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One of our favorite investees is -

well, they are all our favorites! – Equal Exchange, a fairly traded coffee, tea, and chocolate company. One of many things we love about Equal Exchange is that it is set up as a coop. This mirrors Fair Trade farmers, who must sell their products through coops that they establish. Equal Exchange lives out a powerful statement of holding itself to the same standard as its suppliers.

So what about foundations? Who are we mirroring? We require that nonprofits seeking grants reveal all of their finances. Why don’t we do the same and reveal all of our holdings, how our overhead breaks down, and more? We have accepted the privilege of simply putting totals on our 990s, but no details. Let’s mirror the transparency we require – demand – of others and wow our grantees, donors, and the world.

Next month we will have a toolkit to share with your CPA on how to reveal your finances.

~~ Elizabeth

Ron Cordes, Co-Founder of The Cordes Foundation
A trailblazing, early adopter of mission aligned investing

PHOTO: Ron with his foundation co-founder and sweetheart, Marty Cordes.

At Work…

What inspired you to align your endowment with your mission? We were not satisfied with just giving away 5% each year – we wanted to fully activate the “other 95%” – which we’ve now done.

What have been the biggest obstacles at your foundation for mission alignment?
Initially it was finding legal counsel who understood mission investing – beyond just using PRIs within the 5% grant portfolio. Took us three tries before we found the right counsel who could help us invest our full corpus for mission.

How far along is your foundation in this journey? We launched in 2006, and began our impact investing journey in 2008 with an initial 20% allocation. In 2014 we committed at a White House impact investing summit to go to 100%, which we accomplished two years later.

What’s next in your mission alignment? Working on getting our personal family office investments fully aligned as well.

What about perpetuity or spending down? We’re still early in our Foundation journey. Our daughter Steph and son-in-law Eric became co-Chairs in 2019, and we hope to work with them and their children (they are expecting their first child this Fall!) to have impact through our grants and investments for years to come.

What’s a favorite mission aligned investment of yours? We’re really passionate about providing economic empowerment to women, and several microfinance investments we’ve made through MicroVest have been directly focused in this area.

Have you ventured into shareholder advocacy? How so? All of our public equities are invested with managers focused on ESG and shareholder advocacy.

What’s the most convincing thing to get others on board? Showing them that it’s possible to invest in alignment with your values and still deliver competitive returns to the portfolio. Achieving one does not mean sacrificing the other.

After work…

Last series you binge-watched: Succession
Favorite caffeine source: Cold Brew
Sweet or salty: Sweet
Happy place: Sunset on the beach on Long Island
A favorite novel: I read a lot – all non-fiction. Recent favorite was “The Code Breaker” by Walter Isaacson
Childhood ambition: To play in the NBA. Alas . . .Both too short and too slow
Biggest challenge: Keeping all the balls up in the air at once
Soundtrack of your life: Anything by Billy Joel

NYC Peeps and Visitors:
An NYC Climate Week 2022 Gathering

September 22nd, from 1:30 to 6:30 PM (EST), the Intentional Endowments Network is hosting a Roundtable at The NEST Summit (part of Climate Week), which will be a dynamic, interactive set of conversations on mission aligned investing, ESG factors, Net Zero Portfolios, and JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion) in the investment process. Read more here, where you can also register.

Meet Entrepreneur David and Playa Viva

GIF: David Leventhal, Playa Viva arial view and cover story, and visitors and staff partnering together on an onsite project.

Husband/wife team David Leventhal and Sandra Hahn opened Playa Viva, a Regenerative Boutique Hotel located in Juluchuca, Mexico, near Zihuatanejo, with a dedication to regenerating the ecosystem and bringing back the abundance of the land. Our loan to them helped to fund a large expansion, including seven new rooms and other infrastructure that will double the hotel’s capacity. Read more about David, Susan, and their vision for Playa Viva on our blog!

You can see more beautiful details of Playa Viva and Juluchuca on Facebook and Instagram!

We are many things, including 100% mission aligned since our founding 30 years ago. Because we own Untours travel, we are adding a new loan fund called the ReSet Tourism Fund. 10% of the world’s jobs are created through tourism and 10% of the environmental harm is also from this industry. We are investing in tourist companies - like Playa Viva - that are proactive in reducing environmental harm and in being mindful of the communities in which they operate.

Hope you are all doing well as temperatures finally come down a bit and we welcome autumn!

Elizabeth Killough and Jonathan Coleman
Co-CEOs