Call for IEN Members to Sign On to the Belonging Pledge – A Commitment to Advance Racial Equity 

IEN is pleased to partner with Confluence Philanthropy to support the Belonging Pledge.  Please see the details below, and consider making this easy but powerful commitment to put racial equity on the agenda of your next investment committee meeting.  For individuals who attended college or university, please consider sending this opportunity to your alma mater's investment office. 

BACKGROUND: 

The events of spring 2020 will be chronicled as the next milestone in the fight for racial justice and equality.  A global pandemic, resulting in unemployment for 40 million Americans, followed by yet another brutal death at the hands of police officers set off a wave of protests and civil unrest in more than 75 U.S. cities

In response, Confluence Members and partnering investor networks launched a pledge for racial equity called the Belonging Pledge, #2020belongingpledge.

The commitment recognizes that racial equity belongs throughout the investment process, in the investment committee meeting, and, ultimately, in how decisions are made about capital deployment. Achieving racial equity is typically presented as daunting, perhaps even unattainable for some minds. But change is possible with sincere commitment, clear goals, and measurable benchmarks. Most importantly, change must begin with a shift in the prevailing racially homogenous culture and exclusivity that ultimately perpetuates racial bias and inequity within the investment industry and investors’ portfolios.

CALL TO ACTION: 

“We commit to discussing racial equity at our next investment committee meeting. We will move our agenda forward on this. We will share our next steps and results (perhaps privately), so that we can help to identify industry-wide barriers and the technical resources required to advance the practice of investing with a racial equity lens.”

If you would like to sign onto the pledge, please email us at [email protected]. 

SIGNATORIES: 

We encourage endowments and other investors to join over 100 signatories and partners listed below representing $1.88 Trillion in AUM in committing to the pledge and putting racial equity on your investment committee agenda. If you would like to sign on to the pledge, please email us at [email protected].

This is your peer learning and professional development platform designed to generate knowledge exchange, and the co-creation of resources covering key innovations and trends in endowment management. The Network generates resources and convenings focused on key trends and practices with the guiding principle of generating profits by investing in a thriving, regenerative, and inclusive economy.

We encourage you to connect with others and suggest new activities or projects that would be helpful to you and your organization’s work related to expanding sustainable investing. We invite you to share your feedback on IEN’s activities on an ongoing basis with the IEN team and via the annual membership survey.

The 2020 Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit will be held in partnership with Second Nature from February 23-25, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Higher Education Climate Leadership Summit is the largest national gathering of higher education presidents, chancellors, trustees, and other senior leaders working to accelerate climate solutions through all aspects of institutional activities -- education, research, campus operations, community engagement, and endowment investing. 

Read a recap of the 2020 summit here or watch recorded sessions:

• Endowment Investing Forum (full playlist)
  • Keynote Conversation - Katherine Collins and Matt Orsagh
  • Panel - Learning, Building Consensus, and Setting Policy, featuring California State University, University of New Hampshire, University of Massachusetts, and Wespath Institutional Investments
  • Panel - Implementation - Getting Traction featuring Arizona State University, North Carolina State University, Concordia University, and Warren Wilson College
  • Panel - Implementation Across Asset Classes featuring J Aduke Consulting, EcoSystem Integrity Fund, Graystone Consulting, and Global Endowment Management
• Main Stage Plenary Sessions (full playlist)
  • Keynote Speakers: Nathaniel Smith and Katharine Wilkinson
  • Keynote Speaker: Gina McCarthy
  • Keynote Speaker: Varshini Prakash
  • Social Equity Breakfast Discussion
  • Panel: Aligning Higher Ed Endowment Investing with Climate Leadership Goals

For more details on the 2020 Summit, and to learn about future Summits, please visit the Summit website: www.HigherEdClimateSummit.org

On September 6th, 2019, IEN organized the ESG & Community Impact Investing Roundtable at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. The half-day event brought together a diverse group of endowment decision-makers, investment firms, nonprofit leaders and other stakeholders looking to enhance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration into their investment process to positively impact communities near their campuses and around the world. 

Intentionally Designed Endowments Roundtable

ESG & Community Investing

Berkeley-Haas, September 6, 2019

ACTION PLANNING SESSION OUTCOMES

Below please find the ideas for action and continued conversation that emerged from the closing action planning session at IEN’s ESG & Community Investing Roundtable at Berkeley-Haas on September 6th, 2019. 

For those who proposed each idea -- if you would like to continue the conversation via email and/or by convening a conference call with the others who added their names on post-it notes, please email the group listed under your idea and copy Kaede Kawauchi ([email protected]). 

If you are interested in one of the groups, and your name is not included on the list, please let us know and we will add it and connect you with the person who proposed that group. (*please note: some of the post-it notes fell off the board before we had a chance to take pictures, so please double check that your name is included under each group in which you are interested!) 

Intersection between Opportunity Zones and green bonds as well as indigenous rights

• Katherine Hawthorne
• Jacob Moore
• Sean Martin 

Investing in cooperatives that are led by people of color 

• Jessel Amin
• Rachel Schlueter

Partnership between universities and investment managers 

• Katherine Hawthorne

Connecting university endowments to campus initiatives and programs  

• Trey McDonald
• Katie Parker

Connecting university endowments to surrounding communities

• Felicia Davis
• Jessel Amin
• Amir Kirkwood
• Katherine Hawthorne
• Trey McDonald
• Rachel Schlueter
• Katie Parker

Centralized due diligence + Impact Tracking + Financial Tracking

• Tyler Jackson
• Stephen Malta

Convening around investments in diverse managers

• Jacob Moore
• Sandy Lee

Impact investing practicum @ Haas

• Arpan Soparkar

Role of student managed funds (SIILK Network)

• Katie Parker
• Megan Morrice

Mission-first money creating opportunities that "traditional" dollars can then follow/invest in

• Stephen Malta
• Amir Kirkwood

Metrics of community impact

• Sean Martin
• Laura Young

Storytelling around good investments and founders (esp. diverse-owned)

• Trey McDonald
• Solome Tibebu

Changing narrative about tradeoff between impact + returns

• Amir Kirkwood

Connecting talent to Impact Industry 

• Cathy Garza