Impact Capital Managers Announces 2023 Mosaic Fellows; Largest Cohort To Date
NEW YORK- April 19, 2023— Impact Capital Managers (ICM) is proud to announce the twenty winners of its annual Mosaic Fellowship, a highly competitive summer internship program placing first-year graduate students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in finance at ICM member funds to immerse themselves in the world of private capital impact investing. The program started in 2020 as the flagship initiative of ICM’s commitment to talent and diversity and now includes 46 alumni. This year’s cohort is the largest group of winners to date. The program is run through the ICM Institute - ICM’s affiliated organization - and made possible in part through generous grant support from Ford, Heron, MacArthur, W.K. Kellogg and Surdna Foundations, as well as the Rye Harbor Trust and individual donations.
While the impact investing ecosystem continues to grow and expand, opportunities to build the unique skills necessary to deliver real impact and competitive returns in the private market are hard to find, and barriers to entry can be high. The Mosaic Fellowship works to de-mystify this field and accelerate career paths by helping Fellows develop both skills and a strong professional network throughout the summer. This year’s program will start with a two-day orientation hosted by Goldman Sachs in New York City, attended by Fellows and industry-leading GPs and LPs. Over the following 10-weeks – in addition to immersion at their host funds across the country - Fellows are matched with a mentor from within the broader ICM network, participate in practical programming on impact measurement and management, and spend time onsite at fund portfolio companies to understand the reality of building and scaling an impact-driven company. The Mosaic Fellowship creates in-roads for exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds – 65% of this year’s cohort identifies as female and 70% identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color). The 2023 Fellows hail from a variety of geographies, from rural Georgia to Nigeria, and professional backgrounds, from former educators to nonprofit and start-up founders.
“As we track the trajectory of our alumni each year, we are excited to see so many former Fellows choose to grow their careers with a commitment to impact investing. To date, we have eight alumni working full-time at ICM funds, three running their own social enterprises, and a majority of others who have taken impact-focused roles within larger financial institutions,” said Annie Olszewski, Senior Director at ICM and programmatic lead for the Fellowship. “The scale of the social and environmental challenges the impact investing industry is looking to solve necessitates bringing together diverse perspectives and experiences. We see the Mosaic Fellowship as an essential on-ramp for these leaders.”
“Over the four years we have run this program, we have seen the number of applications grow each year, but the quality of the applicant pool keep pace with that growth. It’s a great sign for us - but also for the wider field - that extraordinary talent continues to be drawn to impact investing,” said ICM Executive Director Marieke Spence. “In this challenging market the need to back exceptional, diverse talent, at the fund and founder level, seems more important than ever. We congratulate all twenty of this year’s winners and look forward to seeing the amazing things they will accomplish this summer and beyond.”
About the Mosaic Fellowship: Mosaic Fellows spend 10-weeks contributing to and learning from substantive workstreams at their host funds. Focus areas include industry and field research, to due diligence, deal structuring, financial modeling, impact management, and portfolio acceleration. ICM’s Mosaic Curriculum Committee convenes all Fellows for four courses over the summer focused on quantitative skills, the evolution of impact investing, impact management and measurement, and career path advice, with all content delivered by funds’ senior leadership. In addition, ICM pairs each Fellow with a mentor outside their host fund to accelerate connections across the network and facilitates a Fellows-only weekly meeting to share experiences and support.
About Impact Capital Managers: Impact Capital Managers is a network of private capital fund managers investing for superior financial returns and meaningful impact, with a mission to accelerate the performance of its members and to scale the private capital impact investing market with integrity and authenticity. Membership is by invitation only. Today, the network includes 100+ funds collectively representing more than $60B in impact-focused capital. For more information, visit www.impactcapitalmanagers.com.
Contact: Marieke Spence, Executive Director, mspence@impactcapitalmanagers.com