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Wednesday, November 12, 2025 | Register

The Intentional Endowments Network, with support from Omidyar Network, is leading a critical effort to advance responsible technology investing across the endowment and foundation community.

As the tech sector—including AI, gig economy platforms, and social media—presents significant human rights risks, asset owners need practical tools and knowledge to assess and address these challenges in their portfolios. This initiative brings together a Leadership Committee of experts from higher education and technology to build awareness, create resources, and foster peer learning around responsible tech investing.

On this call, we'll provide updates on the initiative's progress and upcoming programming. We'll also open the conversation to members to better understand your interests, resource needs, and the challenges you're facing as you integrate responsible tech considerations into your investments. We're particularly interested in learning about how members are engaging with their investment managers on these topics, what barriers you're encountering, and what processes are proving effective.

This conversation will be held under Chatham House Rules to encourage candid peer dialogue and shared learning. Whether you're an asset owner, consultant, OCIO, or asset manager, your participation will help shape the direction of this initiative and advance a more ethical and transparent tech ecosystem.

Register now to join the conversation.

In this week’s episode of The Future of Finance, Georges Dyer sits down with John Lanier, Executive Director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and grandson of sustainability pioneer Ray Anderson. They trace the story of Ray’s transformative leadership at Interface, where he proved that sustainability and profitability could go hand in hand, and explore how those lessons continue through the foundation’s work today. Listen in!

We’re a month away from our Annual Forum in Baltimore Maryland, October 27-28th! Don’t forget that IEN asset owner members receive complimentary registration – register to join your peers in conversations on sustainability, responsible AI, shareholder engagement, and more next month.

In this week’s news, Majority Action releases a report on AI’s System-Level Impacts, Arizona State University receives a $115M gift for the Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures, and Schroders releases its report on AI, Power Demand and the Carbon Challenge. 

November 3, 2025 | 2 pm ET | Register 

Philanthropy cannot expect to make grants to frontline communities while leaving its power on the table with companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Microsoft. Foundations have power and influence as investors to influence company policies and practices. With shareholder rights under unprecedented attack and the nation's largest asset managers abandoning their ESG commitments, the need for foundations to step up has never been greater. Discover why foundations are needed now and how they can help drive corporate accountability on issues like labor, climate, and ethical AI today.

This webinar will not be recorded and is exclusively for foundation leaders (Trustees, Executives) and staff.

If you’re energized by this webinar and interested in putting shareholder engagement into practice, we encourage you to reach out to ICCR and stay tuned for updates from the Shareholder Engagement Project.

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In this week’s episode of the Future of Finance, Georges Dyer sits down with Hallie Label, founder of Expect Equity, an innovative incubator model designed to address the persistent underrepresentation of women and people of color in asset management. Hallie shares insights from her career at leading investment firms and explains how Expect Equity provides underrepresented managers with the infrastructure, capital, and relationship-building support they need to succeed at scale. Listen in!

IEN’s Annual Forum is fast approaching, and the room block will close on September 26th. Register to join your peers to discuss the most pressing sustainability issues facing asset owners and allocators, and reserve your room before rates increase.

In this week’s news, corporate partnerships are proving resilient to anti-ESG headwinds, an expert says, AASHE releases its 2025 Sustainable Campus Index, and a briefing from Zevin Asset Management reframes immigration as an asset, not a liability.

In this week’s episode of The Future of Finance, Georges Dyer sits down with Paul Herman, founder of HIP Investor (Human Impact + Profit). Paul shares how HIP uses a tech-enabled platform to turn vast amounts of real-world data—from companies, governments, nonprofits, and even satellites—into impact ratings on hundreds of thousands of securities. Listen or watch on your favorite platform! 

We’re partnering with Chief Investment Officer for its Influential Investors Forum 2025 in NYC, October 16th. Join Chief Investment Officer for insightful discussions for institutional investors of all types about how to navigate a new political regime, rebalance in a private-markets era and enhance portfolio discipline and fiduciary governance. View the agenda and register today!

In this week’s news, FIN News spotlights the Russell Family Foundation, the Education Department plans to end funding for minority-serving institutions, and Morgan Stanley finds that sustainable funds beat traditional funds in the first half of 2025.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Finance podcast, Georges Dyer speaks with Machel Allen, President & CIO of Metis Global Partners, and Brad Gretsch, Research Analyst at Metis. They dive into the critical role of real assets—including natural resources, real estate, infrastructure, commodities, and precious metals—in driving the energy transition and supporting sustainable investing. Listen!

Member asset owners, don’t forget to register for no cost for IEN’s Annual Forum, October 27-28th in Baltimore, MD. Reserve your spot today with your peers, and preview the agenda for both days on the event page.

In this week’s news, BlackRock loses a $17 billion mandate at Dutch pension fund PFZW, Bhakti Mirchandani writes about integrating human dignity into investment strategy, and allocators are adding AI to ESG concerns.

In this week’s episode of The Future of Finance, Georges Dyer hosts a powerful conversation with Philippe Bolopion (Managing Director at TOBAM) and Lauren Kaplan (Director of Governance and Risk Integration at Third Side Strategies) on why investors must pay attention to political risk and threats to democracy. Listen, or watch!

In this week’s news, the University of Mississippi Foundation returns 10.1% for the last fiscal year, a climate banking group pauses activities amid rising political pressure, and  a collaboration between First Peoples Worldwide and US SIF launched the Sustainable Indigenous Finance Initiative.

In this week’s episode of The Future of Finance, Georges Dyer speaks with Mitch Thomashow—author, educator, and former Unity College president—about the evolving landscape of environmental learning and sustainability in higher education. Drawing from his books Ecological Identity, Bringing the Biosphere Home, To Know the World, and The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus, Mitch explores how institutions can leverage their social, intellectual, natural, and financial capital to become hubs of sustainability innovation. Don’t miss this week’s episode!

In this week’s news, CalSTRS names its senior investment director for private markets, sustainable investments, and stewardship, corporate support for DEI continues among investors and companies, and Democrats tell asset managers that retirement dollars at risk from GOP’s anti-ESG approach.

Early bird registration for the Annual Forum closes tomorrow! Take action today to join us in Baltimore, MD, at Goucher College, October 27-28. Register with the code EARLYBIRD before rates increase to join 150+ endowment leaders, investment professionals, and sustainable investing professionals. 

We’re sharing two engagement opportunities from our broader network in this week’s newsletter – firstly, the New England Impact Investing Initiative’s 2025 Fall Fellowship, geared toward democratizing access to education in the field by diversifying and empowering the next generation of impact investing professionals. We’re also sharing the Sustainable Investing and Blended Finance Survey from Columbia SIPA, geared toward all capital providers, whether currently engaged in blended finance deals or not.

Finally, we express our sincere thanks to Tim Anderson, our Summer 2025 Sustainable Investing Fellow, for supporting this newsletter throughout his time with IEN. We were delighted to have him on the team this summer, and wish him all the best going forward!

In this week’s news, investors take aim at fossil fuel bond financing, the University Pension Plan Ontario speaks about staying the course to net zero by 2040, and with a focus on gender smart climate investing, Heading for Change launches its investment toolkit.

In this week’s special episode of The Future of Finance, we feature a compelling presentation from David Livingston, Chief Strategy Officer at Galvanize Climate Solutions and former senior advisor to U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry. The presentation, originally made at IEN’s Virtual Forum in June, outlines how the global energy transition is unfolding within three sweeping macro shifts: from a G-7 to a G-Zero geopolitical landscape, from climate cooperation to climate competition, and from fossil fuels to a future dominated by electricity and data. Listen now!

In this week’s news, Arizona State University CIO Jeff Mindlin joins an elite group of endowment leaders with his NACUBO award, a new TIIP study shows RBF’s mission-aligned investing outperformed the market and shaped the field, and the university of Rochester names Geoff Berg as its next CIO.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Finance, Georges Dyer sits down with Grant Harrison, Vice President of Sustainable Finance and ESG at Trellis Group, formerly known as GreenBiz. Grant shares insights on the evolution of Trellis, the shift from reporting to implementation in sustainability, and how companies are navigating political headwinds, particularly in the U.S. Listen in!

In this week’s news, 75% of 401(k) participants want sustainable investing, but most don’t know it’s an option, according to Morgan Stanley, ten state universities in Germany have launched the Thuringian University Network for Sustainability, and a Bloomberg columnist argues AI should pay a price for its environmental damage.

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This week’s episode of the Future of Finance features perspectives from Scott Hobart, who discusses the increasing demand from AI and data centers, the transformative role of tech giants in power generation, and the investment opportunities within nuclear, geothermal, and storage technologies. Listen in!

Registration opened for the Annual Forum last week! Early bird registration rates are available for IEN Member businesses, non-member businesses, and non-member asset owners with the code EARLYBIRD. IEN member asset owners can register free of cost with a separate code available upon request. Register!

In this week’s news, the McConnell Foundation supports the launch of the Amplifier Fund, a $50 million fund to build affordable, more sustainable housing in Quebec, Oregon’s State Treasurer speaks to the need for evidence-based investing, and asset owners to swap US managers for European in response to ESG retreats.

Early bird registration for IEN’s Annual Forum is now open! Firms, businesses, and non-member asset owners can use the code EARLYBIRD for 20% off of their registration for a limited time.

IEN asset owner and nonprofit members can receive complimentary registration with a separate code; please respond to this email directly if you are an asset owner to receive the code. 

This week’s episode of The Future of Finance features perspectives from Sean Penrith, founder and CEO of Gordian Knot Strategies. With two decades of experience in climate finance, Sean shares insights into the firm’s mission to mobilize $1 billion annually by 2030 through innovative climate investment strategies. Listen in!

In this week’s news, how DEI and ESG investing has changed under trump, OCIO adoption by institutional investors gaining in Canada, but lags behind the U.S., and the Intentional Endowments Network launches our Responsible Tech & AI Initiative.

We are excited to launch our Responsible Tech & AI Initiative this week, with support from the Omidyar Network. Learn more about the purpose of this initiative, and complete this interest form if you’re interested in being involved.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Finance, Georges Dyer speaks with Temple Fennell, Co-founder and Managing Director of Clean Energy Ventures, to explore the frontier of climate tech venture capital. Temple shares how his fund backs early-stage companies targeting the most difficult sectors to decarbonize—concrete, ammonia, cooling systems, battery recycling, and more—with the bold goal of mitigating 2.5 gigatons of CO₂ by 2050. Listen in!

We’re also highlighting Stanford Law School’s artificial intelligence education program, available until July 31, 2025. It’s a free, self-paced program with video lectures taught by Stanford faculty and lawyers and designed to help/ corporate investors and board members learn more about how AI systems work. Learn more about the program.

In this week’s news, clean energy fund managers rally to support for clean energy tax credits, DC schemes uphold net zero in spite of worldwide ESG backlash, and tax changes will upend investing at endowments and foundations.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Finance, Georges is joined by Dr. Ellen Quigley, Principal Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and Special Adviser to the university's CFO on Responsible Investment. Ellen breaks down the concept of universal ownership, the risks of climate change through the lens of systemic investing, and how endowments and other long-term asset owners can be powerful agents of change. Listen or watch!

IEN was featured in NACUBO’s The Solutions Exchange, spotlighting the EIB, which provides a framework for endowments to understand the extent to which they are implementing sustainable and impact investment best practices. You can receive a copy of The Endowment Impact Benchmark: Measuring Impact and Advancing Transparency here.

In this week’s news, the Sierra Club Foundation Announces its break from BlackRock/Aperio in favor of more financially responsible asset managers, SHARE publishes investor guidance on diversity, equity, and inclusion amidst the turmoil, and a new research report from Tideline, BlueMark, and Builders Vision presents a new narrative for impact investing via fixed income and offers practical guidance for investors.