Measuring Our Impact and ESG Investing

The RBF strives for transparency as a means to promote accountability and knowledge-sharing. To contribute to that effort, we periodically provide updates on our approach to assessing the nonfinancial outcomes of our mission-aligned investing. 

Our mission-aligned investing approach, applied across the Fund’s endowment, includes:

• Divesting from investments in fossil fuels. 
• Adopting an ESG lens. 
• Impact investing. 
• Increasing diversity among its investment managers. 
• Exercising active ownership. 
• Leveraging RBF’s influence to build the field of mission-aligned investing. 

The RBF’s mission-aligned investment strategy mandates that all our investments meet market-rate return and risk attributes, supporting the idea that what is good for people and planet can also be good for the bottom line. 

Aligning our endowment with our mission has been an iterative journey. Our progress in fossil fuel divestment and diversity among the Fund’s investment managers is shared each year on the RBF’s website. 

In addition, we measure our impact and ESG portfolios against Impact Management Project’s Five Dimensions of Impact, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), and Global Impact Investing Network’s IRIS+ System. 

Together with the RBF Investment Committee and our OCIO, Agility, we shared the first assessment of our ESG and impact managers in 2018 and provided updates in 2021. In 2023, we expanded our efforts to measure the nonfinancial returns of ESG and impact investment portfolios. 

2023 KEY FINDINGS: 

• As of August 2023, the RBF’s commitments to impact investments represented 19.9 percent of the endowment, nearing the 20 percent target we set in 2016. 
• The RBF’s impact portfolio is currently aligned with 16 of the 17 UN SDGs. 
• As of August 2023, RBF’s investments in ESG funds represented 14.7 percent of the portfolio. 
• The RBF’s ESG portfolio is currently aligned with 10 of the 17 UN SDGs. 
• The Fund exercised its shareholder engagement rights for the 30 percent of its global equities portfolio structured as direct ownership. Among the shareholder proposals submitted to the companies in this portion of our portfolio, board diversity and board oversight, corporate political influence, workplace diversity, and human rights dominated as key themes in 2022. 
• An additional 37 percent of our global equities portfolio companies have guidelines that reflect environmental, social, and governance issues that tend to align with RBF’s proxy voting policy. 

The RBF will continuously evolve and improve how we look at the nonfinancial return of our investment portfolio and aims to share learnings publicly.