Expanding Our Outreach to Increase Mission-Aligned Investing Dollars
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is proud to join other institutions reimagining ways of better deploying their investment assets, not only to create financial returns but also to generate measurable social impact. The Fund has been an active partner with several like-minded organizations, supporting the advancement of mission aligned investing, including Confluence Philanthropy, The ImPact, and DivestInvest.
We are pleased now to further our outreach by joining the newly expanded U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, as well as to partner with Mission Investors Exchange as a member of its inaugural class of sustaining members. RBF President Stephen Heintz and Vice President for Finance and Operations Geraldine Watson are participants on the Alliance’s Presidents’ Council on Impact Investing, which comprises the CEOs and senior staff of 20 of the largest U.S. foundations with a combined $60 billion in endowed assets which are deeply committed to practicing and promoting impact investing.
The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance was founded last year by representatives from philanthropy, business, and finance to champion the potential of impact investing by increasing awareness of mission aligned investing in the U.S., fostering deployment of and demand for impact capital across asset classes globally, and by partnering with policymakers and other stakeholders to build the impact investing ecosystem.
The Mission Investors Exchange serves as a network of foundations engaged in impact investing. Its 200 members comprise a vibrant community committed to tackling the world’s most intractable social and environmental issues, from climate change and global health to education and quality jobs.
Over the last decade, the Fund has worked to activate more than just its annual grantmaking payments and to tap into the remaining 95 percent of its financial assets in strategic ways that support its mission of a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. This process of mission alignment has incorporated proxy voting, fossil fuel divestment, impact investment strategies, along with the integration of broad ESG principles in its endowment management. Shifting from an endowment investment approach that focused solely on financial returns, the Fund now seeks opportunities that also generate measurable positive social impact.
Related Links:
The U.S. Impact Investing Alliance (www.impinvalliance.org)
Mission Investors Exchange (www.missioninvestors.org)
Read more about the Fund's mission-aligned investments
Case Study: Activating the Fund’s Endowment for Extra Impact