SUCCESSFUL FIRST COLLECTIVE DONATION BY ESADE ALUMNI

The LIC&MBA class of 88 has set up the first perpetual scholarship at ESADE for students who are academically excellent but lack financial resources.

For some time now ESADE has been making strenuous efforts to increase the significance of private contributions to its financial structure. This financing model is widely used at the world’s leading schools and helps to drive an institution’s future projects including attracting talent by means of a structured programme of scholarships. ESADE is currently seeking to foster a culture of support for the institution, and the Lic&MBA class of 88 scholarship forms part of that.

GROUP SUPPORT FOR TALENT

A school such as ESADE needs to drive the development of talent and should be able to attract young people who want to learn, innovate and make progress irrespective of their financial resources.

This support has been expressed through mobilising the class, with all members who wished to take part making a financial contribution which has gone towards setting up a scholarship bearing the class’s name: the Class of 88 Scholarship.

In addition the initiative also has a big social component. “We are committed to the progress of the country and to the role which an institution like ESADE can play to help companies and organisations in general to get better,” says Joa¬quín Acha (Lic&MBA 88), another of the people behind the project. “We are entrepreneurs and we want to give the chance to others to become the same.”

Another of the reasons for this pioneering scholarship is to keep up links with ESADE. “It’s about going back the beginning, getting together with your classmates and pulling them together behind a shared goal,” says Xavier Vidal (Lic&MBA 88), who has also helped to get the scholarship off the ground.

ENDOWMENT: LEAVING A LEGACY WHICH LASTS FOR EVER 

The contributions of the alumni have been used to set up an endowment fund which makes it possible to pay half the enrolment of a student on the Bachelor of Business Administration programme. The idea is that this fund will give a return every year which is equivalent to the tuition fees of one or more students, thus meaning that the scholarship can be awarded in perpetuity.
To set it up class members came up with the idea of making a contribution of €1,000 per person.

GREAT RESPONSE

As the people behind the project point out, “the great thing was getting 25% of our class to come on board”. This is a considerable achievement given that the average alumni participation rate for donations in the US comes to 12%.  

THE FUTURE; LIC&MBA CLASS OF 88 AS TRAILBLAZERS

The initiative also seeks to become a model for other classes to copy and achieve follow through in the future. Indeed, other groups of alumni are already starting up their own talent scholarship projects.  

Cecilia Chang

“As a member of ESADE Alumni it is both a privilege and a responsibility to be able to help the Lic&MBA class of 88 to set up a scholarship.”

Elena Puncernau

“One donation on its own may not seem much, but put them all together for this scholarship and you have a great success story.”

Santiago Font

“A number of things coming together have made the project into a success, with the incentive and commitment of giving back to our society some of that talent that it has given us.”