Investing

Our investment impact

Aligning our assets with our mission

Recognizing that all investments have impact, we believe they can be powerful tools to accelerate achieving our vision and mission. For Hamilton Community Foundation, “all in” means we are committed to aligning 100 percent of our investments with our mission and vision through:

Impact investments: Public and private investments intended to create positive impact beyond financial returns.

Responsible investments: Public market investments that integrate environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) into their selection and management.

What we believe

As a public foundation, we exist to advance our mission and vision in the interest of the public good and in support of our donors’ intentions. We challenge the premise that our investments are only a means to create income to fund granting and operations of the Foundation.

All investments have an impact – positive, neutral or negative

All investments broadly have social and environmental impact – positive, neutral or negative. As such, we are committed to recognizing the impact of our investments to ensure that we don’t undermine our vision, mission and values.

We use evidence-based decision-making

We must use evidence-based decision-making to ensure that our assets are invested in a socially responsible manner and that they do not contravene the work of our grantees or our community leadership efforts.

We create positive change through our capital

Our investments will be catalysts to accelerate our ability to achieve our vision and mission. We actively seek out opportunities to create positive change through our capital.

We are committed to shifting our investment processes

This warrants time and resources due to the inherent complexity of our vision and mission. We are committed to take the time to shift our investment processes, investment products and engagement approach with our managers.

We are not sacrificing investment returns

We are not sacrificing investment returns on our portfolio but, rather, using responsible investing and impact investing as tools to ensure sustainable long-term returns and provide diversification through alternative investments.  Read the research here.

Impact investing helps us achieve our mission

These efforts will accelerate our overall success. We are confident that aligning our portfolio with our vision, mission and values is the most responsible use of our resources to accelerate their achievement.

Download an overview of impact investing at HCF.

2023-24 impact investments

Impact investments

Responsible investments

Responsible investing is the way we drive impact through our public market portfolio. Paying attention to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects of the Foundation’s holdings is an important tool in aligning our assets with our mission. HCF is committed to creating a more transparent and equitable public market through its responsible investing strategy. This strategy has evolved from learning the ESG landscape and audits that hold our managers accountable, to a more proactive approach characterized by shareholder engagement on issues that are important to our organization. We also have an exclusion policy that considers excluding specific industries/sectors from our portfolio on an exception basis. Currently tobacco, illegal weapons and predatory lending are excluded.

To read our full financial highlights for the year ended March 31, 2024, please visit here.