Student Freedom Initiative Partners With New Investment Fund to Raise the Capital of HBCUs

By: Student Freedom Initiative via Business Wire

June 06, 2023 at 09:00 AM EDT

The historic fund launches a $10.35M growth fund for participating HBCUs

The Historic Fund, a recently endowed educational venture capital fund, launched a $10.35 million investment rubric to support the growth of the endowments of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Mark Brown, executive director of the Student Freedom Initiative, stated: “We are grateful for our collaboration with the Historic Fund because our mission is to close the wealth gap in America through the lens of education. The endowments of HBCUs are significantly lower than that of other universities that may not have faced similar historical biases. We added up the endowments of 70 percent of the HBCUs and still did not have a total greater than the smallest endowment of our nation’s Ivy League schools. We know there are systemic reasons for this wealth gap, and the Historic Fund is aptly named and focused on helping bridge this gap.”

The Historic Fund is a unique philanthropic initiative that invites selected HBCUs to be limited partners without investing their own assets. Instead, the fund has initially raised capital from partners of nine participating venture capitalist funds: Acrew Capital, B Capital, Cowboy Ventures, First Round Capital, FirstMark Capital, Foundry, General Catalyst, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Each participating funder raised the capital to invest in this unique initiative, and each participating HBCU will receive roughly $1.35 million.

The fund's goal is to foster stronger, more diverse relationships at the collegiate level by partnering with HBCUs. The Student Freedom Initiative will cultivate those relationships and provide individual school-level support. The Student Freedom Initiative has policy expertise, programming, grant writing and data to implement initiatives, like the Historic Fund, for economic growth and long-term social justice impact.

The Historic Fund will support a variety of under-represented fund managers through its stake in First Close Partners, a venture fund with the mission of making venture capital more inclusive through investments led by underrepresented managers. The participating HBCUs will function as traditional limited partners in a venture capital fund and will be free to use the returns as they wish. This experience also exposes students–and the schools–to the world and business of venture capital. Students will gain an understanding of what it takes to be an investor, a career path that traditionally lacks people of color.

The inaugural cohort of HBCUs includes Benedict College, Bennett College, Fisk University, Florida A&M University, Hampton University, Morehouse College, Tougaloo College, Virginia State University, Virginia Union University and Xavier University of Louisiana. These colleges were chosen because of their track record of producing talent and their commitment to students beyond graduation.

About Student Freedom Initiative

A single-purpose nonprofit organization, Student Freedom Initiative aims to reduce the wealth gap through the lens of education. A student-centric, evidence-based, holistic and collaborative approach acts as the catalyst for freedom in professional and life choices for students attending Minority Serving Institutions (“MSIs”), increasing students’ social and economic mobility. Initially focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Student Freedom Initiative enables mobility through four transformational components: (1) Student Freedom Fund as a private education loan alternative to Parent PLUS loans; (2) internships and industry-driven certifications; (3) comprehensive supports; and (4) targeted MSI capacity building (e.g., access to affordable broadband, strengthening endowment governance and risk adjusted returns, workforce development in clean energy). Student Freedom Initiative collaborates with community-based organizations, businesses and governmental entities through public-private partnerships to make sustainable, systemic changes to support the entire MSI ecosystem.

To date, the Student Freedom Initiative has received generous contributions from Robert F. Smith, Fund 2 Foundation, Cisco, Jane Street, Prudential, First Republic and the Walmart Foundation. The program has also been acknowledged and supported by the Business Roundtable’s Racial Equity & Justice Subcommittee on Education. The ability to support MSI students is based on the donations of those who believe in the mission of Student Freedom Initiative.

To learn more, visit https://studentfreedominitiative.org, follow along on Twitter @StudentFreedom or visit https://studentfreedominitiative.org.

For more information about this release, please contact Ianta Summers Ianta@summerspublicaffairs.com.