All foundations have endowments: savings and investments that earn a financial return that is used to make grants and fund operations, and protect the endowment’s value despite inflation. Many foundations still rely on typical Wall Street investment portfolios to achieve financial returns, regardless of the social impact of these investments.

Like a growing number of foundations, however, Humboldt Area Foundation+Wild Rivers Community Foundation is committed to directing its investments in ways that align with its values and strategic priorities.

Mission (also called impact) investing occurs when the community foundation’s portfolio is directed to investment vehicles in a way that balances both financial returns (interest, dividends) and social returns aligned with our values and strategies.

In 2022 HAF+WRCF directed our “Outside Chief Investment Officer,” a firm called Angeles Investment Advisors, to perform a thorough review of our investments.

After learning more about the Foundation’s values and strategic priorities, and benchmarking other foundations’ and investors’ impact investment approaches, Angeles developed a new portfolio strategy for HAF+WRCF.

HAF+WRCF’s endowment portfolio is now invested in ways that seek to:
(1) exclude firms and industries that do harm and/or counteract our values (e.g. weapons manufacturers, tobacco companies, etc.), and
(2) place dollars into firms and initiatives that show solid financial returns while also aligning in some way with our four strategic priorities and, where possible, are led by historically-excluded investors, specifically People of the Global Majority (PoGM), and/or women.

As part of our mission investing approach, five percent of our endowment portfolio continues to be designated for community lending and is overseen by staff and board directly, rather than by Angeles Investment Advisors.