Sessions Recording

We invite you to join us on Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 1pm ET for a special Community Conversation for new members of the Intentional Endowments Network. We are pleased to have you as a new leader in this network and want you and your team to have space to connect with other new members, share your priorities for engagement with the network, and hear more from the staff about upcoming opportunities.

IEN Community Conversations are designed as an opportunity for informal, open online conversations amongst leaders in our field, to build community, and strengthen connections within our peer network. As with many of our events, Chatham House rules apply. 

Please register and share this invitation with other staff at your organization who are interested in participating in network activities.

We hope that you can join us and look forward to hearing your goals for co-building the field of sustainable investing together!

We’re excited to announce that sponsorship opportunities for our Virtual 2022 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit are now available here. Contact Georges at [email protected] to become a partner or sponsor. 

We also invite you to join us for an informative webinar next Tuesday January 18th at 12pm ET on The DOL’s New Approach to ESG in Relation to the Investment Community to get a deeper understanding of the DOL's rules impact on ESG investment opportunities. Learn more and register here.

In addition, IEN's Communications and Media Associate, Gwladys Ngatchou will from now on go by her middle name Sorelle Ngatchou. Do not be surprised if our weekly news roundup is signed by Sorelle Ngatchou going forward. Lastly, our office will be closed on Monday January 17th, 2022 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr day. 

We hope you’ve all had a safe and enjoyable break and are feeling energized for 2022!

We will be holding a webinar on January 18th to explore an exciting topic: the DOL’s latest ESG guidance for retirement plans. More details will follow, so stay tuned!

And save the date for our virtual 2022 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit on April 5-8, 2022, registration will open soon.

We’re saddened to announce that Julia Parker, Managing Director at IEN, will be moving on from the IEN team this week and returning to the community investing space. We look forward to keeping in contact with her.

Tom Mitchell, Managing Director, Cambridge Associates

Term: 2018 - 2022

Lisa Hayles, Investment Manager, Trillium Asset Management

Term: 2016-2021

Ken Locklin, Managing Director, Impax Asset Management

Term: 2018-2021

Melissa Platner, CAIA®

Head of Institutional and Consultant Relations, North America

Monique Aiken, Managing Director, The Investment Integration Project (TIIP)

This year, we're joining the global generosity movement, #GivingTuesday. We want to raise $5,000 to get more endowments investing for systemic change. Learn more about our campaign and donate to kick us off strong.

We’re also excited to inform you that our final Climate Action Pursuit milestone is in exactly TWO WEEKS! You can now see the live agenda and start bookmarking your sessions of interest.

We'd like to remind you that our 2021 IEN Member Survey closes on Nov 30th. We always want to hear from our members to assess what's working, what's not, and to set priorities for 2022. There is still time to share your feedback with the network and thank you for always supporting us.

This week, we’re excited to announce that IEN will be participating in the global generosity day, #GivingTuesday, for the first time on November 30th. Keep an eye out for more details and send in a donation here.

We also want to announce that we re-evaluated our organizational needs and are hiring for the revamped position of Membership and Events Director. If you or someone in your network is interested in joining the IEN team please apply.

Lastly, we’ll share an abbreviated roundup on Wednesday next week for a quicker read, so you can focus on spending time with friends and family.

The Intentional Endowments Network polled endowments and consultants in October 2021 regarding their positions on divestment. 

This information is intended to provide a high level overview of endowments’ and consultants’ stance on divestment; their progress to date; their thoughts on best practices; and, if they had not divested, information on how their institution would approach these issues.

You can find a PDF copy of the results below.

Divestment Survey Results

This survey was conducted in response to IEN member institutions who were interested in better understanding how their peers are thinking about divestment at this time.

Many endowments are evaluating two distinct -- but related -- approaches to addressing climate risk in their portfolios: fossil fuel divestment and net zero portfolios. Please visit our Net Zero Endowments Initiative page to learn more about making a net zero commitment.

Chuck O’Reilly, President & Chief Investment Officer, University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM)

Melissa Platner, Director, Consultant Relations, Impax Asset Management

Laura Morley, Associate, The Raben Group

We’d like to inform you that the 2022 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit will be transitioning to a virtual Summit, and we will reconvene in-person at the University of Miami in 2023. The exact dates and approved submitted proposals for the virtual Summit will be confirmed shortly. 

We also want to show our gratitude to all that were able to attend our Carbon Footprint 101 webinar this week. Your attendance was very much appreciated. For those that couldn’t make it you can see this week’s webinar and past webinar recordings here. We encourage you to join our upcoming webinar on Investor Case for Addressing Human Rights by registering here.

In this week’s news, we share the recent indigenous activists rally in Washington requesting President Biden to declare a national climate emergency. 

Bella Alvarez (She/Her)

Program Associate

[email protected]