President & CEO, Columbus Foundation
Staff Concerns
A common question and starting point for many foundations is:
Do we have the capacity to do this?
Many foundations maintain strict firewalls between those investment officers that invest the foundation’s endowment and those program officers that make its grants, despite the fact that they are all working to achieve the same goals. For mission investments to be successful the foundation has to break down these silos and the investment side and program side must coordinate through incentivized programs.
Assigning dedicated staff to manage the mission investment portfolio can be a critical first step in implementing a mission investment strategy, managing legal issues, sourcing deals, and making dollar commitments.
Breaking down the barriers between finance officers and program officers is an important step towards a successful mission investing process. Foundations are recognizing that it does not make sense to use 5% of assets to promote one cause while the other 95% is doing something that counteracts the goal of the 5%. Integrating mission investments with a foundation’s strategic asset allocation policy can facilitate the breakdown of the “firewall” and eliminate silos that can be a barrier to mission investing.
Foundations may also choose to use external consultants to aid the development of mission-investing practices, or to work with their existing investment partners to incorporate mission investing into the client relationship.
Some foundations staff their mission investing group internally with investment staff that manage the process of sourcing deals, due dilligence, and monitoring. Smaller foundations, below the $1 billion range, may not have the resources to dedicate full time staff to manage mission investments and will rely on investment advisors and consultants.