Donor of the month: Stéphane Perrotto, EDHEC 1992, Silver Circle Donor

Discover the testimony of Stéphane Perrotto, who spoke to his former classmates during Campus Day in Lille on October 8, 2022. 

"If someone had told me 30 years ago that for the 30th anniversary of my graduation, the school administration would ask me to come to the podium to talk about scholarships, I must admit that I would not have believed it...

I hope that Ayman's touching testimony will have convinced you to help support these deserving young people. If not, I have the difficult task of convincing the most stubborn among you. But after these nice words, let's get down to business. Just one figure that Anne failed to mention: the Harvard Foundation manages a fund of over $30 billion. We have a lot of room to grow! 

I will try to convince you by helping you answer 3 questions, one philosophical and two practical: 

- Why give? 

- How much to give?

- How to give?

So why give?

Everybody asks himself this philosophical and existential question... And to talk about philosophy, I'm going to make my job easier and call upon a great thinker, who happens to be a local (he is from Boulogne) and who has been in the news recently since he announced that he was going to hang up his boots, a thinker who goes straight to the point (that will please Ayman) I want to talk about Franck Ribery of course As good old Franky wished, "I hope that the road will turn". Well, giving to EDHEC is giving back what we ourselves have received: giving the chance to young people, deserving but without means, not to give up their dream for the sake of means, it is allowing to give back to young people everything that life and EDHEC have given us. Otherwise, if you are a player, you can donate to deflate Jean-Paul and his class!

Once you know why you're giving, the thorny question of how much to give arises...

so let's face it, I'm not here to help you justify your "small arm" donation or congratulate you on your hedgehog wallet, we're going to hit the nail on the head. In principle, the right amount is yours, and to determine it, I'll give you a couple of tips: the first is to set an amount that starts to hurt you, to give, according to me, is to hurt yourself and theoretically, the older we get, the higher our pain tolerance threshold rises. So don't hesitate: grit your teeth, get out your checkbook and be strong! 

Once you've determined your pain threshold, you're not done yet. If, like me, you got into EDHEC then you can double this amount, normal... then three possibilities: 

- If you are subject to income tax: multiply this amount by 3 since your donation gives you a 66% tax reduction

- If you are a lucky person subject to the IFI: multiply by 4

- If you are a Belgian or Swiss tax resident: you get a flat rate of x10, which is a gift and makes you happy!

Then of course you will find on my Insta account the SuperCalc4 model I developed in 1990 to determine the amount to give. Don't hesitate to subscribe, to like, it will give a boost to my stuttering but nevertheless promising career as an Instagram influencer. You'll join the cohort of my 6 subscribers: my wife, my kids and a guy I don't know, who follows me by mistake and who, like me, doesn't know how to unfollow on Insta. 

Otherwise, in a much more useful and impactful way, you can run to Anne, Sabine and the whole fine team of the foundation. 

Which leads me to my 3rd question: how to give? 

So let's keep it simple, we'll take anything: cash, bank transfer, checks, Paypal, Lydia, crypto, restaurant tickets... we'll manage!

As you have understood, it's easy, it's fast and it's impacting! There is no need to hesitate anymore. 

So I don't know if I've put the last nail in the coffin of your hesitations, but if I've convinced even one of you to give or to increase the amount of your donation, or if I've planted one or more seeds that will germinate and lead you to give later, then I've won my evening. 

Thank you for your generosity and most importantly: thank you for them. 

Make an Impact ! No... : Make a spectacular impact !"

I make a donation in the name of my class!