New Educational Opportunities for Impact Investing Professionals
by Ana LaRue
Increasing numbers of emerging business professionals are seeking careers in impact investing, trying to merge the gap between finance and sustainability, a trend that anyone working in the field should be proud of. Young professionals are increasingly concerned about doing something meaningful with their careers, including students in the financial and business fields.
The topic of educating emerging impact professionals is lively among popular forums and social media networks such as LinkedIn. This reflects the growing popularity of the sector and shows how eager young professionals are to prepare themselves for careers in impact investing.
BAs, MBAs and Masters programs have generally had a history of sending graduates into more traditional corporate careers; something a growing number of these graduates are becoming skeptical of. How can they be sure that their education will allow them to learn about investing for profit and social or environmental impact?
BAs, MBAs and Masters programs have generally had a history of sending graduates into more traditional corporate careers; something a growing number of these graduates are becoming skeptical of. How can they be sure that their education will allow them to learn about investing for profit and social or environmental impact?
At Maximpact we examined the opportunities available to aspiring professionals looking for a career at the intersection of sustainability and finance. Our list includes top business schools whose programs cater to the field of sustainability and impact investing:
- Stanford Center for Social Innovation: MBA program cultivating leaders who can solve the world’s toughest social and environmental problems through innovative solutions.
- Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship: A Master’s program at the Said Business School, University of Oxford which is fully committed to social entrepreneurship. The University also offers Oxford Impact Investing programme (not part of the Master’s programme) which focuses on developing the practical skills essential to yield maximum social, environmental, and financial results for its participants.
- London Business School – Sloan Fellowship: Business school providing skills and confidence to make an impact as global leaders.
- Fuqua School of Business at Duke University: Business school whose global program called The CASE i3 blends academics with practical knowledge of impact investing. The university also recently partnered with USAID to launch a social entrepreneurship accelerator focusing on global health (SEAD).
- Yale’s MBA and MEM (masters in environmental management): The program offers a joint degree that combines social enterprise and finance.
- The Social Enterprise Program at Columbia Business School: A program where students develop a perspective on how to apply business skills to social enterprise endeavors and align personal and professional values in careers that result in social benefits to a broader community.
- University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the Ross School of Business: Business program committed to creating a socially and environmentally sustainable society through the power of business.
- Cornell’s Johnson School of Business: Program which offers a variety of green business options for students, including an MBA in sustainable global enterprise (SGE).
- Presidio Institute in San Francisco: One of the first sustainability graduate schools offering graduate degree programs in sustainable management. The school has become a hub for sustainability innovation and impact, helping forge a new sector at the intersection of for-profit and for-benefit.
- School for social entrepreneurs: While not a business school, the program offers unique courses designed specifically for social entrepreneurs. The courses can be taken at various locations throughout the world.
Below are additional resources we found useful listing MBA programs in terms of their sustainability focus:
- Beyond grey pinstripes: A database informing prospective students about social, ethical and environmental impact management curricular programs. The database ranks schools that are providing training in social and environmental skills as part of business decision making.
- Bloomberg Business week MBA Rankings: An article listing top Business Schools according to their Sustainability focus.
Finally, we believe it is important that future graduates examine whether their chosen programs treat sustainability and social entrepreneurship as an integrated part of their business curriculum or as a complement to the traditional business tracts. These are important factors influencing one’s ability to receive deep and specific knowledge, merging investing for profit and social or environmental impact.
Feel free to share other educational opportunities in the comments.