Using the work of William and Penelope Jennings (2006), 肯特·桑德斯(2008), 爱德华·劳伦斯(2008), Christopher Kubik(2016)和Peter R. Crabb, Jacob Booker, and Kyle James (2018) (参见参考书目)作为起点, in August 2018 this survey of known US SMIF websites was started and the following information collected. In 2008, Lawrence found 298 US colleges managing $360 million; this survey has so far identified 617 US colleges between them managing over $833 million. The University of Lincoln in the UK is a member of SMIFC and included in the statistics but not included in the number of US SMIFs. This page is updated as other SMIFs are found and existing ones publish new figures.

正如劳伦斯在他的著作中指出的, this survey also found a large variance between the SMIFs; how much they manage, 它们是如何组织的, which students are eligible to manage them, 他们的治理, and how actively they manage their accounts. Some SMIFs are run as a single finance class, others are open to to any student of any major across the entire higher education institution. 学生 of some SMIFs make recommendations to their governing body before any transactions take place, others are entirely responsible for the management of theirs. Many SMIFs are managing part of their 基金会s funds, 其他的则是由捐款创办的, either by a single individual or from a group, at least one is funded by an individual giving the SMIF an interest-free annual loan, the principle being repaid and any profit being kept by the SMIF. Some are run as investment companies and use their client's money. Several SMIFs use any profit accrued to fund scholarships or putting it into their college's general fund.

The first SMIFs were created in the 1940s. 就能确定的而言, the first was founded in 1946 at the liberal arts school, 拉斐特学院, 伊斯顿, PA. How the investment club got started is both interesting and unusual. 约翰H. Tarbell was a finance professor and after returning from Europe as Major Tarbell in 1945, he started giving basic investing tips to other returning veterans. Several vets were so grateful to Tarbell that they gifted him $3,成立一个投资俱乐部, the 退伍军人 Investment 研究 基金会, at the college where he returned to teaching finance full-time after his military service. By 1949, the portfolio was being run entirely by students. In April 2021, the 投资俱乐部 reached $1 million AUM.

The latest SMIFs, are the $500,000 fund at the W. 弗兰克·巴顿商学院, Wichita State University which will start trading in 2023 and the 机会之门投资基金 at the College of the Ozarks which was formed in June 2023. Most SMIFs were formed in the two decades between 1990 and 2009, but fewer have been created since then. The size of managed funds vary enormously. One of the smallest is Piedmont Virginia Community College which was formed in 2016 and who manage a modest $2,000. The largest is the University of Dayton, which manages a fund of $67.8 million and which was founded in 1999. Several colleges run multiple SMIFs with different aims and procedures.

While compiling this information it was found that the number and size of non-US SMIFs is also increasing, but those are not considered on this page. Several universities have student-run Real Estate and Venture Capital funds, 这里不考虑这些, neither are the small but growing number of high schools that have SMIFs such as 布雷克学校明尼苏达州的; 达拉斯圣公会学校德州; 格林希尔学校德州; and others.

This web survey has several shortcomings. The information was gathered from the web pages of the various institutions and those, 比如smif本身, 变化很大. Although some sites contain a wealth of information including up to date quarterly and annual reports, others contain no information about their SMIF other than they have one, while others do not appear to have been updated for several years.

A 谷歌表 that was created for this survey is open to inspection and contains the findings of Jennings, Saunders and Lawrence as well as the web pages visited.

Ray Thomas, Corey Maxedon and Carlos Garcia Jr., for the 投资俱乐部 and 网络金融研究所, 斯科特商学院, 电子游戏试玩 and the SMIF Consortium,
Created August 2018, last updated July 2023