Ready-For-Finance: Powered by the Toigo Foundation
The Robert Toigo Foundation was founded in the late 1980s with a vision to directly address the lack of diversity within the finance industry. Our goal from the start has been to prompt the industry to open its doors to a workforce visibly more proportionate to the talent that exists globally and as diverse as the markets it serves.
The organization’s founders, Bob and Sue Toigo, felt that bringing diversity to the financial industry would, in turn, bring capital into under-served communities and foster economic enrichment. They viewed academic excellence coupled and professional integrity as the platform for grooming the nation’s brightest minority graduate students for promising careers in the financial services industry.
Their vision resounds with greater importance today. The Foundation’s programming addresses a range of issues facing the finance industry, from the need for more minority professionals to a continued commitment to ethical leadership. The Toigo Foundation promotes the value of a masters degree in business administration (MBA) to minority youth and supports its Fellows and Alumni throughout every phase of their finance careers with mentoring, leadership development and career services.
Reaching Undergrads & Young Professionals
In an effort to address the need for minority talent within the field of finance, Toigo’s outreach is extending to undergraduates and young professionals. The same focused approach on leadership, career skills and ethics is now being shared with undergraduates and young professionals as they launch their careers and consider an MBA as a possible next step.
The Foundation's ToigoTalks™ initiatives are aimed at educating and interesting undergraduates and young professionals about careers in finance and the value of an MBA. The goal of the outreach is to reach minority students early and expose them to the vast career opportunities that exist within the field of finance.
Through a combination of on-campus events, networking gatherings, and the Foundation's Ready-For-Finance website, Toigo will reach thousands of young African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, South-Asian Americans and Native Americans who might not otherwise have considered a career in finance. The ToigoTalks on-campus events are often organized in conjunction with the schools’ career services centers and focus on campuses that firms do not always recruit at, yet are “home” to highly sought-after minority talent.
Look for upcoming ToigoTalks initiatives focused on women in finance, a program entitled Elevar for Latino/Hispanic students, and other tailored programs to meet the needs of today’s young professionals and their families.