Divestment is an important issue that many nonprofits and associations have been grappling with recently. If it's coming up in your organization or you're wondering how to handle it if it does, there are a few things to know to be prepared. First, it's a way of aligning your investments with your organization's values by strategically deciding to no longer invest in certain companies. For some organizations we work with, this means avoiding "sin" stocks, which derive revenue from the sale of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. For others, it means restricting investment in oil & gas stocks over environmental concerns or in certain companies that present a conflict of interest. Regardless of what you're trying to restrict, when you're building a mission-aligned investment strategy, there are three important considerations: 1️⃣ Are your organization’s values clearly stated as part of a mission statement, statement of values, or strategic plan? It’s important that the choice to divest is based on clearly defined organizational values, not personal values. 2️⃣ Are stakeholders comfortable divesting knowing that there will be a performance impact? The impact could be positive or negative over the short-term, but what you want to avoid is stakeholders questioning your investment strategy during periods of underperformance. Clear benchmarking that outlines your performance expectation will help bring context to the performance results of your mission-aligned strategy. Stakeholders need to know why performance may differ from your benchmark and remain disciplined over time. 3️⃣ Ongoing education is important. Volunteers turn over regularly. New Board Member conviction in the organization's values – regardless of performance impact – is crucial to sticking with the decision to divest. Restricting investment and aligning your organization's values with your investments can be a complicated process. Ask yourself those three questions first! #divestment #investmentstrategy #esg #sociallyresponsibleinvesting —— ✉️ Let me know what other nonprofit investing topics I should cover. 📣 Share if you found this helpful. 🔔 Follow me for more insights on investing for nonprofits and associations.
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🔈Webinar 3: Capital Raising for Impact: Innovative Strategies and Challenges in Funding For-Purpose Organisations 🔈 Join us for the final session in the series, The Great Shift: How Trusts and Foundations are Revolutionising Philanthropy with Responsible and Impact Investing. Learn from experts Tom Dawkins (LendForGood), Mark Daniels (White Box Enterprises), Harry Breidahl (For Purpose Investment Partners), and Brian Wyborn (First Australians Capital ) about the latest approaches to funding impactful initiatives. Discover how peers raise capital for For-Purpose Organisations, including topics like concessional capital, blended finance, and market building. Part 3 is now live! 🎉 Click the link to watch the webinar: https://buff.ly/4e2ahWA This webinar series is powered by the Menzies Foundation and hosted in partnership with Brightlight and OnImpact Media. ______________________________________________________________________ Menzies Foundation glean insights about leadership by identifying leadership challenges and building catalytic initiatives to address these challenges at scale. Every grant that the Foundation makes, aspires to contribute to platforms that ultimately unlock capital at scale. Therefore, it is imperative that we bring the same ambition and rigor that defines our grant making approach, to consideration of the investment of the Foundation’s corpus, and the way that this can support the development of blended capital solutions to build sustainable systemic change platforms. ______________________________________________________________________ #TheGreatShift #ImpactFunding #PhilanthropyCapital #InnovativeInvesting #ImpactCapital #PhilanthropyInnovation #FundingStrategies #PhilanthropyFunding #WebinarSeries #MenziesFoundation #Brightlight #GreaterGood #Purpose #Leadership #Leader #BestPractice
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Introducing the 7th P of Investment Stewardship: Progression! ⏩ Commonfund Institute highlights the need for organizations to adapt, reassess, and innovate by embracing diverse voices. Dive deeper into the Case for the 7th P here... https://hubs.ly/Q02XJ39C0
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Today's OnImpact Media shares news of the Endowments for Impact Challenge - a first-of-its kind competition that IIA is proud to be administering. If you're an investment advisor keen to show trusts and foundations how they can best align their investments with their values and use their corpus to build a better world, check out this story. #impactinvesting #impactmatters #philanthropicinvestment
Challenge to Australian investment advisors launched with a $170m philanthropic investment pool - OnImpact
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Introducing the 7th P of Investment Stewardship: Progression! ⏩ Commonfund Institute highlights the need for organizations to adapt, reassess, and innovate by embracing diverse voices. Dive deeper into the Case for the 7th P here... https://hubs.ly/Q02XJg_R0
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This might be the best article I've read this week and I rarely watch recordings longer than about 20 minutes (confession) but this was 100% worth the watch! "Aligning investments and grantmaking behind your mission: Can foundations do it?" via Alliance magazine with thanks to Future of Good for sharing. Spoiler alert: "There’s no reason that every foundation in the country should not be doing impact investing with all their capital." Roy Swan, Ford Foundation with Tamara Larsen, Clara Miller & Shafi Musaddique #impactinvesting https://lnkd.in/ghZJgKJ5
Aligning investments and grantmaking behind your mission: Can foundations do it? - Alliance magazine
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Introducing the 7th P of Investment Stewardship: Progression! ⏩ Commonfund Institute highlights the need for organizations to adapt, reassess, and innovate by embracing diverse voices. Dive deeper into the Case for the 7th P here... https://hubs.ly/Q02XJgBW0
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📌 Exciting Article On page 8 of philanthropy Impacts latest magazine, Stephanie Glover explores using cutting edge financial products to empower hands-on philanthropy and sustainable investment. This fascinating article shines a light on: 🟣 The rise of ‘hands-on’ philanthropy 🟣 Increasing sustainable and impact investment 🟣 Financial products and structures 🟣 Economic and social impact To read more, visit our website: https://ow.ly/KlBG50Svfnr
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Collaboration & Enthusiasm | Project Management and Organisational Change | Striving to be a Good Citizen and Ancestor
Small and practical ✅ ✅ I don't know about you, but there seems to be so many breakfast meetings, networking sessions, coffee catch ups, inspirational events, webinars, and round tables. I don't have the time ⏱ I don't have the headspace 🧠 That's why I look out for the small and practical events that are being organised around environmental philanthropy, impactful investing, and responsible business. I can make meaningful connections 🔗 I can see a practical next step 🔜 A great example was last week's 'Intro to Social Investment' breakfast, organised by The Fore and presented by Jem Stein from Daring Capital. There was about 20 of us around the table, and Jem clearly laid out how we might be able to continue our journeys in social investment. He had specific data and relatable case studies, which led to more useful interactions after the presentation. What kind of events do you prefer to attend? #socialinvestment #impactinvesting #venturephilanthropy #events #stakeholdernegagement #presentations
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6moWell said! For anyone who is interested in learning more about values-based investing, we're hosting a webinar on the topic next Wednesday at 1pm! Use this link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6IXagN_LRGq13oq83rRX6w