BlackRock Inc. is partnering with Thurgood Marshall College Fund Inc. to provide scholarship funds for students attending historically Black colleges and universities and predominantly Black institutions.
New York-based BlackRock will donate a portion of the net revenues from the management fee of the $4.5 billion BlackRock Liquid Federal Trust Fund annually to the college fund, said Thomas F. Callahan, managing director and global head of cash management, in an interview.
BlackRock "repurposed" the government money market fund in July to include the positive social impact of directing a portion of the fund's aggregate dollar volume of purchase orders for portfolio securities to emerging and diverse broker-dealers, Mr. Callahan said. He said that the fund's team has found "great firms with lots of capacity."
In addition to providing funds for scholarships to TMCF, BlackRock also has a series of career initiatives planned like internships on the cash management fund team for scholarship students.
Mr. Callahan said the firm's partnership with Washington-based Thurgood Marshall College Fund will do more than fund college scholarships because the interns will improve their financial literacy and explore the pathways to economic success as well as experiencing work life at BlackRock.
"What we would like is for the students to come back and work for BlackRock," Mr. Callahan said.
The BlackRock gift "will enable more talented minority students to gain access to life-changing opportunities from financial support for a premier college education, to unparalleled leadership guidance and career development," said Harry L. Williams, president and CEO of TMCF, in a BlackRock news release.
Thurgood Marshall College Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with assets totaling $89 million as of Dec. 31.
BlackRock managed $9.5 trillion as of June 30.
