Indian Institute of Technology Madras has raised a historic all-time high sum of INR 131 crore from alumni, donors, and corporate firms during the financial year of 2021-22 to take its philanthropic and socially-relevant projects further.
Despite the pandemic, fundraising has been increasing by over 30 per cent Year-on-Year. The number of corporate firms donating funds to IIT Madras through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has almost doubled in the last five years.
Fundraising from CSRpartnerships accounts for nearly half of the total INR 131 crore raised during financial year ending in March, 2022.
The institute aims to accelerate fundraising by strengthening alumni networks and increasing engagement with corporates, philanthropies, and High-Net-Worth (HNI) individuals. The fundraising activities are spearheaded by the Office of Alumni and Corporate Relations, which comprises of dedicated team of professionals to work with corporate firms, alumni, and donors.
A key factor driving this fundraising has been the highly qualified IIT Madras faculty who are carrying out path-breaking research works and undertaking effective execution of socially-relevant projects.
Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean, IIT Madras, said, “We are grateful to all the alumni and corporate partners who have helped us through impactful contributions.IIT Madras is fortunate to have thousands of alumni investing both time and money to help the Institute grow. This group is crucial to future development of the institute.”
The funds raised have been vital in supporting infrastructure development, scholarships, chair professorships, research, and initiatives to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in particular.
During the pandemic, the institute collected over INR 15 crore from IIT Madras alumni globally towards COVID-19 relief projects, which were deployed to provide essential medical equipment such as Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) and oxygen concentrators, to the Governments of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana.
According to the press note, the funding proceeds will be used for infrastructure, innovative projects of students, faculty research, scholarships, and Chair professorships.
Speaking on the key fundraising initiatives of the Institute, Kaviraj Nair, Chief Executive Officer, Office of Institutional Advancement, IIT Madras, said, “Our team at IIT Madras has been able to put in place a milestone-based tracking system with clear metrics and rigorous deployment. We have a professional donor stewardship team to ensure that all our projects are managed effectively. All donors want to ensure that their money is utilized in a transparent and impactful way, providing scalable solutions. And we meet all their requirements.”
Further, Nair said, “We also have entirely volunteer-driven alumni chapters across the world, with alumni who are passionate about supporting their Alma Mater in its pursuit of world-class research creating global impact.”
This achievement has been made possible with the concerted efforts of the Office of Alumni and Corporate Relations which works with the diverse network of IIT Madras alumni. Graduates from IIT Madras are excelling across sectors, industries, and regions, and are passionate about their institute making a mark globally.
Their continued investment in the institute, in the form of funds, resources, and mentorship, serves as a vital support network for the students, faculty, and researchers to implement initiatives with high social impact.
IIT Madras
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IITM) was established in 1959 as a public technical and research university. It is the third IIT be set up by the Government of India and is autonomous in nature.
Located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the campus is home to India’s first university-based research park- IITMR. It has been ranked one by NIRF in 2021 for the third time in a row. Internationally, IIT Madras was ranked 255 in the QS World University Rankings of 2022. Like its peer IITs, IIT Madras also holds ‘Institute of National Importance’ status and is known across the globe for quality education and experienced faculty.
Presently, IIT Madras comprises of Centre for Continuing Education along with 16 departments, four national and 10 institute research centres across distinct streams of Engineering and Pure Sciences.
All these departments and research centres collectively offer more than 100 full-time or part-time or online courses at UG, PG and doctoral level across the streams of Engineering, Science, Humanities and Management. The institute recently launched the country’s first online BSc Programmenamed Programming in Data Science.
