March 11: Join the MIT 24-Hour Challenge
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Slice of MIT
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The world is counting on MIT to help meet the great challenges before us. You can help MIT by joining thousands of alumni and friends in the MIT 24-Hour Challenge on Thursday, March 11, 2021.
In honor of this fifth year of #MIT24, our goal is to reach 5,000 donors on March 11. Many of the day’s microchallenges will directly address the needs of the Institute’s student body. Read on to learn about ways your participation can help MIT’s undergraduate and graduate students—or visit the MIT 24-Hour Challenge site to browse more than 35 microchallenges held by groups and departments at MIT, in areas including the Institute’s Covid-19 response; digital and experiential learning; diversity, equity, and inclusion; research and innovation; and more.
Your support will help our students, faculty, and staff stay the course in making a better world—now and in the brighter days ahead. Make your gift on March 11!
More than half of MIT students rely on some form of financial aid to attend the Institute; this crucial aid allows them to focus on their education, not their finances, while they complete their studies. Scholarship support ensures that an MIT education is accessible to bright, talented students, regardless of income. Any gift to any MIT scholarship fund directly supports these students, fueling an irreplaceable part of this community and the future of MIT.
During the MIT 24-Hour Challenge, if 314 donors make a gift to the MIT Scholarship Fund, a $50,000 gift from generous challengers will be unlocked. What’s more, if an additional 314 donors make a gift to the Scholarship Fund, another $50,000 gift will be unlocked, for a total of $100,000.
The hard work undertaken by graduate students at MIT to further cutting-edge research, revolutionize health care, and develop innovative technologies would not exist without the support of alumni and friends. Gifts to the Graduate Student Support Fund provide financial assistance to graduate students from any department at the Institute.
On March 11, if 50 donors make gifts to the MIT Graduate Student Support Fund, John H. Johnson PhD ’99 will donate $5,000. If 50 more donors make gifts, John will contribute another $5,000.
The Student Life, Wellbeing, and Support Fund has a huge impact on our students. The fund has historically assisted students in so many ways, from providing help during an unpredictable life-changing family crisis that requires traveling home, to the purchase of basic necessities like a winter coat or even food.
In addition to ongoing efforts focused on student wellbeing, mental health, and support services, gifts to this fund have helped thousands of students address ongoing financial needs related to travel, technology, and unexpected personal expenses that have been exacerbated over the past year during the Covid-19 crisis.
If 150 donors give to the Student Life, Wellbeing, and Support Fund on March 11, then members of the MIT Annual Fund Board of Directors—Chaitra Chandrasekhar ’04, MEng ’05 and Arjun Dayal ’08—and Annual Fund Board chair Steven Larky ’84 will make a gift of $5,000. If an additional 150 donors give to Student Life and Wellbeing that day, the donors will make another gift of $5,000.
Unrestricted funds are what enable MIT to be MIT, day in and day out. When conditions change or a need arises—whether for scholarship aid, student life, or seizing new opportunities—support from MIT’s Unrestricted Fund rises to meet it. Never was this truer than in this past year, when the Institute was called upon to recalibrate its academic and research enterprises to meet the challenges of the pandemic.
On March 11, if 500 donors make gifts to the Unrestricted Fund, a generous challenger will make a gift of $25,000. If another 500 donors make a gift to the Unrestricted Fund, the generous donor will give another $25,000.
