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• More for Mission members invest in ESG Emerging Markets Product

  January 26, 2010

  By Lisa Hagerman, Tuesday, January 26, 2010

  Catalyzed by investor demand, innovative products continue to emerge in the field of mission investing. While there has been interest in ESG investing for years there were no options for US investors in the international emerging markets equities beyond negative screening.

  Now, after a search conducted by Cambridge Associates, in conjunction with four seed investors, a fund manager has been selected to manage what could be the first U.S.-based co-mingled emerging markets product that will incorporate several SRI strategies including positive ESG screens, negative screens, and corporate engagement. Seed investors thus far include More for Mission members Fetzer Institute and the Meyer Memorial Trust. Several other foundations have also demonstrated interest. Cambridge has indicated that the fund manager will accept investments with a minimum of $1 million to be able to include smaller investors.

  posted 12:24PM 01/26/2010 by Lisa Hagerman
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• Banking Organizations Channel Funding to Distressed Communities

  January 13, 2010

  By Lisa Hagerman, January 13, 2010

  Two national organizations -- the Community Development Bankers Association (CDBA) and Promontory Interfinancial Network, L.L.C. – announced in December 2009 that they will work together to channel more than $10 billion into America's most economically distressed communities over the next five years. The announcement was made during a signing ceremony to renew the organizations’ Banking on Communities program. Initiated in 2004, the program channels funding into underserved communities through US Treasury certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). Under the initiative, socially motivated investors can receive up to $50 million of federal deposit insurance coverage when depositing funds in a community development bank that's a member of CDBA and the Promontory Network. The $50 million of federal insurance protection is made possible through a service offered to banks by Promontory: the Certificate of Deposit Accounts Registry Service®, or CDARS®. “Banking on Communities enables deposits to flow to underserved communities to finance housing, to launch new businesses, to fund child care centers – in short, to open the door to a better life for millions of Americans,” said Robert M. McGill, Chairman & CEO of Neighborhood National Bank, a CDFI located in San Diego, CA. “It stimulates economic growth, so we all benefit.” Dowload PDF to see the press release.

  On a related note, More for Mission foundations are taking on mission-related cash investing, that involves investing CDs with community development financial institutions (CDFIs) or credit unions or placing a foundation’s operating cash in community development banks. See the mission related cash investing presentation (Download PDF) with examples from More for Mission members the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
   

  posted 1:01PM 01/13/2010 by Lisa Hagerman
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