The Endowment Impact Benchmark
The Endowment Impact Benchmark (EIB) is an assessment, rating and benchmarking system for endowments to advance their sustainable, mission-aligned, and impact investing strategies. The EIB provides endowments with an assessment of their current policies and practices, the ability to benchmark against peers and best practices, and expert feedback on potential areas for improvements. For those that are interested, the EIB also offers the opportunity to earn a 3rd party verified rating as a way to celebrate progress and demonstrate to stakeholders the credibility of their approach. Learn more and see the latest ratings on the EIB website.
IEN Initiatives.
IEN Initiatives offer a forum where IEN Members can engage in topical conversations, build their professional networks and expertise, feel comfortable sharing successes, challenges, and requests for support, and developing resources and tools to advance the field.
More information on each current Initiative, including ways to get involved, is below.
Net Zero Endowments
Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI)
Investment Governance
Shareholder Engagement
Sustainable & Impact Investing Learning and Knowledge (SIILK)
Sustainable Retirements
IEN focuses on addressing inequality and the climate crisis as they are systemic risks that threaten a thriving society and the value of investment portfolios.
Wealth, gender, and racial inequality threaten our societal and economic stability.
- The wealth of the 22 richest men in the world is more than that of all women in Africa combined.
- Globally, women earn an average of $11,000 annually, compared to men who earn an average of $20,000.
- In the U.S., Black families own $10 or less for every $100 in wealth owned by a white family.
The climate crisis threatens to cause catastrophic damage to human life, ecosystem integrity, economic prosperity, and business success.
- Air pollution kills 4.5 million people per year.
- Hundreds of millions of people are at risk of forced relocation, further accelerating trends of mass migration, political destabilization, and economic disparities.
- The fossil fuel industry forecasts growth rates of under 1% a year and has large up-front capital expenditures, leading to low return rates.
Inequality and the climate crisis are inextricably linked and interconnected.
- 71% of Black families live in counties violating federal air pollution standards compared to 58% of white families.
- Formerly redlined communities today have half as many trees as highly rated predominantly white neighborhoods do, leading to temperature differences of as much as 20 degrees and higher levels of heat exposure, which can often prove deadly for residents.
- Black and Latinx families have a higher likelihood of living in areas most damaged by climate disasters, but have limited access to affordable insurance, the means for recovery or relocation.