Via: PND by Candid
The Dallas-based Texas Women’s Foundation has announced that 100 percent of its financial assets are now invested in a 100 percent gendered impact portfolio designed to yield both strong financial returns and social benefits for women and girls.
According to the foundation, it is the first and, to date, only women’s fund or foundation to move all its assets — endowments, operating investments, and donor-advised funds — into a gendered impact portfolio aligned with its mission. Managed by the Chicago office of Graystone Consulting, a business of Morgan Stanley, the portfolio is fully diversified across asset classes, and every fund is evaluated against its particular financial benchmarks as well as gendered impact, as measured by manager activation and its focus on one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals related to women and girls.
The foundation also announced that the alignment of its assets and mission has led Lisa Simmons and her sister, Serena Simmons Connelly, to open a $10.5 million donor-advised fund at the foundation. The Simmons sisters, daughters of the late investor Harold Simmons, manage the Harold Simmons Foundation.
“Our journey to be the first women’s foundation aligning 100 percent of our assets with our mission has been many years in the making and reflects the tremendous commitment by our investment advisory committee and board to the ‘all-in’ strategy, from the selection of the asset management team to deep engagement in the gendered portfolio design for strong financial performance and significant social impact,” said Texas Women’s Foundation president and CEO Roslyn Dawson Thompson. “The Simmons sisters joining our donor-advised fund family is a stunning affirmation of our strategy and reinforces the opportunity it presents to donors to achieve a multiplier effect in their philanthropic goals for women and girls.”