Moody's Corporation - The Moody's Foundation

The Moody's Foundation

In 2002, Moody's Corporation created a corporate philanthropy program, The Moody's Foundation, focused on educational initiatives in mathematics, economics and finance. The organization offers grants to 501(c)(3) non-profits and equivalent international organizations, accredited schools and some governmental organizations. As of 2011, The Moody's Foundation has donated more than $20 million to charitable organizations. Its president is Frances Laserson.

Since 2006, its leading program is the annual Moody's Mega Math Challenge (M3 Challenge), a student academic challenge co-sponsored with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), in which several hundred teams of high school students use quantitative analysis and modeling to solve problems related to real-life financial topics such as Social Security and the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. Since 2010 the M3 Challenge has offered more than $100,000 in scholarships to winning students. In 2008, The Moody's Foundation was recognized by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy for the M3 Challenge as representing one of the "best social responsibility programs", citing its focus on "real-world issues" and for being "clearly both in the company's interest as well as the nation's". Other Moody's academic competitions include the Euro Challenge in cooperation with the Delegation of the European Union to the United States, and the College National Fed Challenge with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Moody's Foundation has also provided support for the financial public broadcasting television program What's Up in Finance?, hosted by Kwame Jackson. Moody's Foundation is a partner of the Clinton Global Initiative and microfinance lender Kiva.org, offering training for local field staffers in how to perform credit risk assessments for more than 480,000 borrowers in 18 countries, and the development of a "scorecard and rating system" for microfinance institutions worldwide.