This collection of fundraising tools, vehicles, and suggestions may be of use to FSILG volunteers looking to improve their chapters financial situation.
The FSILG fundraising guide
The FSILG Fundraising Guide-complete with checklists, helpful hints, and suggested strategies-is an excellent resource for chapters trying to raise money for capital improvements or renovations. The guide, plus a conversation with MIT Annual Fund staff, will be a good first step in developing your annual fundraising campaign.
The MIT Annual Fund is one of the most successful of all collegiate annual giving programs. While MIT cannot raise money directly for FSILG houses, Annual Fund staff can offer advice and recommend practices for donor cultivation; mail, phone, e-mail, and in-person solicitations; gift processing; and donor stewardship. To order your guide, please complete the online request form.
Donor recognition
Like other universities, MIT has well-established practices for thanking and recognizing those who contribute directly to the Institute’s annual fund drives. Although gifts given directly to FSILGs cannot officially be recorded through the Annual Fund, MIT recognizes these important gifts, and urges chapters to submit their donors’ names for listing on the Alumni Association’s web site for those who give directly to an FSILG.
Listing donors’ names sends the powerful message that your chapter and MIT greatly appreciate their support. In the initial offering of this site, fourteen chapters sent in over 1100 names of their contributors to be listed online. If you would like to list donors to your chapter, please respond to the request for donor lists sent to your house corporation each spring. For more information about FSILG donor recognition, contact Bob Ferrara ’67.
Independent Residence Development Fund (IRDF)
The IRDF offers funding assistance to the FSILG community by providing low-interest loans for capital improvements and renovations to FSILG houses. Over the years, it has expanded to also offer educational project and educational operating grants for FSILGs to improve or maintain educational areas of their houses. The IRDF is an excellent way for alumni to support FSILGs with a tax-deductible gift. A few years ago, the Alumni Association created a new IRDF Donor page to recognize the hundreds of alumni who contribute to the IRDF. Recently a Photo Gallery was developed. Students and alumni submitted a number of pictures highlighting what the IRDF has made possible in their residences.
Visit the IRDF Web site to learn more about applying for a grant or making a gift. No other college or university has anything quite like the IRDF. It represents the best of the FSILG alumni and Institute partnership. MIT has invested a lot in acquiring the necessary legal and facilities expertise to define the grants program. Even more will be needed in the coming years to ensure the physical and computer network infrastructure is excellent in all the FSILG residences.