Client Story: Rung for Women - Cambridge Associates Client Story: Rung for Women

Cambridge Associates Client Story

Rung for Women

For Ali Hogan, philanthropy has been a calling shaped over a lifetime. Raised in St. Louis in a family with a deep tradition of giving back, Ali grew up surrounded by strong women who believed that opportunity could transform lives. That conviction, instilled early and refined over years, ultimately gave rise to her company, Rung for Women, and to a model of purposeful stewardship that continues to evolve with each generation.

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Those lessons stayed with her. Ali always felt a particular pull toward helping women build economic opportunity, influenced in part by the strong female role models in her own life. What began as a simple idea to provide professional clothing to women preparing for job interviews grew into something far more ambitious, as Ali realized that clothing was only the beginning. Many of the women she encountered were caught between crisis and stability, needing not just a suit but a complete ecosystem of support including coaching, healthcare, financial education, and community. Rung for Women grew from that realization, a holistic model designed to support the whole person and create a clearer path toward lasting economic mobility.

Building a One-Stop Model for Women’s Economic Mobility

Ali's grandfather, the founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, believed that wealth carried responsibility and that responsibility had to be taught, not assumed. When Ali was 13, he created a foundation specifically for his grandchildren, gathering them around the table and asking each of them to identify organizations they believed in and make the case for why those organizations deserved support. It was an early and formative lesson that capital can be used with purpose, and that the next generation has both the ability and obligation to shape what comes next. Through this experience, Ali learned how non-profits operate, how capital can be deployed thoughtfully, and how values, wealth, and responsibility can be closely linked.

Early Lessons in Stewardship

Rung for Women is designed as a career-accelerating organization, not simply a job-placement service. Its mission is to help women climb the economic ladder by equipping them with the tools, support, and confidence to build sustainable careers. The program is offered at no cost and asks members to commit meaningful time each week over the course of a year.

The organization offers professional development resources such as resume and cover-letter support, interview preparation, negotiation training, and career counseling. It also provides wellness and wraparound services including therapy, an on-site gym, a healthcare clinic, financial education, healthy eating skills, and child-watch support. The goal is to remove barriers that often prevent women from advancing while creating a structured path toward lasting employment and increased earnings. Eligibility is tied to income, and Rung focuses on career paths with strong growth potential and fair wages, including project management, data analytics, advanced manufacturing, and other fields in which women have historically been underrepresented.

The model brings a wide range of services together under one roof. Traditionally, women seeking support must navigate multiple systems, repeating their stories to different providers along the way. Rung was designed to streamline that experience. Women share their story once, and the organization coordinates support across a full range of services, creating a more dignified, efficient, and comprehensive path forward.

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“It became apparent that the endowment and the Foundation’s mission could not operate on separate tracks. That led us to work more closely with Cambridge Associates and to engage trustees in a deeper conversation about our beliefs, principles, and long-term investment approach.”

Caroline Mason

From a Simple Idea to a Broader Solution

Ali's family has worked with Cambridge Associates since 2019, and it’s a relationship built on trust, shared values, and a mutual belief that capital can be managed with both discipline and purpose. Over that time, CA has helped the family steward multiple investment pools, always with an eye toward their long-term goals, liquidity needs, and appetite for risk. But the relationship has never been purely about portfolio management. When Ali began building Rung for Women, her CA investment team made a point of visiting Rung's headquarters and immersing themselves in the organization's work, meeting the women in the program, understanding the model, and getting to know Ali's values and vision firsthand.

Measurable Impact

Over time, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has taken a broader view to mission-aligned investing.

Strategies that worked for the foundation

Use a wider toolkit

Grant-making, social investment, and endowment investing each serve different purposes, but can be more powerful when viewed together as part of a wider toolkit. This broader perspective has helped the organization identify areas where capital can support nature, communities, and a fairer future, while remaining grounded in risk-adjusted decision-making.

Begin by testing

Identify upgrade opportunities

Collaboration wins

Use a wider toolkit

Begin by testing

Identify upgrade opportunities

The next phase is to view every component of the portfolio in terms of the extent it contributes—or detracts from—the mission and identify upgrade opportunities.

Collaboration wins

Use a wider toolkit

Begin by testing

Identify upgrade opportunities

Collaboration wins

The Foundation has also embraced collaboration as part of its approach, including working closely with partners and sharing ideas with other institutions to identify practical opportunities. For mission-driven allocators, collaboration can strengthen diligence, expand the opportunity set, and accelerate learning.

Case Study

Use a wider toolkit

Begin by testing

The Foundation has also used smaller, targeted allocations to test strategies that have strong mission relevance but might otherwise appear too novel or too narrow an opportunity set for core portfolio approach. These efforts generated encouraging results, and some have been scaled up to the main portfolio, reinforcing confidence that mission-aware investing and strong performance don’t need to be in conflict.

Identify upgrade opportunities

Collaboration wins

The Value of Partnership

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Measurable Impact

Rung for Women’s model is already producing tangible results. Approximately 600 women have participated in the program to date. In a 2025 alumni survey, 79% of respondents reported receiving a new job, raise, or promotion; more than 80% said they had reduced debt; and 90% reported a stronger understanding of their values and greater fulfillment.

Lessons for Other Families

Start the next generation early and make it real

Ali's grandfather didn't just talk about philanthropy; he put the next generation in the room, gave them agency, and asked them to make the case for what they believed in. Giving young family members real responsibility, not just exposure, is what turns values into action.

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More Than Job Placement

Support Under One Roof

Chief Executive Officer, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Investment discussions are now more closely connected to the Foundation’s charitable purpose, helping bridge what were once seen as separate conversations around grant-making and portfolio management. At the same time, the Foundation has strengthened the governance needed to support action by articulating clear beliefs and translating them into investment principles.

Early implementation efforts have also reinforced confidence in the approach. Pilot allocations and thematic exploration suggest that investments with strong mission relevance can also fit within a disciplined portfolio. More broadly, the Foundation’s experience has helped advance the conversation about the role of endowed capital.

Its experience suggests that for long-term institutions, mission alignment is not only about exclusions or public commitments; it can also be about building an investment strategy intended to support real-world change while better reflecting how long-term value is created and preserved.

Lead where your conviction is strongest

The most meaningful philanthropy often starts with a personal sense of purpose. Ali's commitment to women's economic mobility grew directly from her own experience and the values instilled in her from an early age.

Listen until the real need becomes clear

What begins as one solution may reveal a much bigger opportunity to make a difference. Ali’s willingness to look beyond the immediate need and build something far more comprehensive is what transformed a simple idea into a movement.

Use both capital and connection

Networks, introductions, and trusted partnerships can help strong ideas grow into lasting institutions. The right relationships can be just as valuable as the right resources.

Measure what matters

Concrete outcomes help validate the model, build credibility, and support future growth. Knowing what success looks like and being able to demonstrate it is essential for any organization seeking to scale its impact.

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That understanding has enabled CA to support Ali not only as an investment advisor, but also as a connector. Drawing on its network of foundations and philanthropic leaders, CA has helped facilitate introductions and open doors to help support Rung’s mission. For the family, having a partner who truly understands what they are trying to build, both financially and in the world, has meant that capital and conviction can move together.

Rung for Women has continued to expand its physical and programmatic footprint in St. Louis, including investment in a dedicated property and additional on-site services. At the same time, the organization is exploring how its whole-person approach could be replicated in other cities, a testament to the strength and scalability of a model built on genuine, lasting impact.

Many women enter the program feeling isolated, but through the cohort-based model, members build relationships, encourage one another, and move forward together. The organization’s philosophy is that membership does not end when the formal program concludes. Once a woman becomes part of Rung, she remains part of the community. The impact extends beyond employment outcomes to broader gains in confidence, financial stability, and long-term independence—including women purchasing their first homes, moving into higher-paying career paths, and creating new possibilities for themselves and their families. Ali’s vision is also intentionally community centered. The premise behind Rung is that when women increase their earning power, the benefits ripple outward—to children, households, neighborhoods, and local economies.

The Power of Community

A Vision for Growth

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Results That Matter

To learn more about Ali’s journey, Rung for Women, and the power of investing in women, listen to the Women, Wealth, and Economic Growth podcast episode.