In a first, IIM Ahmedabad launches endowment fund with help from alumni

Alumni's initial commitment Rs 1,00 crore, B-school aims to raise Rs 1,000 crore in 5 years

Emulating major global B-schools for the first time, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has now launched an endowment fund with the help of alumni with an aim to raise Rs 1,000 crore in five years.

With an initial commitment of Rs 100 crore from 10 founding alumni including the likes of InfoEdge founder and executive vice chairman Sanjeev Bikhchandani of 1989 batch, and Makemytrip founder and group chief executive officer Deep Kalra of 1992 batch, the 'IIM Ahmedabad Endowment Fund' is being claimed as the first by any management school in India.

The endowment fund is aimed at enabling IIM-A in making larger impact in the field of education, entrepreneurial leadership, management practice and public policy. 

"Endowments form the backbone of all great universities around the world.  Endowment is the glue that binds the university with its alumni. Greater the university, larger is the endowment.  With this initiative, the management and the alumni have sowed a seed for what will one day be a large endowment proportionate to the stature of IIM Ahmedabad," said Sandeep Singhal, Co-Founder of WestBridge Capital and formerly co-founder of Sequoia Capital India and Bikhchandani.

Under the guidance of the IIM-A Board of Governors (BoG), the endowment fund will be managed by an independent endowment committee consisting of initial alumni contributors as well as the director and dean of alumni and external relations of the B-school in their ex-officio capacity.

IIM-A's BoG chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla said that the fund will play a "significant role in realizing the long-term goals of the institute and retain its autonomy". 

While its alumni have contributed in many ways to support the institute’s priorities; the endowment corpus will be "impactful" as it is expected to emerge as an important source to support key strategic initiatives and innovative projects, IIM-A director Errol D’Souza. "Such a critical funding support has been missing for most Indian educational institutions and we are happy to create a benchmark."

Apart from Bikhchandani and Kalra, Sandeep Singhal & Kavita Iyer, Co-Founder of WestBridge Capital and formerly co-founder of Sequoia Capital India and trustees of SIFF (1999 batch); Ramesh Mangaleswaran & Meenakshi Ramesh, senior partner at McKinsey & Company and co-founder of Citizen Matters, respectively (1993); Kuldeep Jain founder Cleanmax Enviro Energy Solutions (1999); VT Bharadwaj, co-founder, A91 Partners (2001); Peeyush Misra, partner, Growth Source Financial Technologies (1999) and GV Ravishankar, managing director, Sequoia Capital India (2004) have committed to contribute more than Rs 10 crore each.

Other significant contributors who have committed to more than Rs 5 crore are Arun Duggal, chairman, ICRA (1974 batch) and SK Jain, co-founder of WestBridge Capital and formerly Sequoia Capital India (2000).

The fund's structure has been kept transparent in order to help the B-school engage more actively with its alumni, thereby helping the latter participate meaningfully in shaping IIM-A's future, said its dean of alumni and external relations Rakesh Basant. "This will also help the institute deliver greater value through contemporary, high quality teaching and research."

Since its inception in 1961, IIMA has seen over 33,000 alumni working across India Inc., contributing significantly across corporates, fields of entrepreneurship, academia, public policy and service. The B-school claims to have one in seven CEOs with a management degree from IIM-A, apart from the highest number of alumni in CEO/CXO-level roles in India’s top-500 companies.  

       Pointers:

• Initial commitment of Rs 100 crore
• Aim to raise Rs 1000 crore in five years
• To be managed by independent committee including alumni, director
• Aimed at impacting education, entrepreneurial leadership, management practice, public policy
• At least 8 alumni commit more than Rs 10 crore each