donors

Thanks in Order as Gifts to the Monterey Institute Double

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu donors, Featured, newsroom
Thank You

Thank you to the generous donors who continue to support the Monterey Institute and our students!

Gifts to the Monterey Institute more than doubled in the fiscal year ending on June 30 as compared to the previous year. Gifts received over the 2013-14 fiscal year totaled $6,510,088, more than twice the $3.1 million received in 2012-13. Participation was up across the board, with total donors increasing 34 percent and alumni donors jumping 50 percent.

For the fourth year in a row, the Institute met the “Multiply the Good” challenge, raising more than $1 million in gifts of $5,000 or more and thereby triggering a $500,000 match from an anonymous donor. Year-end results also benefitted also from an alumni-focused challenge in June, which generated 541 gifts totaling more than $125,000.

“To have giving to the Institute double year over year is gratifying and humbling,” commented MIIS President Sunder Ramaswamy. “The loyal support that MIIS has earned over the years continues to grow, and these contributions will help to make a top-quality international graduate education accessible for the next generation of students.”

To learn more about the wide range of gift opportunities at the Monterey Institute, please visit our Giving page.

Anonymous Donor Pledges $1.8 Million to Support Center for the Blue Economy

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu CBE, donors, Environment, Featured, Fellowships, IEP, newsroom

Trent Hodges.jpg

Student Trent Hodges’ summer 2014 fellowship working on ““surfonomics” with Save the Waves in Mexico was funded by generous supporters of the Center for the Blue Economy, and included the opportunity to participate in a “paddle out” ceremony.

The Monterey Institute has received a $1.8 million challenge gift that aims to both support and inspire the continued growth and expansion of the Institute’s ocean and coastal economics research and education center, the Center for the Blue Economy.

The gift has three components: a $600,000 outright gift in the first year (beginning July 1, 2014), and challenge matching gifts of $600,000 in each of the following two years, with the goal of generating at least $3 million for the center’s operations over the next three years.

“This generous challenge gift will help to ensure the continued vitality and growth of the Center for the Blue Economy over the next several years,” commented MIIS President Sunder Ramaswamy. “It should serve to inspire other individuals, foundations, and grant-makers to meet this donor’s challenge and raise additional major support, including endowed funds, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Center. I look forward to working with potential supporters worldwide who care about the future of our oceans.”

CBE Director Jason Scorse, a MIIS professor who also chairs the school’s Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy program, said “this new gift and the challenge it kicks off will allow the CBE to build upon the strong momentum generated over the past two years. It will allow us to expand our economic databases and analyses into new and important policy areas where economic data is lacking. We will also launch our new Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics this year, expand our international efforts beyond Asia and Europe, and be able to provide significantly more financial support to students enrolling in the ocean and coastal resource management concentration in our International Environmental Policy program.”

“The CBE is uniquely positioned to make the economic case for ocean conservation and to better inform decision makers with important economic information long absent from policy dialogue,” added Scorse. “We hope to play a key role in helping to shape policies on ocean and coastal issues in the years ahead.”

MIIS Community More Than Doubles Campaign Goal in Earning $25,000 Match for Student Financial Aid

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu donors, Featured, newsroom, scholarships
25k Donor Match Challenge

The MIIS community rose to the challenge, more than doubling the initial goal of 250 individual gifts in 25 days!

The Monterey Institute’s extended campus community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni is known for many things—language abilities, global perspectives, and cross-disciplinary innovation, to name a few. This June, two other key characteristics of the MIIS community came into focus: loyalty, and the desire to be the solution to any problem our community encounters.

As chronicled in a previous story, the Monterey Institute community was presented with an exciting challenge in early June by long time board member and supporter Jed Smith. If 250 alumni and friends of the Institute would make a gift of any size over the 25 days stretching from June 5 to June 30, Jed pledged to match it with $25,000 for student financial aid. “I hope this match will inspire others throughout the Monterey Institute community to step up and show their support,” said Jed—and he was not disappointed.

When the challenge finished on June 30—and staff finished tallying the flood of gifts large and small—the final tally came to 541 gifts totaling more than $125,000! With the $25,000 match added on, this campaign raised more than $150,000 for student financial aid.

“This truly remarkable outcome demonstrates once again how much our alumni value the experiences they had at MIIS, and how much they want to pass that opportunity on to future students,” commented President Sunder Ramaswamy. “We are tremendously grateful to every donor who stepped up and made a gift to help us earn this match, whether it was for $5 or $5,000.”

Financial aid helps ensure that the Monterey Institute’s student body includes a vibrant mosaic of individuals from all over the world and all different backgrounds every year. Approximately 90 percent of students receive some financial aid while attending MIIS. To make a gift to the Monterey Institute, visit go.miis.edu/give.

MIIS Donor Challenge: Will Match with $25,000 if 250 Give in Next 25 Days

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Alumni, donors, Featured, newsroom
Donor Challenge

MIIS community members do the math on this exciting challenge!

The Monterey Institute community has been presented with an exciting challenge by long time Board Member and supporter Jed Smith. If 250 alumni and friends of the Institute make a gift of any size in the next 25 days, or from June 5 to June 30, he will match these gifts with $25,000 for financial aid.

Financial aid ensures that great students from all of backgrounds can come together at the Monterey Institute. It’s what makes a MIIS education possible for about 90% of our fantastic students. “I hope this match will inspire others throughout the Monterey Institute community to step up and show their support – MIIS needs us!” says the enthusiastic Jed Smith.

The challenge ends on June 30, so people are encouraged to match Jed Smith in this enthusiasm and give now at go.miis.edu/give. If you already gave this year, an additional gift made in June will still count towards the challenge. Remember any size gift counts!

MIIS Receives $2.1 Million Gift to Support Language Scholarships

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu donors, Featured, language_learning, newsroom, scholarships
Supporting Language Scholarships

Arabic students in the Institute’s Summer Intensive Language Program are among the many potential beneficiaries of the new $2.1 scholarship funds designated to support the acquisition and enhancement of language ability.

The Monterey Institute announced on May 16 that it has received a $2.1 million donation to support student scholarships for the acquisition and enhancement of foreign language ability. The Institute is a graduate school of Middlebury College.

The donor, who asked to remain anonymous, directed that the gift create two endowed scholarship funds, one to honor former Monterey Institute president Clara Yu and her husband, John Deppman, and the other to honor the current president, Sunder Ramaswamy, and his wife, Varna Ramaswamy.

The $2.1 million gift to the Monterey Institute came as part of a $4.2 gift to Middlebury. The other $2.1 million will establish the endowed Jessica K. and Ronald D. Liebowitz Centennial Fellowships Fund to provide financial aid to students attending Middlebury’s summer Language Schools in Vermont and at Mills College in Oakland, CA. That fund honors Middlebury President Ron Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica, and recognizes the Centennial of the Language Schools in 2015.

“We are deeply indebted to this family for its generous support of Middlebury and the Monterey Institute,” said Liebowitz. “Their commitment to providing access to Middlebury’s renowned language programs will make it possible for hundreds of students from around the world to study at these premier institutions.”

“I am overwhelmed and humbled by this donor’s generosity,” added President Ramaswamy. “This gift will truly make a difference in the lives of hundreds of students, sending ripple upon ripple of positive change out into the world in the years ahead.”