The team at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation is always in conversations about how to put values into action. In 2019, those conversations highlighted a need for KZCF’s investment pool to align with the vision of an equitable community. In collaboration with the team at Greenleaf Trust, a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) pool was developed for the Community Foundation.

The KZCF SRI portfolio is designed with a holistic approach to sustainable and responsible investing. The funds in the SRI pool are managed by firms that identify and actively remove, or include, companies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations like pollution, diversity, human rights, or weapons and tobacco. While the investments align with KZCF’s SRI goals and ESG screens, achieving strong risk-adjusted performance remains a focus.

Although there is still much work to be done, there were positive trends since KZCF made the SRI option available in 2019.

"Many of the KZCF portfolio managers continue to engage with their portfolio companies on environmental, social and governance issues," says Lucas Mansberger, Investment Strategist at Greenleaf Trust.

"For example, during 2020, Parnassus Investments participated in 238 engagements with portfolio companies where they communicated their goal for the companies to have at least one person of color on their boards, encouraging them to disclose racial/ethnic and gender data of their workforce and pressing them to incorporate racial equity initiatives into their operations, products and services."

The SRI option is open to any endowed fund type or non-endowed donor advised fund investing for the long-term. Fund representative may recommend that a fund they established be invested in the SRI pool, as long as it aligns with the donor’s intentions for the fund.