Giving

Report on Giving

2024

A Message from Dean Srikant Datar

I am pleased to share with you this report, which features the many ways alumni and friends like you play a key role in furthering Harvard Business School’s mission and extending its impact and reach.

Your collective support enables us to advance and realize our strategic priorities, including innovating across our educational programs, providing need-based financial aid to diverse and talented students in the US and around the world, and conducting research in areas that influence organizations and shape society—such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation, the future of work, and business solutions to climate change.

Everything we do reflects HBS’s conviction that business is a force for tremendous good—improving lives, creating jobs, and delivering valuable products and services. It is more important than ever to educate leaders ready to address society’s greatest challenges and exciting opportunities.

With your help, I am confident we can continue to deliver a truly transformational educational experience that equips graduates with the skills, knowledge, and mindset to lead in our changing world. Thank you for your belief in the work we do.

Thank You.

This report recognizes and celebrates alumni and friends who made gifts in fiscal year 2024 (July 1, 2023–June 30, 2024). Every gift makes a difference.

View Donor Lists (PDF)

(login required)

Request a printed report

Fiscal Year Highlights

8,000+

Total donors

145M

Total gifts & pledges

Average portion of HBS's total revenue provided by philanthropy (FY14–FY23)

450

First-time donors

6,800

Consistent donors
(have given at least 4 of the last 5 years)

4,800

Gifts under $1K totaling nearly $1M (the equivalent payout of an endowment of about $20M)

HBS Fund Gifts in Action

Annual gifts to the HBS Fund provide flexible funding that can be used immediately to advance key priorities, pilot novel programs and activities, and launch new initiatives. The following are examples of recent efforts made possible by the HBS Fund.

HBS Leverages Generative AI for Teaching and Learning

To prepare students and course participants to lead in an era of rapid technological change, HBS is leveraging generative AI tools for teaching, learning, and research—enabled by support from the HBS Fund. AI is powering chat and tutor bots in MBA courses such as Data Science for Managers and Launching Tech Ventures, as well as in a number of HBS Online courses. These course assistants, trained on HBS cases, syllabi, and other materials, are deepening learning for students. Data integration will provide the technical foundation for aggregated content across the School, creating new opportunities to support alumni connections and offer curated content and resources. HBS has devised guiding principles to ensure that these tools are used in a way that is scalable and ethical.

Students Explore Business Solutions to Societal Challenges

As a student at HBS, Sommers Kline (MBA 2023) was like many who use their time at the School to explore topics where their passion and potential for impact are high. She focused on investigating climate change and what she could do to address it. Through academic work—including cases, courses, and independent projects, as well as extracurricular activities—students gain greater insight into the ways they, as leaders, can develop business solutions to challenges facing society. “The training I’m getting in really traditional business, I think that’s a big differentiator in the climate space,” says Kline. “I feel like I’m leaving with a savvier way to sell climate as a core business problem.”

Watch a video about student experiences in climate change

HBS Online Marks 10 Years of Digital Learning Innovation

HBS Online launched in 2014 to deepen the School’s impact and broaden its reach, relying heavily on the HBS Fund to get off the ground. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, HBS Online has educated 230,000+ learners from more than 190 countries. The interactive digital platform draws on the peer-to-peer learning experience that has been a hallmark of HBS for more than a century, showing the effectiveness and power of the case method in a virtual setting. The HBS Fund plays a vital and ongoing role in HBS Online’s continued evolution, enabling technical and programmatic enhancements. This year, HBS Online introduced a new certificate program, the Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB), with tracks for both new and experienced leaders.

Hear reflections from HBS Online learners

Financial Aid Helps Make HBS Accessible to Future Leaders

Pooja Chandrashekar (MD/MBA 2024), a recent graduate of the dual-degree MD/MBA Program, was one of approximately 900 HBS students whose educational journeys are made possible each year by the need-based financial assistance the School provides. This aid enables the most promising future leaders to attend HBS and explore the difference they can make in the world. During her time at Harvard Medical School, Chandrashekar engaged in clinical training and at HBS, she honed her leadership, finance, and operations skills. Her cross-disciplinary education also helped prepare her to launch Reentry Care, a tech-enabled health care provider for individuals leaving incarceration and reentering their communities. Chandrashekar is now an internal medicine resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Watch as Chandrashekar shares her story, enabled by fellowships

Employee Ownership Model Bridges America's Income Gap

HBS faculty members are pursuing research on employee ownership, showing how giving employees a meaningful stake in companies can increase wealth for low-wage workers and help address America’s income gap. A case by Dennis Campbell and Ethan Rouen highlights how a private equity firm saw increased motivation at a garage door company it acquired once employees felt they could share in the rewards their performance created. Another case, by Ethan Bernstein, explores how a financial services firm found a competitive edge by engaging employee owners. Faculty research such as this is made possible by the HBS Fund.

Weekend Sprints Foster Learning as a Community

Inspired by the success of Short Intensive Programs (no-fee, no-credit courses offered over winter break), and seeking to provide engaging campus programming for students and their partners on selected weekends throughout the year, HBS piloted a program of voluntary academic and social offerings in 2023–2024 called Weekend Sprints. Over three weekends, there were 34 academic sessions offered and more than 2,300 seats filled—a successful experiment that confirmed the appetite for continued learning. This program helps reinforce the School’s core values, enliven its residential campus, and provide an accessible weekend event to all students and their families.

Learn more about Weekend Sprints

HBS Fund Highlights

65M

Total HBS Fund gifts & pledges (the most in HBS's history), including 15 gifts over $1M

Average portion of the School’s research budget that is supported by the HBS Fund and other unrestricted revenue (FY23)

Portion of the MBA Program budget that is supported by the HBS Fund and other unrestricted revenue (FY23)

HBS Fund Investors Society

The Investors Society recognizes alumni and friends who make annual leadership gifts to the HBS Fund. Member support represents nearly 90 percent of HBS Fund revenues each year.

HBS Fund Volunteers & Leadership Donors

HBS is grateful for the generosity and dedication of HBS Fund volunteers and leadership donors, and we are pleased to recognize these individuals in the donor lists. Through their time and expertise, HBS Fund Council members, HBS Fund Investors Society class agents, and MBA class volunteers help raise the resources that enable HBS to deliver on its mission. Through their annual leadership gifts, HBS Fund Investors Society members fuel innovation and strengthen the School’s core activities.

View Donor Lists

(login required)