What is TVA's Investment Challenge?

The Investment Challenge Program was created in 1998 by allocating $1.9 million to 19 universities located throughout the Tennessee Valley. The initial, and future, funding was provided by a TVA trust to offer students the opportunity to manage actual investment portfolios.

As a result of the students' demonstrated success in managing this allocation, TVA expanded the program to include 6 additional universities and increased the total allocation to $10.0 million in 2003. The students continued a successful track record against the S&P 500 benchmark and the program was again expanded with additional universities in 2022 and 2023. Today, there are 26 participating universities, and the students manage $12.0 million. Since inception, the student managers have outperformed the S&P 500 benchmark.

The Investment Challenge promotes economic development by helping strengthen the Valley's educational infrastructure, a vital component of future economic growth. At the same time, the program makes a direct contribution to the training of the region's future business leaders.

TVA Investment Challenge Program

For more information about the Investment Challenge Program, please contact [email protected].

Students

Students actively manage TVA funds by designing long-term investment strategies, placing trades, maintaining investment guideline compliance, and providing and presenting performance reports to TVA.

The program provides the students with a tangible investment experience through the application of the principles that they are learning.

TVA

TVA supports the program by utilizing some of its experienced professional managers and staff to provide guidance and resources to help students apply investment management concepts.

Universities

Universities can earn performance awards based on their returns versus the benchmark, S&P 500 index. Since inception, TVA has paid more than $1.4 million in performance awards to the participating universities.