A large grantmaking charity has announced that it will invest all of its around £400m financial endowment in a way that is aligned with its charitable mission.
Last month, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said it would move to a “fully mission-aligned” investment approach instead of one focused primarily on generating financial returns.
To lead this shift, the JRF is recruiting an associate director of investment to design, set up, implement and steer the new approach “while cultivating an ecosystem of aligned investors, funders and partners”.
‘Time to change our approach’
In a statement, JRF’s group chief executive Paul Kissack said his charity already applies strong environmental, social and governance criteria to its investments.
It has also allocated 5% (or £20m) of its endowment to social investment, including direct investments to charities and social enterprises and indirect payments through fund managers, over the past decade.
“But it remains the case that the lion’s share of the wealth we steward hasn’t historically been focused directly on furthering our mission, but instead on growing in financial value,” Kissack said.
“It’s time to change our approach.”
Kissack said JRF’s trustees made the decision to adopt a new strategy and move to a “fully mission-aligned” endowment over time last year.
To achieve this, he said, JRF will move its wealth “into a new mix of social, impact and transformational investments, better aligned with our mission” in the coming years.
“Investments that will strike a new balance between financial return and contribution to the mission, giving greater prioritisation to the latter.
“And we’ll do this alongside spending significantly more on mission-aligned activity and system-changing work, over and above historic levels.”
Not spending down
Kissack said JRF would not spend down its endowment, like some other grantmakers, as his charity has several medium- and long-term obligations.
“Most importantly, we’re the proud parent organisation of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, continuing our founder’s legacy in York and the region, committed to meeting our long-term obligations to the trust and to its tenants in creating permanent, thriving communities.
“But, while continuing to meet those long-term commitments, we’ll also take a new approach – making sure that the money we steward isn’t just growing, but working much harder to support the transition to a more equitable world, reallocating money from market-first to impact-first investments aligned with our mission.”
He added that JRF would begin to make “meaningful progress on this new endowment strategy” this year.
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