Robust financial markets play a crucial role in supporting private-sector-led growth, job creation, financial security, and the sustainable funding of national development priorities. Through two flagship training programs, we work with governments and the World Bank Group to train, inform, and empower the next generation of financial policymakers and public-sector fund managers who can effectively drive financial market reforms and foster shared prosperity for all.

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continue to be overlooked as a source for quality talent in the investment industry, despite a decades-long history of producing global leaders in financial services.

To help connect resources to talent and as a continued commitment to expanding opportunity within the business community, the Milken Institute launched the HBCU Fellows Program for sophomore undergraduate students in early 2023. The program offers an eight-course curriculum, in partnership with premier finance education platform ViableEDU, allowing Fellows to build their knowledge of finance while also gaining access to professional development opportunities, including in-person networking events and exclusive conversations with the Milken Institute's network of leaders in the financial industry.

What Our Program Is Designed to Do

• RECRUIT and support a pool of academically competitive students from select HBCUs and direct them toward internships and careers at top-tier asset management firms;

• PROVIDE tailored training to each cohort of students to develop the knowledge and professional skills needed for careers in asset management; and

• CONNECT each cohort of students with the broader network of program alumni, established asset management professionals, and the Institute's experts to build the next generation of competitive and successful industry leaders.

The Milken-Motsepe Innovation Prize Program is a bold partnership between the Milken Institute and the Motsepe Foundation to advance technological innovations that address the world’s most pressing challenges. Through a series of multiyear, multimillion-dollar innovation awards and competitions, the program mobilizes global innovators to develop and deploy technology-driven solutions that drive meaningful, scalable change, with a focus on advancing opportunity and resilience across emerging markets.

Each prize targets a critical issue—from off-grid energy access to financial inclusion for small-to-medium enterprises—and offers $2 million in unrestricted funding, expert mentorship, and high-level networking and pitching opportunities with senior investors. 

The program’s investment in human capital has supported job creation and inclusive economic growth, benefiting more than 1 million individuals, businesses, and entire communities to date. By crowdsourcing novel solutions to specifically defined problems, Milken-Motsepe Prizes foster creativity across sectors and nurture an ever-growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs who are better equipped to scale and create a more resilient, equitable, and thriving world.

Navigate to the Program website.

Increasingly, donors see themselves as investors, looking   to ensure their capital and other resources at their disposal are delivering a positive, long-term impact. The Philanthropic Investors Forum is held in conjunction with the Milken Institute’s flagship events, bringing key philanthropic leaders together to learn from and with each other about how to make strategic investments that galvanize progress.

Benefits of the Philanthropic Investors Forum

• Peer-to-peer learning and exchange with principals and heads of institutional and corporate philanthropies 

• Candid conversations with changemakers and thought leaders 

• Roundtable discussions focused on emerging trends, innovation, and system change

Feeding Change elevates Food Is Medicine (FIM) interventions to treat and prevent food insecurity and diet-related chronic disease, with an equity lens.

Feeding Change mobilizes global partnerships to address food systems as a climate issue through sustainable agriculture, food resiliency, and climate financing.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been called the silent pandemic. FasterCures seeks to encourage the development of new antibiotics by promoting policies that could incentivize drug developers, investigate ways to bring more private capital into the space, and highlight emerging approaches to treating bacterial infections beyond antibiotics.

Despite unprecedented advances in medical science that enabled the development of novel COVID-19 vaccines and therapies at record speed, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep deficiencies in our ability to detect, prevent, and respond to global health threats. FasterCures has sought to bring together global health leaders and experts to advance a vision for a coordinated global early warning system to address a key gap in current global disease surveillance efforts.

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide. Recent technological advancements in the field of cancer, such as the emergence of multi-cancer early detection tests, have the potential to change not only cancer care but also the areas in which research is conducted in the future.

FasterCures seeks to amplify new approaches and developments affecting the field of oncology and address barriers to their innovation.

Cell and gene therapies are transforming how we can treat and potentially cure disease. In response to a rapidly growing pipeline and the hope these therapies offer, FasterCures convenes roundtables and discussions to bring to light the unique regulatory and access considerations posed by cell and gene therapies.