Community

From its initial creation Penserra has thought that investing in education is the best way to serve minority and underserved communities.  We truly believe that it is hard for a well-educated person to fail in life because there are always new ways to approach problems.  Education cannot be taken away from an individual and becomes a resource for success throughout ones life.  Education becomes a part of the person and transforms that person as it happens, bringing self-confidence, curiosity, creativity, and responsibility.

We give priority to programs that inspire talented, but underserved young people, particularly those offering access to opportunities in the financial services sector.  Because we are still a young firm we have chosen to concentrate our efforts to provide a meaningful contribution to these organizations.

The Wall Street Wizards is an urban financial literacy program that  empowers students of color through class room education, active personal money management using students own brokerage accounts, attending shareholder meetings, a speaker series, field trips, and mentorship.

The Robert Toigo Foundation's commitment is to bring increased diversity to the finance industry.  As a catalyst for change, their programs inspire minority students who might not otherwise have considered finance as their career and provide them with the leadership training, mentoring, tuition assistance and lifelong support they need as they pursue their MBA and launch their finance careers and beyond.  For 20 years, Toigo's mission has been to change the face of finance. 

The Kennedy-King Memorial College Scholarship Fund was founded in memory of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, to provide $8000 college scholarships to students from minority groups under-represented at California's four-year colleges and universities with financial need and who have demonstrated academic success at one of the three community colleges in Contra Costa County