Double Impact: Inspiring Family Offices to Invest in Positive Change

TL;DR

Family offices can invest in positive change by seeking financial returns alongside measurable social or environmental impact and by aligning their endowments with their missions. The global impact investing market doubled from $114 billion to $228 billion in one year, while the Rockefeller Brothers Fund began moving away from fossil fuels within its $1.2 billion endowment. Read on for the panelists’ strategies, motivations, and structural challenges.

Transcript

well thank you for joining us today to discuss what is in my opinion the best topic of this conference impact investing and I my name is Lindsay as she said I'm with the Sorenson impact foundation I'm delighted to be here with you all along with my distinguished panelists to discuss investing and positive change and how family offices have led in t... Read More

Key Insights

• 🌐 The global impact investing market has experienced significant growth, reaching $228 billion in assets.
• 🥺 Millennials are leading the way in impact investing, with 77% of them including impact investments in their portfolios.
• 👾 The panelists in this discussion are influential figures in the impact investing space, dedicated to promoting and growing the ecosystem.
• 🧑‍🚒 Divesting from fossil fuels has been a major focus, with organizations aligning their endowments with their mission to fight climate change.
• 💱 Legislative changes, such as the Cipro legislation and the BUILD Act, are providing opportunities for impactful investing and catalyzing social change.
• 💦 Impact investing projects, such as zero mass water and the Impact network, are innovative solutions addressing critical societal issues.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is impact investing?

Impact investing means making investments with the intention of generating a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return. The discussion presents it as a way to address social problems through scalable, self-sustaining business and innovation.

Q: How can family offices invest in positive change?

Family offices can align their capital with their social or environmental missions, invest directly in impact opportunities, and help build networks and intermediaries for the field. The panelists describe using foundations, family offices, investment committees, and investor membership networks to support this work.

Q: How much did the global impact investing market grow?

The global impact investing market doubled in one year. Its assets increased from $114 billion to $228 billion.

Q: How interested are millennials in impact investing?

As of 2018, 77% of millennials had portfolios that included impact investments. The discussion also says they continued to seek bonds with themes associated with impact investing.

Q: Why did the Rockefeller Brothers Fund align its endowment with its mission?

The fund directs about half of its annual charitable giving toward addressing and fighting climate change. It considered it hypocritical to support that mission while also investing in fossil fuel companies, so it sought to increase the overall impact of the organization by aligning its investments with its mission.

Q: How large was the Rockefeller Brothers Fund endowment, and how much was invested in fossil fuels?

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund was aligning a $1.2 billion endowment with its mission. About 7% of the endowment was invested directly in fossil fuel companies.

Q: What made mission-aligned investing difficult for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund?

The fund used an outsourced chief investment office that placed its money in commingled funds with other clients. Because the outsourced office controlled those investments, the fund found it structurally difficult to align its endowment with its mission and first had to take back its money.

Q: Who are the impact-investing panelists featured in Double Impact?

The panel includes Justin Rockefeller, chairman and co-founder of the Impact and a member of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund investment committee; Jim Sorenson, founder and president of the Sorenson Impact Foundation; and Sandro Salsano, president of the Salsano Group and chairman of the Salsano family office. Lindsay of the Sorenson Impact Foundation moderates the discussion.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Impact investing has experienced tremendous growth, with the global market reaching $228 billion in assets.

• Millennials are increasingly including impact investments in their portfolios, with 77% of them seeking investments with themes associated with impact investing.

• The panelists in this discussion are trailblazers in the field and have dedicated their careers to promoting and growing the impact investing ecosystem.