What is the IMD Giving Day for Scholarships?

IMD Giving Day is an annual, time-limited, online fundraising event starting at 8:00 CEST on 21 October 2025 and ending at 20:00 CEST 22 October 2025. IMD Giving Day focuses on generating donations for scholarship support. By donating, and encouraging others to do so, you can help ensure that IMD continues to attract and retain the brightest students from all backgrounds, no matter what their financial situation might be. Play your part in maintaining diverse classrooms for a better, more inclusive, future through IMD Giving Day.

Why get involved?

In today’s fragmented world, prospective students are questioning whether it’s the right time to pursue a business degree. They face negative discourse on diversity and inclusion, public distrust of higher education, currency volatility, and increasingly restrictive visa and loan policies. The IMD community is fully aware of these challenges, and scholarship support is one of the many ways we meet the needs of our future leaders.

By participating each year in IMD Giving Day, donations of all sizes are consolidated to form transformative scholarship opportunities. To add a bit of momentum, IMD and special donors arrange fundraising challenges during the IMD Giving Day campaign that unlock larger contributions or matching gifts. It’s all meant to have a bit of fun and friendly competition while doing something good!

How do I get involved?

All you have to do is give via this page before or during the 36-hours of IMD Giving Day. All gifts donated during this period will be counted in the summary total.

You can also help spread the word by signing up to become an Ambassador. When your classmates and friends hear about the value of IMD Giving Day directly from you, they are more likely to give.

Don’t forget that you can also sign-up at any point before, or during, IMD Giving Day to share content to inspire others to get involved. Follow #MakeItRealTogether and #IMDGivingDay on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Why is my payment not going through?

Please check that you have included your postcode in both the address field and the card details field of the gift form. If there is still a problem, you may have to contact your card provider and inform them that the payment is valid. For any queries, please contact us at GivingDay@imd.org.

Where will the funds go?

Your gift will go to the IMD Scholarship Foundation. The IMD Scholarship Foundation exists to support talented, prospective students who wish to reach their leadership potential and contribute to society. It is a Swiss, public interest non-profit. This means that donations may therefore be tax deductible depending on the amount, method of donation, and your tax residency. You will receive a gift receipt for your personal filing purposes.

If you donate to a particular scholarship “cause,” your gift will be earmarked for scholarships pertaining to that cause. Please note that contributions to the “Women in Business” cause can be applied to scholarships for any program, for qualifying applicants. Contributions to the “Unrestricted” cause can be used for any program and for any qualified applicant. Both causes can be combined with other funding sources.

Can anyone participate in Giving Day?

Absolutely. Support from everyone in the IMD community and beyond makes a real difference.

Can I see my gift on this website?

You have a choice to donate anonymously, or to leave your name and/or a brief message on the Donor Wall.

Why is there a minimum donation amount this Giving Day?

Yes, the minimum donation is CHF 5. The goal of IMD Giving Day is to encourage as many people to donate as possible. That’s why you have the choice to select the amount that you are most comfortable with.

Please note that there are transaction fees associated with processing online payments. The minimum threshold of CHF 5 ensures that the cost of processing donations doesn't outweigh their impact.

If you would like to arrange a different form of donation, or discuss your long-term philanthropic objectives at IMD, please write to givingday@imd.org so that we can schedule a call.

Can I give in my local currency?

Yes! You can donate in the currency of your choice. The online payment provider will automatically convert the amount into CHF.

I’m not big on social media, so how else can I share?

There are so many ways to get involved!

• You can sign up to become an “Ambassador” and gain access to materials that you can use to email or message your classmates and friends privately.
• You can arrange your own private dinners or events with classmates and alumni, mentioning the importance of scholarships and Giving Day to guests.
• If you are celebrating a milestone, you can suggest to your loved ones to donate to scholarships in lieu of receiving gifts.
• Finally, if you are not active on social media, but you do not mind sharing your name and image, we would be thrilled to share your testimony, image, and name to post on IMD’s own social media channels during the 36-hour period. Email us at GivingDay@imd.org and we’ll help you out.

Is my payment secure?

Yes. All payments through the IMD Giving Day website will be securely processed by Stripe.

Is there another way to give during IMD Giving Day, other than online?

Yes, you can contact us at GivingDay@imd.org or call at +41 21 618 0466. We’ll be delighted to help you make your gift.

What is the Ambassador page for?

The Ambassador page gives you access to good-looking images, insider information, and key messages for your own use. It makes it easier to spread the word about the campaign!

Use the quick one-step sign up, and you’ll be good to go!

I’ve signed up to be an Ambassador but haven't received anything yet

Once you've signed up on the platform to be an Ambassador, please verify your email address. Once you have done this, you will receive all relevant information. If you do not have an email verification request in your inbox, please check your Junk folder.

When I share the URL "givingday.imd.org" on social media, I see information related to the previous Giving Days. Can this be fixed?

For those who may have previously shared the raw givingday.imd.org URL, you might see images or descriptions related to past Giving Days when sharing on social media.

Please use the following URLs and instructions to ask the social media site to refresh their cached information for that URL.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/post-inspector/
• Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/
• X: All you need to do is add a "#" to the end of the URL e.g. https://givingday.imd.org/#

I set up a recurring payment, what will show in the totaliser?

Thank you so much for making a recurring gift for scholarships!

Only the payment taken on IMD Giving Day will show up in the IMD Giving Day total amount. The future payments that you have scheduled will be recorded as donations outside of the Giving Day campaign window.

I still have questions. How can I get in touch?

Feel free to email us at GivingDay@imd.org.