Your donation goes directly to a variety of MIT-led service projects from faculty, students, and staff who apply for a grant. The MIT Community Service Fund also supports local nonprofits with ties to the MIT community, such as hosting MIT volunteers, and the PKG Center’s Social Impact Interns who are doing work in the Cambridge/Boston area. In the last academic year (‘25-’26), the MIT Community Service Fund awarded grants for $131,578.

Service project grants went to nine service projects, including:

  • The New England Hong Kong Festival is an annual community event that promotes Hong Kong culture and heritage through music, art, food, and performance. The festival aims to build bridges between the Hong Kong diaspora and the broader Boston community, with a focus on cultural education and community engagement. They received funds for the event stage and performers.
  • MIT Concourse students are partnering with MPowerPeriod, a local nonprofit, to develop hands-on activities around the science of hormones and menstruation (MPowerment Labs) at the nonprofit’s Period Preparation Parties for young Cambridge kids. Their funding goes towards materials to support their programs (like workbooks, journals, activity stations, event flyers and signage, and menstrual kit supplies).
  • The Wallace Observatory Accessibility Project aims to improve access to MIT’s Wallace Astrophysical Observatory during its outreach programs with the purchase of an electronically assisted eyepiece that broadcasts the telescope view to a tablet. The system would be portable and usable at Wallace or with portable telescopes for on-the-road events. The project received funds to purchase several electronic teaching aids.
  • MIT Lincoln Laboratory staff volunteer with the Massachusetts Bay Division of the US Naval Sea Cadet Corps program offers high school students an opportunity to engage in STEM learning through the construction and operation of underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The CSF has been able to provide funding to go towards the robotics equipment (such as spare motors and battery packs).

The ten area nonprofits who have ties to the Institute, including hosting MIT volunteers, are:

  • Cambridge Math Circle
  • Cambridge School Volunteers
  • CASPAR, Inc.
  • Food For Free Committee, Inc.
  • Hildebrand Family Self-Help Center, Inc.
  • Just A Start
  • People Making a Difference through Community Service, Inc.
  • Read to a Child, Inc.
  • Science Club for Girls
  • Tutoring Plus of Cambridge, Inc.

Finally, the Community Service Fund supports the PKG Center’s Social Impact Interns who are working in our surrounding community. The grant from the last academic year supported eight summer interns and two during IAP.