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As a Board Treasurer and nonprofit consultant, I certainly understand the importance of having the right team/resources to manage to reserve funds to effectively manage risk and maximize returns, and that doing this often does require some type of professional help or expertise as noted above (particularly if you don’t already have it in-house or on your board). And while I’ve come across many money managers to help support this on some level, in my experience it’s been much more challenging to find professional support to help effectively ensure the alignment of your organizational values and investment strategy with the emphasis usually being on returns and the right type of diversification. Even as someone who operates with financial sustainability at the fore, I also believe that it’s important to make sure that investment choices don’t directly contradict an organization’s mission and values, particularly for organizations that are focused on achieving equity within their respective communities, teams and across the global landscape.
I’d love to hear from folks who’ve encountered and worked to address issues around values alignment within investment strategies. Have you found effective professional support around this area? Have you and your teams determined where your organization definitely will NOT invest it’s funds from a values perspective? Do you have experience developing criteria for ethical investment strategy? Any and all thoughts welcome!