The school faced unprecedented operational and financial challenges in response to COVID-19. Unrestricted annual giving provided the flexible and immediate resources needed to meet those challenges.
The Business School Fund is dedicated to improving the student experience and enhancing alumni connections, especially during these uncertain times. Annual and reunion contributions received in the fiscal year that ended August 31, 2020, made the following results possible for the school.
2019–20 Highlights
Your Gift at Work: Improving the Student Experience
Stanford GSB overcame significant hurdles posed by the pandemic thanks to generous gifts to the Business School Fund. Faculty and curricular support programs adapted immediately to ensure a smooth transition for students to online learning. Financial aid, academic innovation, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts further helped students thrive.
Comprehensive Financial Aid
Stanford GSB provided financial aid to nearly 600 students from around the world. With increasing student need in the current climate, a robust financial aid program attracts the highest caliber MBA, MSx, and PhD students, regardless of their financial situation, and creates a vibrant and diverse community. Last year, the fund filled the $3.6 million gap between student need and support from dedicated fellowship funds.
Business School Fund Fellowship
The fund supports students like Edward Silva, MBA/MS Environment and Resources ’21. Silva, the son of Portuguese immigrants, grew up on a small farm in California. His passion is in agriculture. He aspires to bring advanced technology to farmers of all sizes. “This is a place where big ideas are not laughed at but instead respected and molded.”
Other Initiatives Supported by the Business School Fund
Your Gift at Work: Enhancing Alumni Connections
The Career Management Center and GSB Alumni Relations expanded virtual programming, made possible by gifts like yours to engage and support GSB alumni. New offerings like Long-Distance Leadership: How to Manage Your Team with Clarity and Compassion During the Coronavirus Crisis and Strategies That Advance Equity: How to Create a Great Place to Work for All addressed some of our alumni’s most urgent issues.
Alumni to Alumni Series
Leading in a Pandemic is a collection of virtual conversations with GSB alumni who stepped up as leaders in their professional, volunteer, and personal lives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the goal of inspiring others to do the same.
Lifelong Learning
Brave Spaces and Investing in Black Entrepreneurs were new workshops that addressed racial equity. Alumni discussed diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the lack of representation for the Black entrepreneurial community and how to support Black investors.