October 3, 2019
Managing Your School's Endowment
Governance Issues Related to ESG Investing
For those of us who are not professionals in the financial industry, you may be asking what is "ESG Investing" and what does it have to do with my school's endowment?
Many nonprofit organizations have begun to align their investing behaviors with their organizations values and ESG investing is one way of doing that. The acronym ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. In addition to traditional stock performance analysis, investors can also add an 'ESG' filter in evaluating potential stocks for your school's endowment portfolio. For example,
Environmental: Does a company have stated greenhouse gas emission goals or a history of EPA violations?
Social: Do they have ethical supply chain sourcing; diversity and inclusion in hiring employees?
Governance: Are executives entitled to golden parachutes upon exit; are chairman and CEO roles separate?
As a Board, have you discussed whether you want your school's investments aligned with your school's values? What does that mean and how might it impact your endowment portfolio and its performance?
According to a July 2, 2019 article in Vanguard,
"In striving to meet their mission, nonprofits have helped drive demand for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing to more than $30.7 trillion global ESG assets, as of December 31, 2018, based on data from Global Sustainable Investment Alliance."
Vanguard recently published
ESG Investing—A Governance Guide for Nonprofit Fiduciaries, to help nonprofits better understand and navigate an ESG approach to investing. To read this white paper,
There is still time to Register for the
ISCA Fall Governance Conference !!
Don't Miss This Opportunity!
October 24 - Member reception
October 25 - Conference
The Penn Club, New York, NY
Register Today!!!
