More for Mission

Casey Foundation Pledges another $25 Million for social investments bringing total to $125 million

By Lisa Hagerman, Friday, March 5th, 2010

The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced yesterday an additional $25 million allocation for social investments expanding their social investment program to $125 million or 5 percent of the philanthropy’s $2.5 billion endowment. The Foundation plans to target a portion of the additional funding to its program strategies in Baltimore, Atlanta and New Haven, Conn.   See also yesterday’s article in Philanthropy News Digest

The press release (download PDF) quotes mission investing pioneers Christa Velasquez and Doug Nelson:

“Social investing is an important tool for aligning non-grantmaking dollars with programmatic priorities,” says Christa Velasquez, director of social investments at the Casey Foundation and co-chair of the PRI Makers Network, an association of over 90 grantmakers that use program-related and other investments to accomplish their philanthropic goals. “For example, applying this approach might result in a foundation with a commitment to home ownership investing in low-income housing or to entrepreneurship in venture capital, or commitment to underserved communities making deposits in community development banks and credit unions. A foundation with an environmentally focused mission might invest in clean technology, green collar jobs or sustainable real estate projects.”

“This decision represents a vote of confidence in a set of innovative solutions that can achieve greater social impact for kids, families and communities in spite of a reduced endowment,” says Douglas W. Nelson, president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Social investments allow us to increase the resources dedicated to our programmatic work and stretch foundation dollars by reinvesting the money in programs that have shown the strongest results.”

Financial returns on Casey’s 2008 social investment portfolio reaffirms that mission investments can deliver on both the financial and social returns as Christa Velasquez notes in the More for Mission Spring 2009 Newsletter (download PDF):

 “At year end 2008 the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s social investment portfolio was the best performing part of the foundation’s endowment. With an expected return of 3.5 percent we’re the only part of the endowment in positive territory. It is interesting, because Casey made the unusual choice of making program-related investments with below-market rates of return out of our endowment.”  

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