Being generous is en vogue at Georgetown McDonough.
During the spring semester, the McDonough Net Impact Club launched a fundraising campaign for the Social Impact Internship Fund (SIIF). The student group urged MBAs to donate around 0.5 percent of their summer internship pay to benefit their peers pursuing social impact internships.
A few months later and the results are in. According to McDonough, more than half (152 students) of the full-time MBA class had pledged their pay to support SIIF by the end of the 2016-17 academic year.
SIIF is managed by the Net Impact club, providing stipends to McDonough students with low or non-paying social impact internships, contributing more than $300,000 in scholarships and stipends to MBAs working at organizations such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a self-sustaining U.S. government agency that helps American businesses invest in emerging markets; and Kiva, a San Francisco–based micro-finance nonprofit organization that helps low-income students and entrepreneurs earn financing.
A new release published by the McDonough School of Business explains how the stipends work:
“By awarding stipends, SIIF allows students to pursue the career paths of their choosing and reduces the financial burden associated with unpaid or low paying internships. SIIF also aims to help realize Georgetown McDonough’s mission of educating principled leaders who serve business and society as well as its Jesuit values such as women and men for others.”
“Stipends are awarded based on the merit of the internship organization and project, benefit to the student’s career goals, and financial need, among other criteria. Last summer, for example, SIIF recipient Adrienne Rettinger (MBA’17) worked at Alpha Mundi Impact Investing, where she developed a strategic plan for the firm’s board that led to the establishment of the AlphaMundi Foundation.”
All of the money raised by McDonough’s Net Impact chapter this year will benefit students taking internships in summer 2018.
You can read more about the Social Impact Internship Fund by visiting the Georgetown Net Impact Club website. Or, you can contact Georgetown faculty members Nathan Schwartz (nas85@georgetown.edu) or Kim Lam (kl696@georgetown.edu) for more information.