XLRI plans to set up new campus; on overdrive to raise Rs. 1 billion

XLRI, Jamshedpur has embarked upon a fund-raising drive with plans to notch up Rs. 100 crore (Rs. 1 billion) in endowments over the next five years. The institute is tapping both its alumni and corporates and, along the lines of B-schools abroad, is open to naming centres or facilities after donors.

So far, the institute has raised around Rs. 16.2 million. HCL Technologies Vice-Chairman and CEO Vineet Nayar, an alumni as well as board of governors’ member, has also pledged Rs. 10 million in his individual capacity, which will go towards XLRI’s proposed Delhi campus.

XLRI Director E Abraham said: “We have formed a core committee of alumni who are now working on how to take the endowment fund initiative forward. This is a common practice abroad, even in Jesuit schools. We will also be approaching companies that rank among our major recruiters.”

XLRI that was founded in 1949 has so far has been functioning almost entirely on its own funds. The institute already has a surplus of around Rs. 225 million. The XLRI Endowment Fund initiative was taken up by the 1983 batch when it met in 2008 to celebrate their silver jubilee of graduating. Earlier this year, the director and S Sarin made presentations at the summer alumni meets in Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai attended by over 1,500 alumni. The institute also plans to hold alumni meets in New York, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles to encourage alumni to give back to the institute.

The funds raised will go towards upgradation of existing physical infrastructure to world-class standards, creating chair professorships, providing scholarship and loans to needy students, supporting global research as well as the social initiatives of XLRI in the area of education for the poor, rural entrepreneurship and the like.

“A large chunk of this will also go towards our new campus which will come up in Delhi,” said E Abraham. The new campus is estimated to cost about Rs. 500-600 million. “Besides regular programmes, it will also offer niche programmes. We have initiated talks with Georgetown University and plan to set up a School of Foreign Service as well as a School of Public Policy,” said Abraham. XLRI is setting up an international hostel in Jamshedpur for its just-launched three-country global MBA programme.

Source: The Economic Times (Online Edition), August 14, 2012

IIMs to set up centres to help raise funds

The elite Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on Friday decided to set up development centres to be run by experts and independent professionals to raise funds from alumni networks and philanthropists. These professionals will work with the two groups to raise funds. At the IIM directors’ meet in Delhi, which was also attended by human resources development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal​, the London Business School (LBS) was invited to present a case study on how it raises funds.

“The older IIMs can set up centres with an exclusive aim of fostering relationships and raising funds and endowments. The IIMs meet discussed this and (they) are quite positive about the prospect,” said a senior MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) official requesting not to be named as “this is an internal meeting of the IIMs”. The above official said the newer IIMs may opt for setting up a single platform as they don’t have an alumni network like the older ones. “LBS could be the role model for the entire project.”

As Mint reported on Friday, the meeting also took into account a government committee report on the issue which suggested that the IIMs follow a model that identifies prospective fund givers, solicits money from them and keeps them informed about how it is being used.

“Fund-rasing is a long process and we discussed why we have not been able to do it successfully,” IIM-Raipur Director B.S. Sahay said. He said two senior LBS officials present at the meeting spoke about their experience.“LBS is a contemporary B-School to some of our older IIMs, and if they can do it, why cannot we,” Sahay said. The people involved here are professionals and have experience of raising endowments, he added. He said several Indian industrialists have donated generously to foreign B-Schools.

Ratan Tata donated $50 million to Harvard Business School​ (HBS) in 2010. The “gift, the largest from an international donor in the school’s history, will fund a new academic and residential building on the HBS campus in Boston,” the school website says. In the same year, Mahindra and Mahindra’s Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra donated $10 million in honour of his mother to Harvard University’s Humanities Centre. The Aditya Birla India Centre at LBS was founded by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group.

A detailed road map will be prepared by IIMs by Saturday when the meet concludes, Sahay said. Since, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have managed to accumulate significant donations over the years, some of the directors of the elite engineering schools were also present at the meet.

Source: Mint, January 14, 2012

IIMs look to alumni for raising funds

The country’s premier educational institute, the Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs), will be seeking funds from its alumni and other stakeholders to expand and create world-class infrastructure. The top management of the IIMs will discuss on Friday,a blueprint on ways to get funds from corporate world and alumni in the next few years. “The IIM directors will be discussing on how to raise funds for the new and old IIMs and engage the alumni,” said Hari S. Bhartia, Chairperson of IIM-Raipur and head of a MHRD committee on raising funds for the IIMs.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) had constituted the committee to help IIMs in building a corpus, so that they can be financially independent and fund proposal for foreign campuses. Bhartia had already recommended setting up of a development office and campaign committees in each IIM for raising fund.

Fund raising campaign by some foreign universities like Yale and Harvard have resulted in generation of over US $ 3 billion. Harvard had received US $50 million donation from the Tata Group in 2010 and earlier Anand Mahindra had donated US $ 10 million.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have also generated money in similar ways. Bhartia said the IITs have raised good money and IIMs, especially the older ones, would like to revisit strategy and engage alumni to raise funds. According to IIM officials, the reasons for poor response would also be discussed. To help the IIMs and IITs in their mission, the MHRD has already sought Income Tax exemption on donation of funds or option of non-cash endowments. The ministry had also given full authority to individual IIMs to raise money to pay for its expansion plans.

Source: Hindustan Times, January 13, 2012

IIMs meet to consider ways of raising funds

Directors of the 13 Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) will meet on Friday to devise a plan to raise funds from philanthropists, industrialists and their alumni in India and abroad to boost their finances, following the example of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and foreign business schools. Directors and the chairmen of the board of governors of IIMs are holding a workshop in New Delhi that will also be attended by the human resource development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal, the higher education secretary and other officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to devise a strategy to raise funds.

Initially, the IIMs plan to raise Rs. 400-500 crore (Rs. 4-5 billion). This may also be one of the items on the agenda for the IIMs when they go to Europe and America later this year to promote their brand and attract foreign students to bring in more diversity to campuses. The workshop, which some successful IIM alumni may attend, will discuss a MHRD report prepared by a team led by Hari S. Bhartia, co-chairman and managing director of Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd. “Many foreign B-schools are raising funds successfully, IIMs would do well to raise funds too. It will give them a financial edge while planning their expansion inside or outside the country in future,” said a senior MHRD ministry official, who did not want to be named. “They are a growing brand and more funds will serve them well.”

The Bhartia Committee report has suggested that IIMs follow a model that identifies prospective fund givers, solicits money from them and keeps them informed about how it is being used. IIM-Raipur is leading the initiative to hold the workshop, according to the MHRD. The IITs have leveraged their network well and got a good response from corporates and philanthropic funds, said P. Rameshan, Director of IIM-Rohtak. The IIMs jointly represent one brand and even if the new IIMs don’t have an alumni network, progress in raising funds will help all 13, he said.

For a leading business school, managing everything including infrastructure from student fees is very difficult, said Pramath Sinha, the founding dean of Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business​ (ISB). IIMs have some government backing, but funds are always needed for expansion. “You need it to improve infrastructure, give scholarships to students, create chair professors and improve research,” Sinha said. Sinha, who has mentioned about the role of donations and endowment in his new book on ISB, said that this has been a trend among well-known foreign business schools and universities. “In India, IITs are doing it and IIMs trying to do so seems to be a good step.”

For a decade and half, IITs have made significant progress in collecting funds for expansion. In 2000, the Bharti Foundation donated Rs. 20 crore (Rs. 200 million) to IIT-Delhi to start the Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management. IIT-Kharagpur aims to accumulate a $200 million endowment fund by 2020. Industrialist Arjun Malhotra, an alumnus of IIT-Khargapur, donated Rs. 5 crore (Rs. 50 million) last year and has promised to give more. IIT-Bombay has got funds from its alumni network, mainly in the US. The Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology, the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, the Gaitonde Lecture Hall Complex, the D.S. Foundation Gymkhana and the Victor Menezes Convention Centre have come up with support from alumni, according to its website. The Vinod Gupta​ School of Management at IIT-Kharagpur was initiated by its alumnus Vinod Gupta and named after him.

Source: Mint, January 13, 2012