Shivi Sharma, a student of business at Northeastern University in Boston, has always had a keen interest in social and environmental causes. However, her interests changed after enrolling in a program that offered real-life experience with handling finances. The NUImpact Fund is one such program that deploys students to review early-stage local businesses committed to social missions and makes investments of up to $50,000 per semester from donor funds. The portfolio includes socially conscious ventures such as EatWell, which focuses on providing healthy food to underprivileged families in Boston, and TRILLFIT, a marginalized groups-oriented fitness studio.
The trend of business schools encouraging students to manage funds themselves is not new, with projects like the Lafayette College student fund dating back to 1946. However, the number of student-managed funds with a focus on social impact investing has grown significantly in recent years. The SIILK Network, which tracks and supports such student projects, has identified over 40 funds, with the investments mainly originating from individuals or taken from the university endowment.
Georges Dyer, the Executive Director of the SIILK Network, notes that experiential learning is crucial for students and says, “We see demand from industry for talent that has exposure to sustainability and traditional investment techniques. A student-managed fund is one way to get that.” The funds come with different strategies, with Carlson School of Management’s David S. Kidwell Enterprises, with $47 million in capital, being one of the largest.
Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley launched its own student-managed socially responsible investment fund in 2008 and added a private equity impact investing unit to its public markets division in 2019. Katherine Baird, the Associate Director for Sustainability, believes that student-managed funds are becoming a core part of education, with careful asset allocation and understanding of risk leading to returns equivalent to or better than market returns.
However, Lloyd Kurtz, Senior Portfolio Manager for Wealth and Investment Management at Wells Fargo, remains cautious towards student-managed funds. He believes that due to vanity projects, students do not study the basics of investing or delve deep enough into the complexities of the world. Nevertheless, to better train students and reward their ideas, competitions like the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge offer students a platform to pitch their ideas on how capital markets can address social or environmental challenges. This year’s winner, a crop insurance project for smallholders presented by students from Gulu University’s Faculty of Agriculture and Environment in Uganda, won $10,000.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
