Select Page
About Us
Team

Research and Insights

Financial Advisors

Donor Services

Contact Us

What we do

University Impact (UI) helps you fund companies and nonprofits solving social and environmental problems.

UI hosts the unique Triple Donor-Advised Fund that helps you create the most impact with your investments, while creating the next generation of social impact leaders.

The University Impact Triple DAF
A donor-advised fund (DAF) allows individuals to make a charitable contribution with an immediate tax deduction and then recommend grants and impact investments from the DAF over time.

Learn about the aspects of the UI Triple DAF.

One

Tax Deductible & Open Architecture

Contributions to a DAF qualify for an immediate tax deduction while keeping the freedom to donate/invest in many different companies and causes. With the UI open architecture, you can select your preferred financial advisor, custodian, and investment strategies.

Learn more >
Two
Personalized Strategy

UI actively curates impact investment and grant opportunities for clients based on their impact, geographic, and investment preferences. You can think of us as your personal team, helping you to find and fund the most impactful organizations worldwide. We also perform all the financial and impact due diligence for you and submit it to our Investment Committee.

Learn more >
Three
Empower Students
UI provides undergraduate and graduate students, globally, with an immersive, hands-on learning experience in impact investing and philanthropy so that they can use these experiences to do social good throughout the entirety of their careers.
Learn more >
Create Account
Transfer your Existing DAF
Learn About Our Areas of Impact
Hunger and Poverty

Together we can improve the standard of living for the impoverished and increase access to food and clean water.

The Environment

With your help, we can combat climate change, conserve and sustainably use the oceans, and protect ecosystems.

Education and The Arts

We can help ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Health and Science

Together we can utilize health and science innovations to improve the global standard of living for all.

Women and Underrepresented Groups

We can help achieve gender equality and empower all minorities.

Local Communities

As partners, we can promote economic growth in local and foreign communities, by helping make them inclusive, safe, and resilient.

What is Impact Investing?

Impact investments are made with the intention of generating positive social and environmental impact while earning a financial return. Impact investments can be made in both emerging and developed markets and target a range of returns depending on investors’ goals. When you make an impact investment out of a DAF, the financial returns go back into the DAF for future giving.

Impact investing is at the crossroads between traditional investing and philanthropy.

You can make both donations and impact investments from your UI Triple DAF.

Your Opportunities are Worldwide

While many DAFs restrict giving to only domestic nonprofits, University Impact uses its global network to find the best opportunities, worldwide, to solve social and environmental problems.
Explore some of those opportunities below.
Annie Cannons
Walnut, CA USA
Impact Areas: Women and Minorities / Health and Science / Education
Impact Type: Grant
Annie Cannons equips survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence with coding skills, jobs, and access to therapy to become financially and emotionally independent.
Beneficial Returns
Impact Areas: The Environment / Health and Science / Community and Economic Development / Hunger and Poverty
Impact Type: Debt
Beneficial Returns helps companies in Latin America access funding, accelerate growth, and solve issues including water access, sanitation, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture.
Cold Hubs
Lagos, Nigeria
Impact Area: Community and Economic Development / Hunger and Poverty
Impact Type: Debt
Farmers in Nigeria lose thousands of tons of food because they lack reliable refrigeration. Cold Hubs prevents food loss by building dependable cold chain logistics.
Eco Filtro
San Lorenzo El Cubo, Guatamala
Impact Area: Hunger and Poverty
Impact Type: Debt
Eco Filtro manufactures and sells affordable and effective water filters to improve access to clean water.
Nazava
Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Impact Area: Hunger and Poverty
Impact Type: Debt
Nazava manufactures and sells affordable and effective water filters to improve access to clean water.
Swahili Honey
Tanzania
Impact Area: Hunger and Poverty
Impact Type: Debt
Swahili Honey partners with smallholder farmers to increase their income through sustainable beekeeping. They provide access to training, equipment loans, extension services, and access to competetive markets.
The Other Side Academy
Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Impact Area: Women and Minorities / Community and Economic Development
Impact Type: Grant
The Otherside Academy helps convicts reclaim their lives by changing their behavior. Graduates from the Otherside Academy have an impressively low recitivism rate of 15% and a 100% job placement rate.
Vindhya
Bangalore, India
Impact Area: Hunger and Poverty / Women and Minorities
Impact Type: Debt/Grant
Vindhya is a back office service provider that employs people with disabilities. In India, this demographic typically has an extremely high unemployment rate.
Poliloop
Budapest, Hungary
Impact Area: The Environment
Impact Type: Equity
Poliloop has developed a microbe that breaks down fossil based plastics to eliminate plastic pollution.
You Empower the Next Generation of Leaders
University Impact is a hands-on venture capital opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in learning about impact investing, and social entrepreneurship.

University Impact Students Have Come From

Thembi Zulu

At University Impact I was able to apply myself in an environment that encouraged learning and growth. Immersing myself in the impact investing space gave me a better understanding of the fundamentals of the field and the potential role that it can play in shaping emerging economies. I believe that my experience at UI left me more equipped to change my part of the world.

Steven Shakiba

I have learned so much in the short time I’ve been here, from financial analysis and industry research to critical thinking and presentation skills. The culture at University Impact is one of collaboration, teamwork, and passion for what we do, which made the experience working here all the better. I now feel better prepared to pursue a career in a variety of disciplines.

Rohan Jain

My summer at University Impact was both more productive and more enjoyable than I could possibly have hoped. The formal and informal learning opportunities University Impact provides and the freedom the fund offers associates to tailor their work to their interests and expertise is second to none. The fund feels like a family both inside and outside the office (which made settling into Utah easy) and the people are some of the best I’ve ever met.

Michelle Zhang

At the tail end of my experience at University Impact, I started to focus on impact investing through the lens of gender equality—where the greatest need is and how we as a fund could support gender equality efforts. This is an issue close to my heart, so it meant a great deal to me that we could spend time doing in-depth research and have our findings shape the way University Impact approaches investing.

Ritvik Bodducherla

Working at University Impact has opened my eyes to how I view new companies and the potential they have to affect the communities around them. Spending a summer dissecting how companies can impact individuals around the world with ingenious solutions that attack the root of the problems instead of the symptoms helped me understand what truly brings revolutionary progress to those who need it most.

Marianna Giordano

Working in the impact investing space has broadened and completely transformed my perspective in terms of how I see the world and how I view my own potential. On a more personal level, my eyes have been opened to professional opportunities that I had never before considered. University Impact has provided me with an incredible space to learn the necessary skills to evaluate the financial and social returns of a start-up company.

Interested in creating your University Impact Triple DAF today?
Create Account
Transfer your Existing DAF
Partner with UI

We partner with you the individual, financial advisor, or family office to fund socially impactful organizations. Some of those organizations are nonprofits and some are for profit companies. Both can make large social, economic, and environmental change possible where it’s needed most.

Learn how to partner with us

Research & Insights

We strive for the most meaningful deployment of capital worldwide. Our research helps shape the way we approach social impact and how to best utilize donor-advised funds.
Learn more

Signup for our newsletter