Investor approaches to mission-related investing (MRI) are as varied as the social and environmental outcomes they seek to achieve. Based on responses from 148 clients—54 of which are engaged in mission-related investing—this chart book explores trends in the structure, implementation, and governance of MRI programs; investor motivations and perceived challenges; and expectations for future growth in MRI investment activity.
With a gender lens framework, investors can positively impact gender imbalances via their portfolio management choices; this paper provides tangible investment themes and implementable strategies.
There is perhaps no better time for social equity investing. Many institutional investors have long sought to promote social equity through grant making and other philanthropic endeavors. With the field of impact investing maturing, these institutions are now increasingly seeking investment solutions to accomplish the same goal. In this paper we review the current state of social equity in the United States, highlight eight core social equity issue areas, and discuss the lessons we’ve learned in constructing portfolios with these investments. While investors need to be mindful of risks, we believe that investments can be made to promote a social equity impact agenda across the portfolio.
Though the US government is no longer supporting the Paris Climate Agreement, many endowments, foundations, and other US institutions remain committed to aligning their investment policies with the goals of the international accord. Together with the Intentional Endowments Network, Cambridge Associates has outlined considerations for incorporating environmental, social, and governance factors into the development of investment policy statements, as well as a blueprint for incorporating language around the Paris accord into an institution’s IPS. Articulating Purpose, Priorities, and Principles in a well-designed investment policy can help interested institutions effectively incorporate environmental concerns into their investment portfolios.
Within impact investing, real assets investments constitute one of the largest opportunity sets. This report presents findings from our analysis of the financial performance of 55 private real assets impact investing funds across three sectors: timber, real estate, and infrastructure. We find that risk-adjusted market rates of return are achievable in impact investing, but note that as with conventional funds, manager selection is key to success.
Investor approaches to mission-related investing (MRI) are as varied as the social and environmental outcomes they seek to achieve. This survey report explores trends in the structure and implementation of MRI programs, investor motivations and perceived challenges, and expectations for future growth in MRI investment activity, based on responses from 159 non-profit clients, 50 of which are actively making mission-related investments.
Our examination of incorporation of environmental, social, and governance factors into the stock selection process for two major MSCI indexes finds evidence that ESG factors added value in emerging markets equities but not developed markets equities.
Before incorporating impact investments into their portfolios, we encourage families to define the overall context for their impact investments. Our contextual framework—focused on purpose, priorities, and principles—establishes the base of impact strategy and guides the development of governance structures. These elements will help ensure that family values and decision-making processes are advantages rather than obstacles in pursuing impact investing goals and objectives.
Considering climate factors is an economic risk management and opportunity capitalization issue core to prudent investing for the long term.
September’s publication summarizes two articles addressing sustainability issues in an investing context. The first suggests that security analysts who consider a broad dataset beyond financial data in making investment decisions may develop unique insights, and the second argues that firms with good performance on material sustainability factors outperform firms with poor performance.