Ayush Mansingh

Impact Investing for Economic Mobility

From corporate strategy to impact investing  

Pre-Fuqua, I worked at Cisco Systems, as a Strategy & Business Operations Manager for incubation units within Cisco, in areas including telehealth, Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Cloud Products. At Cisco, I focused on executing long-term strategy to bootstrap new business areas and supported multiple acquisitions.  

I joined Fuqua to transition into a more impactful role – and joined in no small part due to the CASE i3 program, which helped me learn more about impact investing and opened doors to the field. Post-Fuqua, I joined Social Finance, a national non-profit impact investing organization, where I structure, design, and manage impact investing funds in the economic mobility and education space.    

In my current role, I spend my days… 

Working across two of our very different impact-first funds. Our Google Career Certificates Fund is a $100M economic mobility fund aiming to upskill 20,000 learners, and I manage sourcing and structuring new training partner investments and manage the existing portfolio. Our Dreamers Graduate Loan Fund is a $75M fund focused on unlocking access to graduate school for Dreamers, where my focus is on fundraising and portfolio management.   

A recent impact highlight I am proud of

In 2021, we launched the Dreamers Graduate Loan Fund to unlock access to graduate school education for Dreamers with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival) or TPS (Temporary Protected Status) status. Despite living in the US most of their lives, Dreamers do not have access to any federal loan or aid programs, and in many states do not have access to in-state tuition. To level the playing field, our Fund provides loans to Dreamers with DACA or TPS status at similar rates to the federal direct PLUS loan program, the nation’s largest loan program. The program also eliminates key barriers to Dreamers, such as not requiring a minimum credit score or a co-signer, and collecting no additional fees. As of June 2024, we had supported over 220 Dreamers pursuing degrees in medicine, law, STEM, social work, and, of course, MBAs.  

A trend I am following in impact   

I am personally excited about skills-based hiring. There are millions of Americans that do not have college degrees, are stuck in low-wage, low-growth jobs, and do not have the ability to go back to complete 2– or 4-year degrees. Meanwhile, there are many high-wage, high-growth jobs that do not require a degree, but instead some skills-based training or certifications. Skills-based hiring could pave the way for more Americans without degrees to access quality jobs through short-term training, for a far lower cost than a 2 or 4-year degree.  

My tip for those pursuing a career in impact

A strong finance knowledge base is always important for impact investing, and there are many courses at Fuqua that can help you gain that.