It's not every day that a group of younganalysts gets to pitch an idea close to their hearts to aWall Street chief executive.But that was the case for a handful of Goldman Sachs junior staffers this week who found themselves in a meeting with CEO Lloyd Blankfein and some of his top lieutenants, presenting months of their own hard work and research.They were finalistsin the "Goldman Sachs Gives Analyst Impact Fund"competition, in which second-year analysts around the world vied for a grant forthe nonprofit organization of their choice.The initiative, launched this year, is funded by Goldman Sachs Gives,the philanthropic fund sponsoredby the firm's partners, and judged by thepartnership committee."If you would have told me a few years ago that as a second-year analyst at Goldman,I would have the opportunity to be pitching to Lloyd Blankfeinand the partnership committeeon behalf of an organization that I vehemently believed in ... I would tell you you're crazy,"Olivia Benjamin, a member of the winning analyst team, told Business Insider.Benjamin,an analyst in the investment management division's AlternativeInvestments and Manager Selection group,teamed up with fellow analystsPaul Antonios, from thesecurities division, Ashley Macaulay, from theinvestment managementdivision, and Peter Heye and Sam Obletz from the investment-banking division.Theypitchedthe non-profit Bayes Impact, which usesdata to help the underserved by building open-source software products that are donated to disadvantaged citizens.Three winning grants were awarded this week$100,000 for the first prize winners, $50,000 for second prize, and $25,000 for third prize. Benjamin's team, which won the $100,000 grant, was able to secure anadditional $100,000 in matching Goldman Sachs Gives commitments from other partnersfor Bayes Impact.Recruiters and human-resource staff across the Street know that millennials want to feel like their work has an impact. In an effort to hire and retain top talent, investment banks have been rolling out increasingly creative initiatives for junior staff. Barclays, for example, recently launched a half-day "ideation workshop," givingjunior bankers the chance to play startup founders for the dayand develop problem solving, presentation, and teamwork skills.Goldman Sachs is also overhauling the way it provides feedback to better suit the needs of millennial employees."Folks that are coming into the firm out of universities are looking to do more,"Edith Cooper, Goldman Sachs' head of human capital investment and vice chairwoman of the partnership committee,told Business Insider."So many of them have recognized their role in society, so we felt that it was important for them to be able to really express those interests and those causes that they're excited about and partner literally with the most senior ranks of the firm on making a difference in these organizations," she added.After the competition was announced in March, 124 teams comprisingsome 450 analysts submitted applications. With the help of volunteer judges at the vice president-level, those were eventually whittled down to6 final teams.At that stage, the analyst groupswere each paired up with two vice presidents who coached them through the in-person pitching process.Mark Wetzel, a VP in the merchant bank, and Casey LaFlamme a VP in securities, coached the winning team.By the time they got in front of the partnership committee, the team had rehearsed their 8-minute pitch upward of 40 times, Benjamin said.They had settled on Bayes after searching for an organization that demonstrated impact, scalability, and innovation. The analystsembarked on anextensive due diligence process, getting to know Bayes'management team and connecting them with Goldman's own information security team.Bayes' cofounders, Paul Duan, 24, and Eric Liu, 25, were similar both in age to the analysts, who are between 23 and 25 years old, andin mindset."We were initially drawn to them as a group of[young], like-minded individuals that had a passion to affect impact on a very large scale in real time," Benjamin said. "That's something tech can do in a way that nothing else can."Bayes' Liu saidthe Goldman Sachs juniors went out of their way to get to know his organizationdigging into its model, asking for filings and documents, getting to know individual groups within the company, and even speaking to its board members."For a group of peoplethat had no experience in the non-profit space, they probably came out with a stronger pitch forBayes thanI've given before," he said.Havingbeen introduced toGoldman's information security team and the security division's strats team, Bayes will meet next week with Goldman Sachs Gives to discuss next steps and how the bankcan continue to work with the organization.The second-place grant will be given to Digital Green Foundation, which a team ofthree from Bengaluru pitched. In third place is Solar Air, which was pitched by a team of three from London.SEE ALSO:An important life lesson for anyone working on Wall StreetJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: The most important question you should ask before hiring a financial adviser
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