Our firm believes in the power of work to transform people’s lives and their communities—and that work should equal livelihood: a means to achieve economic security for people and their families.
The global pandemic has threatened or eliminated the livelihoods of millions of people, creating an urgent need to address unemployment at a massive scale.
McKinsey has long worked in the space of helping businesses and communities successfully adapt to the latest workforce trends and build more inclusive economies. In 2014, we founded an independent non-profit, Generation, to bridge the gap between employers and young people. Since then, tens of thousands of learners, including older people who need re-skilling for new industries, have successfully completed Generation’s programs all over the world and entered jobs that enable them to live economically secure lives.
Now, after more than six years of successful expansion to numerous regions and professions, Generation is poised to help accelerate economic recovery efforts. Today, Generation announced a new funding coalition to deliver even bigger results in fulfilling its mission to create equity in employment opportunity and break down systemic barriers to employment success. As part of this coalition, McKinsey is redoubling its support of Generation and joining forces with organizations including BlackRock, Microsoft, and Verizon. Together, the coalition is committing $77 million in new funding and $50 million in in-kind support.
McKinsey will provide more than $30 million in cash and in-kind support over the next two years to support Generation’s growth. The firm has pledged to continue providing fellowship opportunities that enable our top talent to work alongside Generation’s leaders. In addition, as part of McKinsey’s 10 Actions to support racial equity around the world, we have also partnered with Generation USA on a $2 million effort to train and place Black learners in Black-owned small and medium-sized businesses and $250,000 to Generation Brazil to serve Black learners. McKinsey continuously looks to expand our own hiring practices to be more inclusive of different educational and employment pathways, including but not limited to the hiring of Generation graduates.
Mona Mourshed, the founding CEO of Generation who previously served as a McKinsey senior partner, applauded the firm’s pledge. “Generation has been able to help people who have the least amount of resources and access to employment opportunities overcome those challenges and gain entry to good jobs,” she said. “We are excited that McKinsey is continuing its support of Generation, joined by these other funders, to help expand our reach to more learners all over the world.”
Anne-Marie Frassica is a director at McKinsey and a former Generation fellow. “McKinsey has been with Generation since its very beginning, and I was honored to help the organization during its earliest stages of helping more young people find stable, meaningful employment,” she said. “With the global pandemic calling out how urgently we need to address employment-opportunity inequality, Generation’s work matters more than ever, and we are delighted that we and other funders are able to support Generation to accelerate its global impact.”
About McKinsey and Generation
Generation is McKinsey’s most ambitious philanthropic investment to transform the lives of people and communities through stable, meaningful employment. Inspired by McKinsey’s research, Generation not only bridges the gap between employee and employer, but aims to transform how everyone in the education to employment equation approaches the goal of employment success.
Since 2014, McKinsey has provided approximately $100 million in general operating and in-kind support to help establish Generation as an independent nonprofit and support its geographic expansion. Hundreds of our staff have worked side-by-side with Generation staff, through fellowships and pro bono projects, on a wide range of operational and program initiatives. This flexible support has helped Generation scale across geographies, professions, and learner types and partner with thousands of employers, funders, and nonprofit organizations. To date, almost 40,000 people have graduated from Generation’s programs, often to jobs with significantly higher earnings than what they were able to access before participating in the program. The stories that have emerged from Generation’s work are of the transformed lives of graduates and the overwhelming satisfaction of employers when they hire Generation graduates.
You can read more about Generation and our work in social impact here. And you can find many stories about the way Generation has transformed the lives of its graduates at Generation’s website.