Vista Equity Partners | Council for Inclusive Capitalism

Vista Equity Partners (Vista) is a leading global asset manager that invests exclusively in enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses through private equity, permanent capital, credit and public equity strategies.

Vista believes the transformative power of technology is the key to an even better future – a smarter economy, a healthier planet, diverse and inclusive communities, and a broader path to prosperity. Through its global enterprise software ecosystem, Vista is committed to creating onramps to opportunity in the digital economy.

Purpose

Robert F. Smith

Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Vista Equity Partners

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We believe it is vital to state clearly to the world the set of our beliefs about Inclusive Capitalism. As such, we start with our Statement of Guiding Principles for Inclusive Capitalism. Knowing that words alone are not enough, each of us is making a series of commitments about how we will operate our institutions so that they help achieve Inclusive Capitalism. These commitments are forward-looking statements based on current goals, expectations and assumptions, which are not guarantees of future performance. For more information, please refer to our Terms of Use

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Summary

Vista, together with BCG and PayPal, established the Southern Communities Initiative (SCI) in 2021. SCI was created to help channel corporate commitments on racial equity into six Southern U.S. communities that are home to half of all African Americans: Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Houston, Memphis and New Orleans. To strengthen the financial architecture serving these communities, SCI is helping mobilize capital and IT modernization for more than a dozen local community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and minority depository institutions (MDIs).

Activities & Initiatives

Through Vista’s partnership with SCI, the firm is tackling structural inequities in communities of color in the South, where almost 50% of all Black Americans live.

In close collaboration with local community organizations, SCI is guiding corporate commitments on racial equity into the areas where Black communities are most adversely impacted, while strengthening the capacity of local partners to sustain improvements.

SCI is focused on four near-term priorities for Black communities:

Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) entrepreneurship and supplier diversity
Access to capital through CFDIs and MDIs
Education/HBCU and workforce development
Digital access

As part of SCI’s focus on CDFIs and MDIs, and in alignment with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Economic Opportunity Coalition, Vista is committing to shift approximately 2% of its cash balances to CDFIs and MDIs. Vista’s deposits, and those of other participating institutions, will allow MDIs and CDFI banks to leverage that capital to provide more loans to the low-to-moderate income communities they serve.

Measures & Targets

Progress will be measured based on the number of CDFIs/MDIs impacted, the capital mobilized, the number of lenders that are modernized, and the volume of additional loans these institutions issue in the coming years.

Summary

Through Vista’s partnership with the Student Freedom Initiative (SFI), by 2026, the firm aims to positively impact up to 90% of eligible students who attend a participating Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) and who select the income contingent funding option as an alternative to Parent PLUS loans.

Activities & Initiatives

SFI’s vision is to reduce the wealth gap through the lens of education.

SFI implements its vision through four pillars:

Private sector alternative to Parent PLUS loans (via the Student Freedom Agreement) which reduces student debt for juniors and seniors majoring in STEM at participating MSIs.
Internships & certifications (via internXL) which increase hands-on experience for students of all majors and academic years at participating MSIs.
The Handling Everyday Life Problems for Students Program (HELPS) which aims to increase completion rates for undergraduate students of all majors and academic years at participating MSIs through microgrants to address MSI-approved emergencies.
Strategic Partnerships (via MSI Capacity Building) to increase the resilience and competitiveness of participating MSIs.

The program’s strategic objectives are to liberate students to make professional and life choices; increase African American economic mobility via STEM; provide more favorable terms and flexibility than Parent PLUS loans; institutionalize a scalable platform to eventually support all STEM students at all MSIs; enable HBCU transformation, resilience, and increase competitiveness; and finally, to provide transferable models for policy, research and policy advocacy.

Measures & Targets

We will measure progress by evaluating the number of students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other MSIs that are positively impacted by any one or combination of program pillars.

By 2026, SFI will aim to provide 10,000 STEM graduates per year with up to $20,000 as a private sector alternative to Parent PLUS loans. Additionally, SFI will provide access to two paid internships, comprehensive supports (e.g., tutoring, counseling, microgrants to address emergencies) to increase student persistence, and MSI capacity building to increase institutional resilience and competitiveness. We expect this will result in $200 million in additional earnings for the Black community. As of October 2022, SFI supports ~195,794 undergraduate students across all program pillars at 51 MSIs in 18 states.

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Recognizing it will take alignment of all our organizations to scale impact globally, we invite you to join the movement as a Steward of Inclusive Capitalism. Together, the collective action of Council members will contribute to a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable future for all people and our planet.