by Carla Fredericks and Matt Aguiar, The Christensen Fund
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / February 18, 2025 / The Christensen Fund has long considered how its assets could create positive impact beyond our grantmaking. In the mid-2010s, our Board and Investment Committee piloted multiple small-scale initiatives, including one Program Related Investment, several Mission-Related Investments, and a shareholder activism program. We also began a fossil-fuel divestment initiative.
In 2021, after developing a new program strategy and articulating our organizational Purpose focused on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, we delved deeper into a conversation about the impact of our investments. After updating our Investment Policy Statement (IPS) to "align our investments and our values", we spent over a year developing what we called our "Purpose Aligned Capital" plan.
This collaborative process, which included members of our staff, Board, Investment Committee, OCIO, and external consultants and peers, was approved by our Board at the end of 2022 and created three distinct sleeves for our assets:
Program Related Investments (PRIs) would have absolute alignment with our program strategy and Purpose, and may underperform, have wider range of outcomes, or be less liquid relative to other strategies in the same asset class;
Purpose Aligned Investments (PAIs) would be expected to generate market-rate returns and actively support our Purpose; and
Values Aligned Investments (VAI) would be expected to generate market-rate returns and not be opposed to the principles that The Christensen Fund stands for.
We spent the entirety of 2023 fleshing out parameters and qualifiers for each of these categories, and by the end of that year, we made our first commitments under this new Purpose Aligned Capital strategy.
Indigenous Peoples face more threats today than ever before. By building an investment portfolio with a commitment to supporting Indigenous economic livelihoods, The Christensen Fund has taken action to support Indigenous self-determination. Achieving economic justice will require others to join in this effort. We know that, just as they have for millennia before, Indigenous Peoples can and will emerge from these challenges. We are excited for this future.
Read the full article here - https://greenmoney.com/supporting-indigenous-self-determination-through-a-spectrum-of-capital-2/
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SOURCE: GreenMoney Journal
