GreenHouse at United College is expanding how University of Waterloo students learn to create social and environmental change by introducing them to the role capital can play in helping promising ideas grow.
Developed in partnership with Propel Impact and supported by Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF), the GreenHouse Propel Impact Investing Fellowship will give undergraduate students hands-on experience evaluating real investment opportunities in Waterloo Region.
Students in the inaugural cohort will serve as Impact Investing Associates. They will source potential investments, conduct due diligence, assess financial and social returns, and present recommendations to a local Investment Advisory Committee of entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders.
The fund will consider social enterprises, charities and early-stage ventures in the Waterloo Region that are developing innovative responses to pressing community challenges and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students will also gain exposure to social finance tools, including debt, equity and hybrid investment structures.
For GreenHouse, the fellowship addresses an important gap between helping students develop socially conscious ventures and preparing them to communicate the value of those ventures to potential investors and funders.
“We train students to build social ventures, but we rarely teach them the language and tools investors and funders actually use to evaluate impact. This Fellowship fills this gap,” said Tania Del Matto, Director of GreenHouse.
“It gives students the frameworks to communicate not just the economic return of a venture, but its social return. That matters because impact investing isn’t just an academic exercise; it’s a real financing tool that helps promising social ventures grow and scale the change they’re trying to create,” she said
The fellowship builds on GreenHouse’s longstanding work supporting student-led social innovation. Alongside helping students identify challenges, develop solutions and launch ventures, the program will introduce participants to the investment decisions that influence which ideas receive funding and have the opportunity to grow.
“Being a part of this Fellowship means we’re not just teaching students to start ventures, we’re equipping them to unlock the capital those ventures need to grow. That’s what makes this program so innovative, and exactly why GreenHouse wanted to be part of building it,” Del Matto added.
The interdisciplinary fellowship will bring together undergraduate students from across Waterloo’s faculties and academic programs. Participants will begin by completing Propel Impact’s Foundations Certificate before applying their learning through engagement with local organizations and potential investment opportunities.
“Waterloo has spent decades producing some of the best founders and engineers anywhere. What gets less attention is that whether any of those ideas make it out of the lab comes down to capital, and the people allocating capital get nothing like the same training,” said Keshiv Kaushal, Director of Impact Investing at Propel Impact.
Unlike a traditional classroom exercise, the fellowship will ask students to consider the real-world consequences of investment decisions and determine which ideas have the potential to generate sustainable growth and meaningful community impact.
“Our Impact Investing Fellows are taught to challenge assumptions, think boldly, and focus on the issues that will matter most to the wellbeing of future generations,” Kaushal said.
“Fellows spend the year sourcing companies, doing the diligence themselves, and putting recommendations in front of a local investment advisory committee. Waterloo students learn by building things that either work or they don’t. This is the same discipline applied to the question of what deserves to get built at all.”
Support from WRCF connects the fellowship to a broader commitment to strengthening the people, relationships and financial infrastructure needed to address Waterloo Region’s evolving needs.
Eric Avner, President and CEO of WRCF said, “impact investing only works when there’s talent ready to lead it.”
“We’re proud to support the GreenHouse Propel Impact Investing Fellowship to build that pipeline here at home, giving emerging leaders in Waterloo Region real, hands-on experience directing capital toward the outcomes we want to see. This is exactly the kind of social infrastructure investment we want to keep making as WRCF grows its own mission-aligned portfolio,” Avner added.
Fellows will also have opportunities to connect with industry professionals, local founders and community organizations through Propel Impact’s national network.
By combining experiential education, local expertise and real investment opportunities, the fellowship will prepare students to become more thoughtful decision-makers while helping build the talent Waterloo Region needs to finance its next generation of social and environmental solutions.
For those interested in serving on the local Investment Advisory Committee of entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders, please reach out to Keshiv Kaushal at keshiv@propelimpact.com
