The Impact and Innovation Awards recognise high impact and highly innovative initiatives that have the potential for development. Huge congratulations to CFA Society Doha for launching an impactful Young Women in Investment Program and CFA Society India for leveraging technology to amplify member value.

CFA Society Doha

Young Women in Investment Program

The Young Women in Investment Program has been a landmark project for CFA Society Doha. It has been a catalyst for increased diversity and helped to break perceptions in Qatar on female participation in the investment sector.

CFA Society Doha launched the Young Women in Investment Program to provide aspiring young females in Qatar with the opportunity to learn finance, investments and soft skills. Following completion of the rigorous four-week bootcamp, the local society helped to place the graduates in various financial institutions as interns, complementing the classroom learning with practical on-the-job training.

Recent graduates from any educational discipline were able to apply for the program. CFA Society Doha reviewed the applications and enrolled selected women to complete the course, which covered broad aspects of finance and investments topics. Each student was assigned a mentor from CFA Society Doha. 

Making an impact locally

CFA Society Doha set itself the following ambitious objectives and was delighted to meet or exceed these:

1. Encourage young bright females to consider a career in finance or the investment industry: The local society received an overwhelming response from female candidates for the program and had more applications than available places.
2. Create the next generation of investment professionals: Through the program, the local society provided another avenue for female participants who were not all from a finance or business background. The program intrigued participants’ interest in exploring the investment profession further; a small step toward a bigger positive change over time.  
3. Break perceptions and glass ceilings regarding females in the investment profession: Program participants have been amazing ambassadors for CFA Society Doha; these bright individuals are demonstrating to Qatari companies and employers the potential of competent, capable and driven females. 
4. Increasing diversity and highlighting female role models: This initiative has helped increase the profile of ESG and diversity initiatives. CFA Society Doha has been able to forge new partnerships and is in the process of signing a MoU with Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) on diversity initiatives.  

How this can be replicated by the CFA Society^® community

Key lessons learnt

CFA Society Doha is happy to share its experience and knowledge with other interested local societies. It is in the process of preparing a project handbook, which could serve as a template for any local society seeking to implement this program.  

1. Team work: Crucial to success is having a dedicated team of volunteers solely focused on this project. The Young Women in Investment Program Qatar was organized, coordinated, and implemented by highly committed volunteers of the Women in Investment Management Committee of CFA Society Doha.
2. Structured Project Management Approach: The program required collaboration and partnerships across many levels, including with six universities, Qatari Corporates (including Qatar Investment Authority, Credit Suisse, Qatar Financial Centre and PwC), participants, guest speakers and CFA Institute. Given the requirements to coordinate and collaborate with multiple parties, CFA Society Doha believes it is critical to have a structured project management approach with clearly defined responsibilities and milestones from the outset.
3. Early Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging institutions early in the process helps to support the participants when seeking internships. CFA Society Doha found that institutions were not only excited by the initiative but also willing to provide sponsorships and financial support.

“We are delighted to win this award. The Young Women in Investment Program has highlighted that empowering females, empowers the community and society as a whole. The program can be a significant undertaking for any local society; however, we believe the rewards are worth the effort. The successful execution has not only highlighted the value of CFA Society Doha to key stakeholders but also strengthened our network and stature in Qatar.”  Umair Siddique, CFA, President, CFA Society Doha

CFA Society India

Leveraging Technology to Amplify Member Value

The global pandemic accelerated the need for organizations to rethink processes, products and technologies and CFA Society India showed huge resilience. The local society swiftly and smoothly transitioned to virtual platforms for all its activities and delivered personalized and engaging content in tailored formats.

In 2021, with the ongoing pandemic, online overload and virtual fatigue were setting in. CFA Society India, therefore, decided to reboot its playbook and took a “less is more” approach, paring down the number of events it hosted, from 116 in 2020 to 57 in 2021, and optimizing its volunteer, staff, and financial resources. To increase member engagement and trust, the local society initiated ways to enhance online learning, amplify networking, and conduct career sessions, as these were seen as priorities by its members and local stakeholders.  

Making an impact locally

CFA Society India created new types of virtual events and online campaigns to help support its members and key stakeholders. These included:

• Meet-a-Member: This was launched as an interactive series for young CFA charterholders and CFA Program candidates to learn about the journey of senior professionals. It allowed CFA Society India to engage with new CFA charterholders, who lacked in-person events, and provide them with virtual networking opportunities with the member community.
• Virtual Career Drive: Given the career concerns faced by many during the pandemic, the local society hosted a three-day Financial Talent Summit, featuring four leading employers and one-to-one networking with 15 leading professionals. The virtual summit was attended by 289 participants.
• 3D Virtual Charter Award Ceremony: CFA Society India hosted the first ever 3D virtual charter award ceremony, which was well attended. A leading financial daily published the names of the new CFA charterholders on its site and there was social media engagement ahead of the event with #MyCharterStory, which built a sense of community with everyone sharing memories of their struggles and triumphs.
• Social Media Engagement: CFA Society India increasingly reached key stakeholders via social media, growing its LinkedIn followers from 34,400 to 42,284, Instagram followers from 5,000 to 6,890, and YouTube channel subscribers from 20,000 to 28,656 (a 43% increase) during FY22. The CFA Society India official Twitter handle was verified in June 2021, making it the first local society to earn a blue tick. Polls and quizzes were successful ways for the local society to keep members and candidates engaged on social media and create a buzz. Indeed, a #FintechQuiz featured on LinkedIn and Twitter increased engagement on these platforms and helped to drive registrations for a fintech event.
• India Insights: An Advocacy ezine was launched to disseminate the activities of the Research & Advocacy Committee amongst key stakeholders.
• Membership Renewal Campaign: In FY22, CFA Society India used organic posting for its membership renewal campaign. In the past, the local society had used testimonials for promotions but noticed that results had become static. It, therefore, introduced a new strategy with renewed members posting a small write up that shared their association with the local society. The personal messaging garnered attention and engagement and helped to boost CFA Society India renewals, from 59.3% in 2020 to 76.8% in 2021. The local society has also seen member satisfaction increase, with its NPS score doubling from 30 in 2020 to 60 in 2021.

How this can be replicated by the CFA Society^® community

Key lessons learnt

1. Deepen engagement: While virtual networking cannot replace connecting in person, there are ways to narrow the expectations gap. CFA Society India believes that focusing events around one person, such as the “Meet-a member” series, or a specific goal, such as career-support, allows you to segment groups of members by their interests and objectives and deepen your engagement with these groups.

2. Online content has longevity: While live participation seems the metric to optimize for, allowing members to access content anytime, anywhere is a key benefit to online content. Societies can make content available exclusively for members on the conference microsite for up to 30 days and later on YouTube for wider outreach. CFA Society India found its webinars and conferences garnered 0.5 million views in total - versus 94 live views on average per conference.

3. Stories through experiences: The local society social media strategy showed that a focus on the story through experiences connects to the human side and brings trust and engagement. This was a key element that was lacking in online experiences but taken for granted in physical interactions. If the CFA Society network can find ways to bring focus on individuals rather than a broad-brush message, results will be improved.

CFA Society India: “Our primary objective has always been to enhance member value. Despite the restrictions brought about by the pandemic, we continued to support our members by leveraging technology and finding new ways of engaging our key stakeholders. Winning this award shows how a crisis often acts as a crucible to conduct experiments whose results can be used over a long time and across geographies.” Rajendra Kalur, CFA, Director, CFA Society India.