Exxon Corp.'s Education Foundation recently made its annual Educational Matching Gift contribution to MIT -- a gift that this year topped $200,000.
Edward F. Ahnert, president of the foundation and manager of corporate contributions at Exxon, visited MIT on May 6 to deliver a check for $208,370.49 to Provost Joel Moses. "This is Exxon's way of reinforcing its commitment to higher education," Mr. Ahnert said.
Exxon's matching gift program, among the most generous in industry, provides a three-to-one match of contributions of Exxon employees, retirees, surviving spouses and directors to institutions of higher education with which they have an affiliation. This year's educational matching gift represents Exxon's match of 141 employee contributions to MIT.
Exxon in recent years has been the Institute's largest matching gift contributor, averaging upward of $200,000 annually -- more than double the next largest corporate matching gift contribution.
Last year, nearly 600 companies matched 4,555 gifts from more than 3,600 MIT alumni/ae donors. Corporate matching gifts totaled more than $1.7 million, representing approximately 7 percent of the MIT Alumni/ae Fund total.
Provost Moses noted how important these gifts are for MIT, providing support for core needs and programs of special interest to alumni/ae. "Today's students will appreciate that both individual alumni/ae and the Exxon Corp. want to help support their MIT education," he said.
Mr. Ahnert also delivered an Exxon check in support of the company's participation in MIT's new Consortium on Environmental Challenges.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 20, 1998.
