Investing with mission and purpose.
You care about human rights, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
Imagine the positive impact if your foundation’s investing strategies were better aligned with its mission and vision, while also working for competitive financial returns.
In addition to investment best-practices like risk management and diversification you can now align your foundation’s investing strategies by integrating mission aligned investing strategies.
Mission aligned investing
Whether you are a fiduciary trustee, staff, or consultant serving an organization you can now prudently align your investment strategies by integrating:
- Environmental sustainability, social, and governance factors: Essential elements of a company’s long-term performance are integrated into the investing process.
- Community investment pools and funds: Notes, bonds, or funds that help people regain socio-economic self-empowerment, support fair trade, and BOP micro-lending.
- Shareowner advocacy: Engagement with companies to improve their ESG practices which can help manage risks and opportunities and maybe even improve performance. Strategies include dialog with company management, shareholder resolutions, and proxy voting.
These strategies are already used successfully by leading families, individuals, and organizations including: F.B. Heron Foundation, Economic Opportunity Institute, Rose Foundation, Seattle Audubon Society, and The Needmor Fund.
Learn more about these strategies.
Process for or foundations or endowment fund
Foundation and endowment trustees can more easily carry out their fiduciary responsibilities by following accepted fiduciary processes and practice standards and by utilizing qualified professional services offered by our team. Ask us about any or all of the following services:
- Fiduciary Review: An Accredited Investment Fiduciary® reviews your fiduciary process.
- Mission and Values Review: An investment professional reviews how your entity’s current practices are (or are not) in harmony with your mission and values and provides investment strategy insight.
- Produce (or update) Your Investment Policy: We collaborate with you on developing an investment policy statement (IPS) incorporating key elements of your fiduciary and mission reviews. An IPS provides your organization and our team a common framework guiding the implementation and ongoing management of your investment services.
- Monitoring and Ongoing Service: Our core service helps you meet procedural and fiduciary practice standards on an ongoing basis. We coordinate investment account management tasks and related services including asset allocation, manager performance monitoring, cashiering, etc.
Fiduciary standards support using SRI
Foundations have the freedom to make investments decisions to further their missions to improve human rights, environmental sustainability, and/or social justice.
Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer produced critical legal framework for the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Findings indicate it is prudent for investment advisors to consider environmental, social, and governance issues, and could be considered a best practice for mission-based organizations.
Fiduciary360 is the leading fiduciary training and resources organization in the United States (source: fi360Prudent Practices for IAs about fi360 pg6). They provide guidance for investment stewards and other fiduciaries subject to the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (UPIA). Their guidance states that when mission driven donors, investors, and foundations wish to use SRI strategies they may and perhaps even should do so (Practice S-2.7) . American Institute of Certified Public Accountants provided the technical review of Fiduciary360’s Prudent Practices guides for investment stewards and investment advisors. Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen provided legal substantiation for the guides.
An October 2008 FSG Social Impact Advisors report co-authored by Anne Stetson and Mark Kramer provides a guide to the current state of the law of mission investing by U.S. foundations framed especially for foundation boards. A Brief Guide to the Law of Mission Investing for U.S. Foundations.
Please contact us for a free copy of these materials.