US business schools count the cash for social initiatives

Times may be tough but US business schools Chicago Booth and the Eccles school at the University of Utah are proving that they can raise funds even in a difficult economic climate - if it is for a good cause.

Chicago Booth has received $5m to fund a social enterprise initiative at the school. The money comes from John Edwardson, retired chairman and chief executive of computer company CDW, and a 1972 Booth alumnus. The gift follows swift on the heels of the $8m given in early December by Chicago green energy entrepreneur Michael Polsky, to extend Chicago’s centre for entrepreneurship.

The Eccles school at the University of Utah has been given $13m to rename the University Impact Fund as the James Lee Sorenson Center for Global Impact Investing, after media entrepreneur James Lee Sorenson. The University Impact Fund was set up in 2010 as a joint venture by the Eccles school, the Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance at Brigham Young University, James Lee Sorenson and global impact investor Geoff Woolley.

The Sorenson Centre will be involved in both research and investment in areas such as education, housing, sustainable and green energy, agriculture and entrepreneurship.

www.chicagobooth.edu

www.business.utah.edu