community on campus and around the globe—mentoring students, participating in Alumni Affinity and Professional Groups, and staying connected with the school and each other.
Thank you for your generous support of, and incredible dedication to, Yale SOM and our founding mission. The impact of Driving Purpose is a new generation of principled leaders equipped to drive lasting and positive change.
A Message to Our Campaign Committee
From Purpose to Practice: Driving Purpose Voices
Yale SOM expanded my sense of what was possible for my career, my leadership, and my responsibility to others. To me, Driving Purpose means recognizing that education is not just about personal success; it is about expanding possibility and creating opportunity. I hope the scholarship I have established helps future SOM students experience that same transformation and pay it forward for generations to come.
Several years ago, Liz and I decided to set up an endowed scholarship fund to provide support to Yale SOM students. We are funding it through annual contributions but recognize these cannot go on forever. As part of our estate planning process, we documented a bequest intention to ensure the endowed fund always will be sufficient to provide meaningful support to deserving SOM students. This blended gift counts as part of the Class of 1981’s 45th reunion giving. It is an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up!
SOM changed the trajectory of my life. When I arrived in 1989, I found more than classmates—I found a community that believed business could serve a higher purpose. Thirty-five years later, that conviction still drives me.
I support scholarships because talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t. Every student we help attend SOM becomes another force for positive change in business and society. That’s a legacy worth investing in.
Through the Yale SOM community, I know I am contributing to progress that is both meaningful and enduring. One of my most rewarding experiences during this campaign was helping launch several Professional Alumni Groups while serving on the SOM Alumni Advisory Board, including the Sustainability group. This alumni group brings together SOM graduates from around the world who are advancing real solutions at the intersection of business and environmental stewardship. The connections formed through Driving Purpose will strengthen SOM today and amplify its impact far into the future.
Recruiting and retaining outstanding faculty. Providing scholarships that enable ambitious students to make a positive impact across industries. Developing curriculum that combines strategic management skills with emerging technical expertise, and preparing future leaders to build dynamic careers with responsibility and proficiency. It’s important to me to support such imperative initiatives at Yale SOM during the Driving Purpose campaign, as the school continues to set the gold standard of how to integrate business and society.
Yale SOM helped me develop the leadership qualities that matter most: self-awareness, management fundamentals, and an understanding of the power of group collaboration and mutual learning. I feel fortunate to be able to support the next generation of leaders emerging from SOM. In this moment of rapid change and increasing instability, intentional and introspective leadership is more essential than ever. I’m grateful that I can give back to a community that helped shape me and my career and I hope others will do the same.
I was able to have the Yale experience that I did only because alumni invested in the university long before I arrived, and I benefited directly from that generosity—so I’ve always known I wanted to give back in the same spirit. With Yale SOM’s 50th anniversary on the horizon, this is an exciting time to not only support effective management education to prepare tomorrow’s leaders for the complex problems they will face, but to also invest in a new generation who will carry forward this philanthropic tradition.
From Purpose to Practice: Reunion Volunteer Voices
Class of 1986, 40th Reunion
I had the distinct pleasure of serving as an SOM Reunion Gift Committee member for our 40th Reunion. It was such a fun experience and was well worth the commitment. I was able to reconnect with many classmates to learn about what has happened in the last five years and promote our Reunion Weekend, as well encourage giving. The volunteer experience, in addition to my time as a graduate student, helped to motivate me to make my reunion gift in memory of my brother Renny Merritt ’84, to strengthen and broaden the SOM experience for future students. My time as a student opened the doors to many career opportunities and my gift works to benefit the next generation of leaders in that same way.
Class of 1981, 45th Reunion
Smiles, hugs, and pure joy. The feelings we shared coming together again will continue well beyond our reunion in May. Serving as our 45th Reunion Gift co-chair with old friends was a way for me to say thank you for the impact SOM has on my life. We have just begun. Now, on to our 50th Reunion—and to creating new ways to connect with our special community in between reunions!
Class of 1994, 30th Reunion
Thirty years is a long time to be away from SOM. It was a thrill to see so many familiar faces, a reminder of the school’s intimate size. During our class session in one of the new classrooms, we went around the room and updated the group on how life, professionally and personally, has unfolded for us all. I was struck by the diversity in the room: for-profits, nonprofits, government agencies. All were represented, a testament to the fact that the Class of 1994 is still living SOM’s values and mission.
Class of 2016, 10th Reunion
I was honored to serve my class alongside three outstanding Reunion Gift co-chairs. I took on the role because I have always believed our class is unique in its affection for Yale, SOM, and one another. The fact that nearly 40% of our class returned for our reunion speaks to that enduring connection and what makes the Class of 2016 so special. I am hopeful that the generosity of our classmates will help the school continue to recruit students who will develop the same deep appreciation for SOM.
Class of 2021, 5th Reunion
Yale SOM cultivates a diverse and accomplished alumni community from which we all benefit. As leaders within the Class of 2021, bonded through pandemic-era adversity, we felt a responsibility to renew our engagement with the school and contribute to the success of future graduates. Serving as co-chairs of the 5th Reunion Gift Committee allowed us to reconnect with classmates and rekindle the spirit of business & society.
Campaign Fundraising Report
During the Driving Purpose Campaign, alumni, friends, corporations, and foundations committed more than $432 million to Yale SOM. As a financially self-supporting Yale professional school, Yale SOM does not receive any revenue from the university or the university’s endowment. The school manages its own budget and revenue stream and relies on philanthropic support to advance its mission.
Campaign Highlights July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2026
FY26 Financial Overview: July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026
3% of Yale University budget
Philanthropy makes up 46% of the school’s annual budget, supporting classroom innovation, professorships, scholarships, faculty research, and student programs. Thanks to your support, the school has had a balanced budget for the past 18 years.
3% of Yale University endowment
Yale SOM’s endowment ensures the school’s long-term excellence and drives its distinct mission to educate leaders for business and society. Endowed gifts to Yale SOM are managed alongside the rest of the university’s endowment by the Yale Investments Office. Most endowment funds are designated for professorships and program support with a small portion of endowed funds providing support for scholarships and general operations.
Download the 2018–2026 Impact Report
The Driving Purpose campaign impact report outlines the progress of the Driving Purpose campaign, recognizes supporters, and reports on our collective impact. Thank you for driving Yale SOM’s purpose on campus, in the community, and around the globe.