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MIT 24-Hour Challenge FAQ

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Answers to many common questions about giving during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge are provided below. If, however, you find that your question is not addressed here, please contact us directly at annualgiving@mit.edu or 617-253-0129.

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Donor FAQ

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You can donate online by going to 24hourchallenge.mit.edu, choosing one or more microchallenges to support, and clicking “Give Now” to complete your donation. If you do not see a particular fund listed, you can donate on the MIT giving site and still be counted in the MIT 24-Hour Challenge.

If you’d like to donate via PayPal, please do so on giving.mit.edu.

Please call the MIT Office of Records at 617-253-8270 to make your credit card gift by phone on 3/13/2025 between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET.

Giving during the Challenge on March 13 enables you to join with thousands of Institute alumni, students, parents, and friends around the globe who believe in the MIT community’s efforts to make a better world. Together, these gifts will add up to make a positive, tangible impact on education, research, and innovation at the Institute—and aid our students, faculty, and staff as they work to solve society’s biggest challenges.

Your gifts to MIT are always appreciated—thank you for your generosity! On March 13, more than 40 MIT departments and groups will hold special microchallenges to help us reach our goal. And by giving on this day, you will be uniting with thousands of other MIT alumni, students, parents, and friends around the globe to support the MIT community’s efforts to make a better world.

You can make a gift at giving.mit.edu and provide information about your honoree.

For all non-credit card gifts, please notify the Office of the Recording Secretary at recsec@mit.edu. In your email, please include the type of gift that will be coming, the amount of the gift, how it should be designated, and note that you wish to have it counted in the Challenge. If you are sending a gift of stock or mutual funds, please also include the number of shares, ticker symbol, and the brokerage firm making the transfer. For gift instructions, including stock instructions, wire account information, or where to send a check, please visit https://giving.mit.edu/ways.

Yes. For donors who are 70½ or older, qualified charitable distributions for up to $108,000 per person per year from your IRAs may count towards your required minimum distribution and can be excluded from your taxable income. Please send an email to MIT’s Office of the Recording Secretary at recsec@mit.edu and the Office of Gift Planning at giftplanning@mit.edu to let them know of your intention and designation. We realize these gifts take a little longer to execute, and with this notice of your intention and desire to include it in the MIT 24-Hour Challenge, we are pleased to count it.

You can find more information about IRA QCDs here

 

The best way to ensure that your gift is counted during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge is to give online at 24hourchallenge.mit.edu or by calling 617-253-8270 between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET on March 13. You can also send a check to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PO Box 412926, Boston, MA 02241-2926. Please be sure to add a note to the memo section indicating that it is an MIT 24-Hour Challenge gift. Only checks received and processed, or designated to be processed, on March 13 will be counted in the Challenge.

Yes! Please note, though: If the gift is not made directly on the Challenge website at 24hourchallenge.mit.edu, there may be a delay in your gift being added to the leaderboard of donors—but please know that it will be counted in the final tally!

You can find a list of the current microchallenges here.

Yes! You can make a gift in support of two or more microchallenges. When visiting the giving form, you can specify multiple designations by selecting the “Add another gift to your donation” button in the bottom left when you are entering the details of your gift. After choosing to make an additional gift, you will get to choose another microchallenge designation. You may do this as many times as you wish. Please note: No matter how many microchallenges you support—thank you!—you will count toward the overall Challenge goal as one unique donor.

Yes! Please visit giving.mit.edu and search for the fund you wish to designate your support to and make your gift there. (You can also call us at 617-253-8270 to make your credit card gift by phone on 3/13/2025 between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET.) Your gift will still be counted in the overall MIT 24-Hour Challenge goal if it is given on March 13. Please note that there may be a delay in your gift being added to leaderboards, but know that it will be counted in the final tally.

As the MIT 24-Hour Challenge HQ is in Cambridge, the timeline for giving is between midnight and 11:59 p.m. ET. Please be sure to make your gift during this period and your gift will count! You can also email recsec@mit.edu before March 13 to check if your gift can be counted that day.

Yes! Please call the Office of Records at 617-253-8270 to make a credit card gift over the phone and ask that it be processed on March 13, 2025, to count toward the Challenge. You may also send a check now to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PO Box 412926, Boston, MA 02241-2926. Please be sure to add a note to the memo section indicating that it is an MIT 24-Hour Challenge gift. Thank you!

Thank you for considering making a recurring gift, which offers you a convenient way to set up regular contributions to MIT. To set up a new monthly or annual recurring gift and have it counted toward the MIT 24-Hour Challenge, visit giving.mit.edu BEFORE March 1, 2025. Any monthly or annual recurring gift set up with payments falling on March 1 or March 15 will be counted. MIT will take care of the rest.

Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that we will receive your gift through those channels by March 13. We encourage you to make a gift of any amount on March 13, 2025, at 24hourchallenge.mit.edu, in order to have your participation counted. Gifts made through employer portals or other third-party platforms may take as long as three (3) months before arriving at MIT, depending on their disbursement practices.

Thank you for your support of the MIT community. Unfortunately, pledges WILL NOT count toward the MIT 24-Hour Challenge. While we are greatly appreciative of those who wish to make a pledge, only gift transactions made between midnight and 11:59 p.m. ET on March 13 will count toward the micro- and overall challenges.

Yes, you can make your pledge payment on our giving site at giving.mit.edu or call us at 617-253-8270 so we can help you.

Thank you for your past support! Yes, all alumni, students, parents, and friends who have already given in this fiscal year may make another gift to the MIT community on March 13 and it will count toward the Challenge.

Congratulations on your reunion milestone—and yes, your gift to any fund at MIT during the MIT 24-Hour Challenge will count toward your reunion class gift.

Travel mugs will ship in four to six weeks following the MIT 24-Hour Challenge. One mug per donor for gifts of $314 or more.

No, you have the option to not display your name when you give during the Challenge. Alternatively, you can also choose not to display your gift amount but have your name listed on the Donor Wall—it’s up to you! Please note: The default is to list both your name and your gift amount, so be sure to select the option that works best for you.

MIT Annual Giving is partnering with Mightycause to offer the MIT community—alumni, students, parents, and friends—a place to celebrate the Institute on March 13, 2025, by participating in the MIT 24-Hour Challenge. Mightycause is an online fundraising platform used by nonprofit organizations and individuals to raise money for charitable and personal causes.

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Ambassador FAQ

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24-Hour Challenge Ambassadors spread the word about the 24-Hour Challenge through their personal networks leading up-to and on the day of the 24-Hour Challenge on 3/13. Ambassadors can promote specific microchallenges for the causes they are most passionate about, and obtain custom links to track their personal fundraising progress. Ambassadors have access to a special toolkit with a training video, steps for success, outreach templates, and promotional images. 

Thanks for serving as a Challenge Ambassador! Please visit the MIT 24-Hour Challenge home page and look for “Get Involved” in the upper-left corner of the web page. You can also click the 'Learn More' button within the 'Spread the Word' box further down on the homepage. Both of these links will take you to a landing page with a brief description about the Ambassador role. Click the 'Become an Ambassador' button and you will be prompted to log in through the Infinite Connection, Google, or another email (Infinite Connection is preferred). If you are logging in using the same email that you've used in the past as an Ambassador, you will be able to see a record of your past microchallenge progress on your Ambassador Report. 

You can access your Ambassador Report by being logged in to the same account that you used to sign up as an Ambassador. You will then have the option to click on your name in the top right corner of your screen, and click the 'Ambassador Report' option. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can view this short Ambassador training video

To add a new microchallenge to your Ambassador Report page, visit the microchallenge's webpage, and click 'share'>'copy link'. The microchallenge will now appear on your Ambassador Report

Under the 'metrics for shared causes' section of your Ambassador Report, find the microchallenge that says 'My Giving Profile' and click the 'Share'>'Copy Link' buttons. This link will take donors to your Ambassador cause page. 

To edit your Ambassador cause page and add microchallenges, click the 'edit profile' button at the top of your Ambassador report. For a detailed walkthrough of how to build and share your cause page, read through step 1. of your Ambassador Toolkit titled 'Build and publish your Ambassador Giving Profile', and/or view this short Ambassador training video

If you would like to share a link to only one microchallenge page, click the 'share' button next to the microchallenge name under the 'metrics for shared causes' section. Alternatively, you can click the 'share' button directly from any of the microchallenge pages. 

You will be able to see the cumulative number of dollars and donors you have raised during your whole tenure as a 24-Hour Challenge Ambassador (not just this year) at the top of your Ambassador report. Under 'metrics for shared causes', you can see the donors and dollars raised for each specific microchallenge (for all years you've promoted those causes as an Ambassador, not just this year). These totals will not include individual donor information.

You can see which individuals are making gifts throughout the day by viewing the donor wall on the 24-Hour Challenge homepage. When a gift is made on the MIT 24-Hour Challenge website, the name of the donor will be visible on the Donor Wall if they choose to display their name. However, we will also be uploading gifts coming in from various other sources throughout the day; therefore, there may not be a comprehensive list of all donors until the end of the day.

For a more detailed walkthrough of these features, you can view this short Ambassador training video.

Yes—thank you for sharing information about the Challenge! Please feel free to share the link along with Challenge content as much as you want on March 13. And remember: Your custom link enables you to track how many donors have made gifts thanks to your awareness efforts.

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