New York, NY, USA, March 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Nasdaq Foundation has awarded a grant to Shared Interest, the leading non-profit guarantee fund dedicated to providing Black women entrepreneurs and other small- and medium-sized enterprises with access to the financing, markets, and skills they need to build wealth and drive prosperity for their communities in Southern Africa. The grant will empower Black students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to be tomorrow’s leaders of social impact and ESG investing and entrepreneurship in the US and Southern Africa.
“This funding allows us to work meaningfully with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, of which I am a proud alum, to expose students of HBCUs to the world of social impact investing and ESG investing,” stated Ann McMikel, Executive Director of Shared Interest. “We are really excited about this initiative, which we are looking to pilot with five HBCUs this year. If we can arm students who have a real interest in entrepreneurship and in driving sustainable and inclusive investments in their communities, we can help the next generation to be leaders in racial, gender and economic justice through this powerful form of investing in our communities.”
“Shared Interest has a long history of advancing inclusive economic growth through programs designed to have a lasting impact on the communities they serve,” said Jailan Griffiths, Nasdaq’s Global Head of Purpose and President of the Nasdaq Foundation. “We are proud to welcome Shared Interest to the Nasdaq Foundation community as we continue toward our mission of reimagining investor engagement and diversifying entrepreneurship.”
Shared Interest will create a 10-session workshop series that provides HBCU students with an introduction to the history and fundamentals of ESG, socially responsible investing, and impact investing. Students will identify how values interact with financial goals and learn how to express their priority issues through a balanced investment portfolio, discussing products and resources available to individual investors.
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About Shared Interest
Shared Interest was established in 1994 by Founder Donna Katzin along with other U.S. anti-apartheid activists and socially responsible investors with an unwavering passion for advancing human rights and economic justice in South Africa. It was created as a catalytic vehicle for US investors to invest in the “new democracy” that was forming by helping to unlock local capital and other resources for Black women entrepreneurs and other small- and medium-sized businesses to scale and grow.
The core mission of the organization is to facilitate guarantees that catalyze South Africa’s own banks to lend to Black entrepreneurs, farmers, and microfinance institutions, thereby creating inclusive and sustainable solutions to address the region’s growing economic inequality, and to achieve long-term growth and impact in the key development sectors of agriculture, climate change, women’s entrepreneurship, fintech and social enterprises.
Over the past 29 years the Shared Interest nonprofit guarantee fund has provided $34 million in loan guarantees, that has unlocked more than $131 million in local capital for Black businesses, and ultimately benefitted more than 2 million economically disenfranchised Southern Africans. Building on its strong track record of social impact and economic development in South Africa, Shared Interest recently implemented a new business model and expanded to other Southern African countries, including Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia.
About the Nasdaq Foundation
Relaunched in 2020, the Nasdaq Foundation’s mission is to equip under-represented communities with the financial knowledge to build a prosperous future and participate in an ecosystem that supports and sustains their growth. To learn more visit www.nasdaq.com/nasdaq-foundation .
