Prime Coalition, Cambridge, MA
This summer, I had the privilege of working as a Fellow at Prime Coalition, a public charity that partners with philanthropists to invest charitable capital in companies that combat climate change, have a high likelihood of achieving commercial success, and would otherwise have a difficult time raising sufficient financial support. I have been captivated by Prime’s unique, market-driven approach to addressing the global climate crisis ever since I first heard about the organization during a Log Lunch talk given by my Economics Professor, Don Carlson.
Prime’s work relates to so many careers of interest to me that it feels like this internship was custom-built. To some extent, it was; I was extremely fortunate to have Sarah Kearney, Prime’s founder and executive director, as a supervisor/mentor throughout my internship, and she made sure to ask me in the spring what types of work I enjoyed the most so that she could find projects I would learn from and find fulfilling. Throughout my internship, Sarah was also open to having me take on new assignments if I found them engaging. As a result, I was able to learn about climate change (from both a scientific and policy perspective), philanthropy, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and finance.
My work at Prime mainly consisted of three projects, the first of which involved analyzing historical data about philanthropic funding. My goal was to uncover trends and interesting statistics about the amount of charitable capital that flows into climate-related causes and to assess whether these funds are being directed to where they can have the greatest impact. I combed through thousands of program-related investments (a type of charitable transaction), identifying those that were relevant to climate and classifying them into sectors such as energy, land use, food, transportation, etc. This process was based on the classification system used by Project Drawdown, a global research organization that compiled a list of the 100 most impactful solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. When I finished analyzing the data, I organized my findings into a PowerPoint and presented them to the team. Several interesting trends stood out, including the abundance of philanthropic support for land conservation and the relative dearth of funding for important solutions such as refrigerant management—Project Drawdown’s top solution for reducing emissions.
The second project I worked on was the development of a software tool called CRANE, which Prime has been co-developing alongside three other organizations. The open-source software will ultimately help investors and entrepreneurs assess the potential of early-stage companies to reduce greenhouse emissions. My work involved researching economic and emissions data to help build out CRANE’s backend database, which the tool requires for making its calculations. From browsing academic literature, government databases, and various start-ups’ websites, I learned a great deal about the complexities of greenhouse gas emissions accounting, and I was astounded by the vast array of creative technologies that are being developed to address society’s most pressing needs such as access to clean energy and healthy food.
The most exciting part of my work on CRANE came when Sarah invited me to fly to Denver to attend the 2019 ARPA-E Summit—a conference hosted by the U.S. government agency that works on advanced energy technologies. Prime hosted two CRANE-related meetings at the same venue as the conference, which I helped set up and then attended. Sitting in on these meetings was one of the highlights of my internship; it was fascinating to hear feedback about the software from the panel of climate experts on CRANE’s Academic Advisory Committee and the knowledgeable investors in its User Group. I also enjoyed talking with entrepreneurs at the Summit’s technology showcase and taking in the beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains.
Rounding out my internship was my research on blended finance. Blended finance refers to the use of public or philanthropic funds to catalyze private investment in projects or enterprises with the potential for high social or environmental impact. Prime plans to launch a blended fund next year which will use catalytic capital (for example, grants from foundations) that have low or zero financial returns expectations in order to enhance the risk/return profile of its investments so that private investors (for example, banks, insurance companies, or pension funds) who target market-rate financial returns will also enter the fund. By accepting greater risk, charitable investors can leverage their funds to unlock vast amounts of capital for important causes such as climate change mitigation.
I was fascinated by this mutually beneficial partnership between philanthropists and private investors, and although blended finance research was not part of my original scope of work, Sarah noticed my interest and encouraged me to assist Prime’s blended finance liaison with his research. Throughout the summer, I studied dozens of blended funds, each of which had a unique capital structure and interesting financial characteristics. As I learned about the funds, I noted their common features and looked for any insights that could be helpful as Prime begins developing its own fund. I then organized this information into a presentation and relayed it to the team during our weekly All-Hands meetings.
While I enjoyed the projects I worked on at Prime, the most valuable part of my internship was being able to work with such an extraordinary group of people. The team was small—there were four full-time employees in our WeWork office, plus two working from San Francisco—but I was able to learn a lot from each and every member. Sarah was the perfect mentor, and I benefited immensely from our biweekly one-on-one check-ins. I appreciated how she always encouraged me to ask questions (and I had a lot!) and that she was quick to compliment my work when she liked it, but also willing to provide constructive criticism. Her constant optimism, energy, and passion for Prime’s mission are qualities I admire and hope to emulate. She is an outstanding leader, worker, and public speaker, and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work with her.
Beyond teaching me valuable skills and connecting me with exceptional people, my internship also made an impression on me by shaping how I think about climate change. Before Prime, I understood the importance of the issue, but it was rarely at the forefront of my mind. However, at Prime, climate change was at the core of every decision that was made. For the first time, I experienced an environment in which the climate crisis was given a daily emphasis fitting of its catastrophic potential. This level of focus was ingrained in me, and I have noticed myself becoming increasingly more conscious of the environmental consequences of my decisions.
I am certain that my time at Prime will influence the remainder of my time at Williams and my future career plans. First and foremost, my internship reinforced my conviction that the work I do should always feel like it serves a meaningful purpose. Working towards a purposeful goal makes the tedious parts of a job feel worthwhile, and working with others who are passionate and share a common mission is always more enjoyable than working with those who are not. My internship also proved to me that finance is a broad industry, and that there are plenty of opportunities to work in this field while having a noticeable positive impact on the world around us.
The experience I gained from learning about venture capital and the challenges facing early-stage companies was also invaluable. I hope to one day start my own business, and understanding the perspective of potential investors is a crucial skill for any entrepreneur. Finally, I encountered countless lessons at Prime that I know will be relevant to my courses at Williams. I will forever be grateful to the generosity of Williams alumni and the entire ’68 Center for Career Exploration for making my internship at Prime possible. Their support and hard work are what allowed me to have one of the most transformative summers of my life.
Megamenu Social