Development | Fraser Nelson

Development Fraser Nelson: "Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy


In a break from past practice, some major foundations have initiated or strengthened efforts to harmonize the social and environmental effects of their endowment investments with their philanthropic goals, the Los Angeles Times reports. Against the traditional grain of investing, the Ford, F.B. Heron, Jessie Smith Noyes, and Nathan Cummings foundations, among others, have long worked to align their charitable and investment practices. During 2007, Douglas W. Nelson, president of the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, challenged other foundations to devote 2 percent of their assets to mission-based investments in an effort to create a national pool of $10 billion to be leveraged with as much as $60 billion from other sources. These efforts as well as a series of LA Times articles last year about the investment practices of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have spurred other foundations to explore mission-related investing. The William and Flora Hewlett, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, David and Lucile Packard, and Rockefeller foundations have all recently engaged in efforts to align investment choices with charitable aims or examined ways to expand existing social investments. In addition, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation recently directed its endowment managers to invest in timber only where forests are managed for sustainability, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation established a $100 million fund to bolster grant support for needy children, families, and communities in the United States and Africa."