The Legacy of Robert S. Spencer

The Spencer Educational Foundation was founded by the RIMS Atlanta Chapter in 1979. To this day, Spencer remains the premier organization funding the education of tomorrow’s risk management and insurance leaders!

The Spencer Educational Foundation:

• Awards merit-based scholarships and grants to university students pursuing careers in risk management, insurance, and/or actuarial science.

• Provides grants that create experiential learning opportunities both on and off campus.

• Funds the development of risk management and insurance curricula in colleges and universities.

• Supports Risk Managers by creating internship opportunities within the risk management function of their companies.

• Operates across the United States and Canada.

Since our founding, we have awarded over $9.5 million in scholarships and over $8 million in grants to universities and RMI professional institutions.

Since our founding, our programs have impacted over 85,000 students! In the past 5 years, the amount awarded through Spencer's programs has grown by 43%.

• Spencer is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that relies solely on the contributions of generous individuals and the industry.

• Spencer was named in honor of the late Robert S. Spencer, an innovative leader and past president of RIMS, and an outspoken advocate for risk management education.

The Spencer Educational Foundation believes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the risk management and insurance (RMI) industry is a business imperative that only strengthens us.

We have taken actionable measures to foster a diverse talent pipeline into the RMI industry:

• Redesigned our scholarship application so that applicants can self-select their race/ethnicity and gender identity, in order to track (and measure) who exactly is receiving our scholarships.

• Changed our scholarship application review process so that all identifying information (name, demographics) is not visible during scoring to avoid interference from unconscious bias to the extent possible.

• Enabled the creation of hundreds of diversity scholarships to be awarded over the next ten years, representing a deliberate investment of over $1.5 million in diverse talent.

• Partnering with the Alliant Foundation to create a robust Risk Management & Insurance Program at Southern University, an HBCU in Louisiana. The program is also supported by the Louisiana Department of Insurance.

• Awarded Risk Manager on Campus Grants to 3 Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs): University of Houston Downtown, Johnson C. Smith University, and Lincoln University.

• Working with corporate partners to sponsor course development grants at Minority-Serving Institutions, including Fisk University, the University of the District of Columbia, University of North Texas, University of Nevada Reno, Mercy College, Brooklyn College, Northern Arizona University, California State University Fullerton, University of Houston Downtown, Fayetteville University, Stony Brook University, New Mexico State University, and New York Institute of Technology.

• Awarded grants to foster a diverse talent pipeline, including support for NAAIA, HBCU Impact, NABCRMP, Appalachian State University’s D&I in RMI Initiative, Indiana State University’s Recruitment and Career Awareness Diversity program, Howard University's FIRM Symposium, and others.

• Collaborating with other industry organizations to learn how we can partner on DE&I initiatives, including the Asian American Insurance Network (AAIN), American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA), HBCU Impact, Insurance Careers Movement (ICM), Latin American Association of Insurance Agencies (LAAIA), the McGannon Foundation, National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA), Rising Insurance Star Executives (RISE), Risk & Insurance Teaching Society (RITS), the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research (TNA), and University Risk Management & Insurance Association (URMIA).