Tiffany Goh (2010 Fellow) on the perfect marriage of business and passion for social impact

 
By Tiffany Goh, 2010 ProInspire Fellow

As ProInspire kicks into gear to recruit the next class of fellows, I’m reminded of where I was when I applied myself two years ago. I applied to ProInspire eager to pursue a career that focused on my passion for social impact and international economic development. Unlike some of my peer fellows, I admittedly did not know much at the time about what careers in social impact and nonprofit would entail, and felt that ProInspire provided the perfect opportunity to explore.
As a ProInspire fellow at ACCION International, I found myself working for an organization with incredibly intelligent and inspiring people from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, but who shared my passion for ACCION’s mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty. I worked specifically with ACCION’s Frontier Investments Group – an impact investing fund targeting financial and social returns on equity investments in early stage companies that are expanding the scale and scope of financial inclusion at the base of the economic pyramid. To my surprise, I found that my new role was very similar to my previous role as an analyst with Credit Suisse’s secondary private equity fund. ACCION was my introduction to the field of impact investing, which requires the same rigor, knowledge and skillset applied in the private sector; it was the perfect marriage of my business background and my passion for social impact. In addition to investing, I also worked on strategic initiatives that focused on setting ourselves up for long term success as a fund.
ProInspire was hugely helpful in my transition to the nonprofit sector. As I familiarized myself in a new city, it was great to have a network of peer fellows who became fast friends. The ProInspire trainings, coaching calls and other fellows helped ease my transition and develop leadership abilities that will make me more effective in social impact. ProInspire also provided the unique opportunity to meet some incredible guest speakers and learn about career paths in education, health and other areas across the nonprofit sector.
After ProInspire, I moved to Philadelphia where I’m currently pursuing my MBA at The Wharton School. As I reflect on my year with ProInspire, I am amazed by how my perspective has evolved and how much I learned – about nonprofits in general, investing in developing markets, and the breadth of career opportunities that allow me to apply my business-oriented mindset to exciting roles in social impact. My experience has confirmed my commitment to a social impact-related career, and my time at Wharton is focused on exploring these opportunities while continuing to build a network, skillset and perspective that will help me be an effective leader in social impact. ProInspire has been a transformative experience for me, and while the fellowship itself is only a year, I look forward to the expanding, life-long network of peers and friends that I will have.

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