Our Mission
Toigo’s mission is to inspire change—to advance more inclusive leadership within finance and beyond.
Diversity in Finance and Access to Talent
We develop leaders and foster the career advancement of highly talented women and men throughout their MBA experience. Our 1,700 Toigo alumni are the foundation on which we have built programming to support the career ascension and retention of minority leaders in finance.
Sustained Partnerships that Lead to Inclusive Leadership
Over the past 30+ years, Toigo’s partnerships have persisted during times of both abrupt change and innovation. The trust we have earned and the lessons learned allow Toigo to help organizations fulfill the promise of more inclusive workplaces through tailored strategies.
Toigo’s strong relationships with industry leaders allow us to advocate on behalf of our Alumni with C-suite and corporate board aspirations, entrepreneurial passions and more.
We have built a model with a conviction to encourage thinking beyond what is comfortable to what is possible. Today, Toigo Alumni demonstrate the amazing power of combining talent with compassion, impact with community, and business with family. This is the Toigo Legacy.
The Need for More Diverse Leaders
Today, virtually every organization is in the midst of a workforce shift; yet few are poised to benefit from talent that today—and tomorrow—is increasingly diverse. Despite major investments, few organizations have succeeded in creating a culture where underrepresented talent is welcomed and able to thrive. As a result, a massive and growing leadership gap pervades, one that threatens more than the bottom-line of each organization. With tomorrow’s talent increasingly diverse, the impact of the leadership gap will escalate in a downward cycle of consequences:
- Diverse talent fails to secure meaningful leadership roles, falling short of their potential
- Income and wealth generation of underrepresented minorities (URMs) fails to grow
- Organizations are not fully benefitting from the advantages diverse teams deliver
- Capital decisions re: infrastructure, schools, roads, technology and more are made by a small, elite segment of the population
- Communities with a high concentration of diverse citizens stagnate
- Few models of diverse leadership exist for next generation boys and girls to model and aspire to
A Legacy of Impact in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Toigo has recognized and operated within this leadership gap since its founding—it is why in our 30 years of identifying and preparing talent for the finance industry we focus on development of deep leadership qualities and values. For today’s young leaders, there is an acute awareness and concern over the widening gap in wealth creation and business development among URMs. As future leaders, they are seeking opportunities to become better educated and prepared to build and grow businesses, to build their own in order to to invest in each other and their communities.
While the Toigo Leader definition was aspirational 20 years ago, today it underscores the need for a new model of leadership that better reflects the diversity of talent—and their right to growth and contribute in leadership roles.
We’ve experienced the numerous ways in which the spirit of leadership begins with each individual, then extends in directions we never imagined. We take tremendous pride in the role the Foundation plays in helping each leader identify what is most important in their lives and how – through their finance careers – they can help their communities attain generational wealth. Those meaningful leadership capacities include board service, philanthropy, investing, and new business ventures at the intersection of business and community.
A New Model of Leadership
As the world evolves, the need for leaders with strategic vision, empathy and an inclusive mindset has never been greater; the requirement that more of these leaders better represent the demographic mix of the nation and the world is ever-present.
As leadership demands shift, Toigo recognizes its role, too, must evolve. We must continue to evaluate and refine our leadership development platform, curricula, and models for programming, training and support to align with today’s and tomorrow’s talent expectations and requirements. At the same time, we must find a way to scale our work to have a greater impact on a broader base of diverse talent. We know delivery of a leadership curricula must meet the demands and needs of today’s diverse professional—including a mix of delivery channels, formats and more. It also must be grounded in the truths of today and reflect not only where today’s diverse talent encounters challenges and setbacks, but also build the muscle needed to ensure this population grows and thrives.
Preparing underrepresented professionals for leadership and helping organizations create an environment where those individuals thrive is core to the Toigo mission. Our work fosters an academic and business culture in which diversity is prized and community service is normative. By encouraging the most promising talent to remain socially responsible, we are creating a new legacy of leadership for our country.
The Business Case for Inclusive and Diverse Teams
Today’s – and tomorrow’s – workforce is more diverse than ever before. More women, more minorities and more professionals are beyond retirement age. Every individual has unique strengths to bring to an organization, yet for too long, employers have failed to attract and retain sufficient levels of diversity. The challenge and opportunity of employing diverse talent is a strategic mandate, not a social one. Diverse teams deliver better results as measured by profits, performance and more. With a growing body of research and proof points, forward thinking leaders know that finding and hiring diverse talent is vitally important. It’s good for the bottom line and drives improved employee morale and customer loyalty. Why then, have statistics around diverse work forces remained stagnant? The supply – qualified talent – is at the ready. Toigo is focused on ensuring that talent poised to lead is given an opportunity to do just that: lead and make a difference.
Support The Mission
Please contact the Philanthropy team at Philanthropy@toigofoundation.org, for any questions.