In Pursuit of Deeper Impact Mobilizing Capital for Social Equity
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In Pursuit of Deeper Impact Mobilizing Capital for Social Equity By Katherine Pease With Sarah L. Thomas Foreword By Jed Emerson About the Authors Katherine Pease Katherine Pease is the principal of KP Advisors. She has worked with foundations, investors and nonprofit organizations for more than 20 years. She served as the executive director of the Gill Foundation and as Senior Vice President for Philanthropic Investments and Policy at Gary Community Investments, which includes The Piton Foundation. She has also consulted exten- sively with foundations, investors and nonprofit organizations on strategy, program design, organizational development, and related topics. She regularly presents on topics ranging from social equity in impact investing to strategic planning for foundations and philanthropic networks. She earned her Bache- lor of Arts from The Colorado College and her Masters in Public Administration from The University of Colorado where she is also a Lecturer in the School of Public Affairs. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Global Greengrants Fund. She is also on the Steering Committee of Impact Finance Center at the University of Denver and she serves on the Advisory Board for the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado. Sarah L. Thomas Sarah’s work over the past fifteen years has focused on ad- vancing healthy communities and environments in the United States and globally. The principal of Sarah Thomas Consulting, LLC, Sarah specializes in programmatic research and analysis, strategy development, and communications for philanthropic, nonprofit, and government clients. Her projects have addressed a variety of issues at the intersection of environmental policy and social justice, including land use and public health, rural gentrification, smart growth, community-based natural resourc- es management, and climate mitigation and adaptation. Previ- ously, Sarah was a research fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a staff member at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She has taught undergraduate courses on environ- mental policy and social change at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Colorado, Boulder. She currently is a Board Member for the Wildlands Restoration Volunteers. Sarah holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University. ii KP Advisors is an experienced advisory firm that works with foun- dations and investors to achieve their strategic goals. At KP Advisors, we are convinced that many of the biggest issues confronting society, including widening economic inequality, climate change, and social injustice that is based on race, gender, sexual orientation and other factors, can be ameliorated through impact investing and philanthropy. Our mission is to help grantmakers, investors, and nonprofit organizations develop thoughtful, innovative approaches to address the challenges they care most about by using a variety of types of capital and other resources to make the world more just, fair and equitable. iii Acknowledgements This paper was made possible by a This paper would not have been number of people and institutions possible without the generous whose vision, support and funding support of our funders to whom were critical to its development. we are deeply grateful for their We are deeply appreciative to ev- encouragement as well as their eryone who generously contributed financial support, includingThe their wisdom, time and financial Colorado Health Foundation, the resources. L.P. Brown Foundation, the Libra Foundation, and The Ben and Lucy Ana Walton Fund of the Walton In particular, we would like to Family Foundation. thank those individuals who shared their wisdom and time with us in the interview process. For a Finally, we would like to especially complete list of interviewees, see thank Jed Emerson for his guidance, Appendix A. We would also like to wisdom, and friendship. He provid- thank the individuals who reviewed ed continuous input throughout drafts of the paper, including the conceptualization, research Chinesom Ejiasa formerly of Over- and writing of the paper and never seas Private Investment Corpora- faltered in his ability to ask hard tion (OPIC), Patrick Horvath of The questions while providing encour- Denver Foundation, Kellea Miller agement and thoughtful feedback. of KSMiller Consulting, Will Morgan The entire impact investment field of Sonen Capital, Jennifer Near is indebted to Jed for his many of the Libra Foundation, Marielle years of thinking, speaking, prod- Oetjen, Regan Pritzker of the Libra ding, and leading – indeed, it is Foundation, and Kate Reinemund impossible to imagine the industry of ImpactCharitable. We are also without his involvement and we grateful to Bruce Pfrommer of are grateful for his continued lead- OnDesign who provided the page ership in pushing us all to think layout and design work. more deeply about social equity in impact investing. In addition, we would like to rec- ognize the early support of our in- The viewpoints expressed in the paper do stitutional partners, the University not necessarily reflect those of its funders, of Colorado Denver School of Public reviewers, or other collaborators. Affairs, and ImpactCharitable, our fiscal sponsor for the project. iv KP ADVISORS © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 2016 CONTENTS About the Authors �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ii Acknowledgements ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������iv Foreword �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vi Overview �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2 Background ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������5 Socially Equitable Investing �����������������������������������������������������������������������7 Expectations for Comparable Levels of Risk, Return, and Time frame ���������8 Aligning Philanthropic and For-profit Capital �����������������������������������������������������9 Sharing Risk ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������14 Investment Time Horizon �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������18 Investment Theses ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������21 Learning from Philanthropic Theories of Change �������������������������������������������22 Socially Equitable Impact Theses ������������������������������������������������������������������������23 Evaluation of Social Equity �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������24 Engaging Beneficiaries in the Investment Process �����������26 Beneficiary Engagement in the Process of Co-Determining Value �������������27 The Historic Gulf Between Resource Holders and Recipients ���������������������28 Beneficiary Engagement as a Tool for Risk Mitigation ����������������������������������34 Strategies for Engaging Beneficiaries In the Investment Process �������������36 Conclusion and Recommendations ���������������������������������������������������44 Appendex A - Interviewees �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������46 Endnotes ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������47 Bibliography ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������49 v Foreword BY JED EMERSON A DECADE AGO, THE TRADITIONAL WEALTH management and advisory community largely viewed the notion of using capital to generate financial returns with social and environmental impacts as the purview of social workers and investors willing to forgo financial performance in return for feel-good notions of creating a better world. Today, most major institutional advisory and management firms have at least an “impact practice” and several have plunged a public stake in the ground, committing their brand and reputation to advancing impact investment offerings. Within philanthropy, while the rhet- Nations is exploring how impact oric has in some ways outperformed investing may be leveraged as a the allocation of capital, interest tool for achieving the next round of in impact investing is strong and sustainable development goals. Lead- commitments are growing. Mission ing business schools in the United Investor’s Exchange is seeing an States and Europe are now expected ever increasing pool of foundations to offer students the opportunity to interested in integrating impact learn the skills of impact investing investing with the best practices of not as an add on to fluff up a resume, philanthropic strategy. One cannot but as a clear and important part of attend a national convening of professional development. foundations or nonprofit organiza- tions without seeing sessions on the While the growth of impact investing agenda addressing impact investing. is unmistakable, it is also clear that with such growth comes a renewed The growth of the field is evident in focus upon a set of fundamental the U.S. and globally. For example, questions concerning how we define