We can’t believe the Climate Action Pursuit is right around the corner! In this week’s news, we want to remind you that the February Milestone will be starting on February 24th. Be sure to register in advance to meet our 80+ speakers, and get access to 40+ sessions before it's too late.

We are equally excited to announce you of the release of IEN’s 2020 Impact Report. It was a challenging year, and we are grateful for everything this network accomplished, including the strong peer support we have seen and felt all year. Please take a moment to reflect on our year together and the impact the network is having.

Additionally, we’d like to inform you that you’ll be receiving a Special Climate Action Pursuit brief next week in lieu of the regular weekly news roundup.

Have a great weekend!

We’ve got a big announcement for you this week. We are humbled and honored to have both Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jacqueline Patterson join us at the 2021 Climate Action Pursuit as our February milestone keynote speakers. Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native and Jacqueline Patterson is the Director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program.

Hoping you’ve already registered and are as excited as we are for the February 24th Pursuit Kick-off, we invite you to take a look at the session descriptions here and recommend you log in to start securing your sessions of interest. 

This post by Gwladys Ngatchou, of IEN, is part of a series in which IEN members and network partners share their thinking about intentional endowment investing to address racial injustice and other diversity, equity, and inclusion themes. Follow along to read members' insights on five points endowments and institutions can learn and apply from IEN’s primer to gain financial returns while investing for a just and sustainable economy.

As we celebrate the contributions of African Americans in their struggles for freedom and equality during this Black History Month, we invite you to learn ways to address systemic equalities through your investment portfolio from our Racial Equity Primer.

Registering for The Racial Equity Investment Frameworks, Diversity in endowment’s asset management, and Due Diligence 2.0 commitment sessions of the Climate Action Pursuit will help you effectively engage with racial equity work.

Use this link to join us for Climate Action Pursuit office hours and get all of your questions answered and all of the information you need on Thursday, February 11th at 1 PM EDT. More information below.

David Carris is an Endowment and Foundation Consultant with the UBS Institutional Consulting Program and Financial Advisor based in South Burlington, Vermont. He combines extensive work in the not-for-profit sector with over 25 years professional investment experience to help nonprofits and foundations navigate the unique challenges of endowment management. After joining his first board in high school he has either worked for or served on a nonprofit board continuously ever since. He has designed and administered grant-making programs and served in multiple board leadership roles including strategic planning, development, and board chair. Top-of-mind for many organizations today are questions of fiduciary responsibility, effective asset management with limited resources, and sustainable spending policies. He also brings long experience in social and environmentally aware investing to help foundations better align their endowments with their purpose through mission-based, sustainable, and impact investing.
 
He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. from the University of Vermont. Prior to his work in finance, David spent thirteen years working in economic development, community planning, and historic preservation. He holds the Endowments and Foundations and the Certified Investment Manager Certificates through the Wharton School and the Investment Management Consultant Association.

financialservicesinc.ubs.com/fa/davidcarris

Libby George, Director of Investments, North Carolina State University

Carol Jeppesen, Head of US, UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)

Evelyn Murphy

Founder and President of The WAGE Project, Inc. (WAGE)

Evelyn Murphy is founder and President of The WAGE Project, Inc. (WAGE), a nationwide, grassroots, action-organization dedicated to eliminating the gender wage gap. Prior to turning over $tart $mart and Work $mart-- salary negotiation workshops teaching women how to get paid what we are worth—to the American Association of University Women, WAGE facilitated these workshops in 49 states on 400 campuses and to working women. Now, she co-chairs of the Mayor Walsh’s Boston Women’s Workforce Council, working with employers to eliminate their gender wage gaps.

She served as MA Secretary of Environmental Affairs and later, Secretary of Economic Affairs. In 1986, she was elected Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, becoming the first woman in the state’s 200 year history to hold any constitutional office.

Dr. Murphy is Director of Citizens Energy Corporation. She has been a corporate director of six publicly traded, mutual and privately held corporations. In her civic role, she is a founding Director of The Commonwealth Institute; Trustee, the MA Treasurer’s Economic Empowerment Trust Fund; Advisory Board Member of both the Center for Women and Work, UMass Lowell and the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, UMass Boston.

She earned a BA in mathematics from Duke University; MA in economics from Columbia University; a PhD in economics from Duke University. She is the author of Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What To Do About It, recipient of eleven honorary degrees, and the Distinguished Alumnae Award of Duke University Graduate School, and over one hundred awards from federal, state and community organizations, including in 2017 the Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce

It has been an eventful week. First the observation of Martin Luther King Jr Day whose work on racial equity is as relevant now as ever and the peaceful transfer of power at the Capitol Hill this Wednesday. It’s just been a couple of days since the Biden-Harris administration took over yet, we can already see traction on climate policy at the overall office. 

In this week’s news, we invite you to sign-on an investor policy recommendation letter to President Biden encouraging the adoption of these recommendations by the Biden-Harris transition team. Read the letter and sign on here. 

Guided by our conviction that responsible investing is the best way to create wealth over the long term, Federated Hermes provides specialized capabilities across a wide range of asset classes to investors around the world. The company offers a broad range of investment strategies, from liquidity solutions to high active share global and regional equities to active credit and private markets. Each investment team works with Responsible Investing Office personnel as they look to incorporate proprietary ESG tools and insights from our in-house engagement and stewardship team, EOS at Federated Hermes.

Holden Lee, Chief Investment Officer, and CFO

I am a purpose-driven leader with deep experience in helping corporations, mission-driven entities, and individuals achieve their strategic objectives. My unique perspective comes from more than twenty-five years of hands-on creative work in the capital markets at the intersection of the public, private, and philanthropic spheres, including public-private partnerships, portfolio management, and ESG / sustainable / impact investing. In assuming multiple roles in my career - as an investor, operating executive, transaction lead, grantee, consultant, board member - I see patterns and solutions across systems, sectors, and issue areas. I am particularly interested in working with evolving organizations and families and developing innovative investment strategies that mobilize resources to help solve the pressing issues of our time.

- Organizational governance, enterprise risk, and financial operations
- Board and Investment / Finance / Audit Committee experience
- Creating and implementing sophisticated investment portfolios across a full range of asset classes
- Trends in wealth management, institutional investing, philanthropy
- ESG / Sustainable / Impact Investing, with a focus on strategic alignment, private investments, program-related investments, and blended Return on Investment (ROI) frameworks
- Fund development strategy
- Multi-Family Office leadership
- Community Foundation strategy and operations
- Private investments (private equity, venture capital, real estate)
- Real assets: project finance, infrastructure, cleantech, land, water, ecosystems services and conservation credits 

We delighted to inform you that we hosted a webinar last Saturday in collaboration with The Boarding School on how young people with a seat at the table can add unique perspectives to their university’s investment practices and oversight. You can see the recording of the event here. We equally had an engaging webinar on how participating asset owners and managers can leverage CDP’s disclosure database to support sustainability and climate-related investment goals. For those that couldn’t make it, you can access the recording here. 

Also, remember to register for our upcoming webinar on the importance of incorporating biodiversity risk into your portfolio and how you can make informed investment decisions around biodiversity. Register here.

IEN Working Groups meet regularly to advance key strategies in support of the network's goals. Below, is a brief description of the current Working Groups.  Some are intended to be long-standing, while others form around specific tasks for a short period of time. If you are interested in participating in existing Working Groups, or forming new ones, please contact us. 

In this new year, while we look forward to working together, we acknowledge the attack on American democratic institutions this week and appreciate the responses of higher education and business leaders to hold those responsible accountable.

We are excited to inform you the 2021 Climate Action Pursuit is now open for registration! Make sure you secure your spot here. We are also thrilled to announce the request for proposal submissions have been extended to January 12, 2021. Help elevate the pursuit agenda by submitting a session proposal here.

We equally extend our gratitude to Prime Buchholz and Global Endowment Management for sponsoring IEN’s 2021 Diversity Equity and Inclusion Initiative.