10,000 Interns Foundation

Our mission is to champion underrepresented talent, at scale. In June 2020, we began this mission with a simple idea to provide 100 paid internships for Black students in the investment management industry. 100 Black Interns (as it was at the time) was designed to help address the chronic underrepresentation of Black talent in investment management roles by creating opportunities for young Black students and graduates to gain meaningful industry insight and experience. To have so few Black professionals in an industry that prides itself on attracting the best talent was unacceptable both from a societal and commercial perspective. Within a year, this initiative successfully placed over 500 interns in 217 firms, with each position ensuring at least the local Living Wage and a six-week tenure. After the success of the 100 Black Interns initiative, representatives from other sectors began to express an interest in replicating the approach. 10,000 Black Interns garnered endorsements from diverse stakeholders, including ten leading industry firms, university groups, and political figures across the main parties. By 2022, 700+ firms across 25 sectors committed to provide a minimum of 2,000 internships, and our mission grew with a goal to place 10,000 interns over the next five years. Evolving further, we broadened our scope to encompass more areas of underrepresentation. In 2022, we introduced the 10,000 Able Interns pilot for disabled students and graduates, successfully placing 25 interns initially, and then over 100 interns across 80 firms in Summer 2023, backed by the Disability Charities Consortium, the UK’s leading disability-related charities. To reflect our broadened scope, we became the 10,000 Interns Foundation, rebranded, and refined our mission. As we enter 2024, our focus is on building out our brand and consolidating our operations to ensure the sustainable success of and effective fundraising for our impactful programmes. To date, we have placed over 5,000 interns with a further 2,000+ incoming in Summer 2024, and have worked with over 1000 organisations to bring widespread attention to underrepresentation in the early careers space in the UK.