Since 2017, seven students from Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University have been offering their knowledge and expertise to selected microfinance institutions on a pro-bono basis under the Venice Microfinance Initiative supported by the Institute.

As part of this project, master’s degree students from the Department of Economics and the Department of Management are selected for a three-month internship with a microfinance (or similar) institution in areas such as risk and compliance, business development, technical assistance and communications.

In 2018, the first group of three students went to Moldova to help Smart Credit LLC, an organisation that provides financial services, insurance and consulting in particular to disadvantaged populations. In 2019, an additional four students went to Antwerp (Belgium) to help Incofin Investment Management, a fund advisory and management company specialised in developing and providing advisory and investment management services to impact investment funds, investing notably in microfinance institutions.