Since its inception in 1994, the Morgan Stanley International Foundation has been making contributions to nonprofit organizations where Morgan Stanley has a presence, focusing on children’s health and education programs.
As the saying goes, all business is local, even for firms like ours, where we cannot thrive globally without first meeting the needs of our clients in each of the 43 countries where we have offices. The same can be said of philanthropy. Global foundations and their reach certainly matter, but their ability to affect change begins in local communities where needs and resources are most apparent and immediate.
That’s why 20 years ago, Morgan Stanley launched a sister to its Morgan Stanley Foundation. The Morgan Stanley International Foundation (MSIF) was created to provide regional outreach to communities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Since its inception in 1994, the Morgan Stanley International Foundation has been making contributions to nonprofit organizations where Morgan Stanley has a presence, focusing on children’s health and education programs.
Giving Kids a Healthy Start
Our firm’s commitment to children’s health goes back more than 40 years through the Global Alliance for Children’s Health. The Alliance, a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving, contributes Morgan Stanley’s financial support, strategic thinking and employee engagement, in partnership with leading children’s health organizations.
In the United Kingdom, the Morgan Stanley Clinical Building opened in 2012 as the result of a three-year, £11.5 million employee and firm fundraising project with the Great Ormond Street Hospital, London’s premier children’s hospital. The Clinical Building, which has four state-of-the-art operating theaters, also houses modern Heart and Lung, Kidney and Neurosciences Centers with inpatient wards for children with acute and chronic conditions.
These and other initiatives give children access to quality health care, but we know that health care alone doesn’t sustain good health. We also enable healthy lives by providing access to nutritious food and supporting healthy eating habits. For example, our firm and employees deepened our relationship with Magic Breakfast, a leading schools-based charity that provides healthy breakfast foods in the most socially deprived areas. Elsewhere in the UK, Glasgow employees and the MSIF continued their support of Yorkhill Children’s Charity, donating more than £250,000 for various child health programs at the Yorkhill Children’s Hospital.
The Morgan Stanley International Foundation by the Numbers
Beyond Healthy: Education and Career Development
Whereas Morgan Stanley’s support of health care helps children lead healthy lives, our firm’s commitment to education helps them thrive by giving talented but underserved young people the tools they need to achieve in school and in the workforce.
In London, over the past 10 years, the MSIF has funded the Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership, supporting over 83 schools for the implementation of programs that educate, train, motivate and support young people, raising their levels of achievement and aspirations. Over 7,200 Morgan Stanley volunteer hours have been donated by employees who mentor young students in literacy, numeracy and business skills.
London employees also launched a two-year partnership with The Prince’s Trust in 2013, pledging to raise £1 million for the development of the Prince’s Trust Morgan Stanley Centre to help thousands of young adults improve their employment skills and prospects.
More Than Money: Employee Volunteerism and Giving
Realizing that employees’ time and talent could vastly increase the impact of the Foundation’s grants, for the past decade, the MSIF has developed a continuum of opportunities for employees to get directly involved with MSIF grantees. In 2014, we launched our first UK Strategy Challenge, a skills-based volunteer program that offers pro bono strategic consulting. The first four organizations to receive our services were all MSIF grantees: Community Links, East London Business Alliance, Magic Breakfast and The Prince’s Trust.
Each year, MSIF also aligns employee hands-on volunteer projects with their grantees through the firm’s Global Volunteer Month program. In EMEA, more than 3,800 employees participated in the 2014 campaign, donating over 26,000 hours in service and directly working with more than 30 charities that are supported by the MSIF.
For information on grant and funding guidelines, visit the Morgan Stanley International Foundation.
