The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge

Application Deadline: February 20, 2018 11:59PM CT.

The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge harnesses the power of capital markets and student creativity to create positive impact in a world of perpetual resource scarcity and continued population growth. Every year, the Kellogg School of Management and Morgan Stanley partner to host the challenge where teams of graduate students from around the globe develop and pitch creative financial approaches to tackle our world’s most pressing challenges.

The Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge seeks to identify outstanding proposals offering novel investment strategies to meet some of the most pressing global challenges ahead. As the world’s population approaches 9 billion people by the year 2050, the challenge of meeting human demand for scarce global resources will intensify. Finance has a key role to play in meeting this challenge. Moreover, an increasing number of institutional investors are seeking sustainable investment opportunities for their portfolios.

Specifically, these investors seek to identify investment strategies that can meet the financial needs of their organizations by investing in funds, investment vehicles, or direct investments that are consistent with the principles of sustainability and impact. Teams are encouraged to think beyond social enterprises, venture capital fund vehicles and strategies.This competition requires you to propose and defend a sustainable impact investment strategy that uses finance and investment tools to create an innovative solution to an environmental or societal challenge. Integral to this competition are first, that you are creating a financial vehicle, and second, that your financial vehicle will have social impact.

Institutions seeking investments may include but are not limited to:

• University Endowments
• Retirement and Pension Funds
• Family Foundations
• Family Offices

The proposal must be a fit for an institutional investor who is seeking:

• Both competitive returns and positive social and/or environmental impact
• Risk management that is commensurate with the target returns
• Transparent performance metrics for both the financial and social return
• • Private equity/venture capital
  • Real assets
  • Public equities
  • Fixed income securities
  • Microfinance lending and investingClear linkage between program outcomes and social impactThe institutions are open to multiple asset classes, including but not limited to:

Eligibility

• Graduate students from around the world are invited to participate in the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge.
• Teams are limited to a maximum of four members, all of whom must be enrolled in a graduate program at the time of the prospectus submission, and the team cannot include more than one member who is pursuing an Executive MBA.
• A team may include members from different graduate schools.
• All ideas must be the original ideas of the team members.
• Each team is required to submit a two-page prospectus outlining their proposal.
• From the submitted prospectuses, ten teams will be selected to present at the finals competition.
• At least one team member should be available to present at the finals competition, if the team is chosen to advance to that round, and all team members attending the finals competition should plan to stay for the entire event.
• Please note that any team member not in attendance at the finals competition will not share in any prizes awarded to that team.

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Deliverables

Entry Submission Requirements

Two-page prospectuses must be submitted by February 20, 2018 11:59PM CT. The prospectus should outline a unique sustainable investment strategy. The selection committee is familiar with the broad area of sustainable investing, so avoid overemphasizing general observations about this section of the market. A list of required elements is below. See our 2012 webinar series here. Take special note of two short videos entitled “Why You Should Participate” and “Expectations for Your Prospectus.” The judging criteria used in this round is the same as that used in the final competition. Ten finalist teams will be announced by March 12, 2018. These teams will be flown to London and will be provided with two nights of lodging, and are expected to present their proposal at the finals competition on April 13, 2018.

Prospectus Required Elements

• Investment thesis
• Target geography
• Size of addressable market
• Estimate of scalability
• Assumptions
• Risk factors
• Diagram of fund or instrument
• Asset class and capital structure
• Fees and incentives
• Target investor pool(s)
• Fund size
• Investment size and investment criteria
• Due diligence process
• Returns and cash flows (If instrument requires concessionary returns, proposed migration path to achieving market rate returns)
• Time horizon
• Environmental or social impact
• Metrics for social impact

Student Prospectus Submission

Please click on “Submit a Prospectus” to submit your two page prospectus. Remove all identifying student name and school information from the prospectus before submission.

Finals Competition

• The ten teams selected from the previous round will convene on April 13, 2018 at Morgan Stanley in London for a day-long competition.
• Each team will have 10 minutes to present its pitch to a panel of judges and will be expected to answer 10 minutes of questions from the selection panel.
• Presentation suggestions are provided below.
• The selection panel will be composed of experienced institutional investors and officers of foundation funds and endowments, as well as other professionals in the field. The same selection criteria will be used in the first and second rounds of competition.

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable investing Challenge 2018