March 3, 2025, Cambridge, MA. The MIT Free Speech Alliance's Concerned Donors Fund has made its first grant, a grant of $5,000 to the
MIT Council on Academic Freedom (MITCAF). Founded in 2024, MITCAF is an organization of MIT faculty that is devoted to promoting and defending freedom of expression and academic freedom at the Institute. This grant will be available for the operations of the Council, such as arranging guest speakers, organizing panel discussions, operating a web site, and expenses for member meetings.
The Concerned Donors Fund exists as an alternative vehicle for donors who want to support MIT and who want to ensure that their charitable support goes directly to promote free expression at MIT. The fund is a donor-advised fund managed by DonorsTrust investment corporation. Donations to the fund are fully tax-deductible. Disbursements from the fund will be used to finance grants to support programs, projects, and personnel that advance the values of free expression, viewpoint diversity, academic freedom, and open scientific inquiry in the MIT community.
"The Concerned Donors Fund is an important complement to our work advocating for free expression in the MIT community, and we couldn't think of a more deserving recipient of the fund's first grant than the MIT Council on Academic Freedom," said MFSA President Wayne Stargardt '74. "We've long believed that MIT needs an independent voice to reassert the faculty's role in safeguarding free expression and academic freedom, and we're proud to put those convictions to work by supporting MITCAF."
The MFSA board of directors, through MFSA’s grant committee, solicits, reviews, and approves grant proposals from MIT-related organizations. Grants must be for the promotion of free speech and the exchange of ideas at MIT specifically. Donations may be of cash or of securities. Further details are available at the
Concerned Donors Fund website.
Contact: Peter Bonilla, MFSA Executive Director, peter@mitfreespeech.org.
The MIT Free Speech Alliance (MFSA) has over 1,100 members. Founded by MIT alumni in 2021 following the cancellation of Dorian Abbot’s Carlson Lecture. MFSA is a member of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, together with sister organizations at Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Virginia, among other institutions. MFSA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is independent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.