Monday
June 15
2020

Have We Reached the Tipping Point in Racial Equity Investing?

By Bonnie Chiu

In the past few weeks, racial equity and justice have been the central rallying cry, across the world. This has prompted many individuals and institutions to speak out against racial injustice, not least in the investing industry. On June 10, Confluence Philanthropy, a membership network of foundations and impact investors, launched a pledge for racial equity. The pledge is a commitment to “discussing racial equity at our next investment committee meeting.” As of June 13, 67 institutions have signed up, representing $533.96 billion in assets under management.

The change has been long time coming, after decades of influencing and activism, but is it enough? “I was part of the conference and really urged Confluence to have the pledge be about adding racial equity to the Investment Policy Statement (IPS). Instead they decided the ask would be to have a conversation. I am happy to see them doing something and yet it didn’t feel like enough during these times,” says Kristin Hull, PhD of Nia Impact Capital, an impact investing firm actively advocating for racial and gender lens investing.

Photo courtesy of UnratedStudio.

Source: Forbes (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Impact Assessment, Investing
Tags
corporate social responsibility, gender equality, gender lens, social enterprise