The Investment Integration Project Announces Racial Equity Working Group To Tackle Racial Injustice as Systemic Risk

The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) announced the formation of its new Racial Equity Working Group, which includes leaders from pension funds, institutional investors, impact investing practitioners, and other industry associations and intermediaries.

Working group members will lift up racial injustice as a systemic risk and guide investor action in becoming part of the solution through the deployment of system-level investing strategies, policies, programs, or products, according to a release.

“Tackling racial injustice as a systemic risk is an essential and fundamental component of creating an economy that works for all,” said Adam Connaker, Director of Impact Investing at the Surdna Foundation, which is supporting this initiative. “The working group is well-poised to tackle systemic risks because it brings together the people who understand the problems and pathways to overcome systemic racism with those who oversee the largest pools of capital.”

The working group will support TIIP over the next 12 months as it dives deeper into racial justice to both create new resources and adapt resources for investors to incorporate racial equity into their strategies and promote economic opportunity for people of color. These resources will strengthen and support the Systems Aware Investing Launchpad (or SAIL), a “one-stop shop” for answers to fundamental questions about system-level investing and for practical system-level investing implementation support and tools.

“Racial equity can and should be incorporated into emerging frameworks for sustainable and impact investing,” said Renaye Manley, Deputy Director at SEIU and one of the working group co-chairs. “We will not achieve the promise of leveraging capital for social and environmental outcomes unless we confront racial injustice as the systemic risk to our markets that it is.”

Working group members include:

• Monique Aiken, Managing Director, TIIP
• Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, President & CEO, CapEQ
• William Burckart, CEO, TIIP
• Noel Pacarro Brown, First VP, The Conscious Wealth Management Group, Morgan Stanley
• Jim Casselberry, Co-Founder & CEO, Known Holdings
• Adam Connaker, Director of Impact Investing, Surdna Foundation
• Erika Seth Davies, CEO, Rhia Ventures
• Mekaelia Davis, Director, Black Family Mobility, Ballmer Group
• Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, Board Chair, Intentional Endowments Network
• Raudline Etienne, Founder and CEO, Daraja Capital
• Rodney Foxworth, CEO, Common Future
• Mahlet Getachew, MD, Corporate Racial Equity, PolicyLink
• Lissa Glasgo, Director, IRIS/Impact Measurement & Management, GIIN
• Renaye Manley, Deputy Director, Strategic Initiatives, SEIU
• Bhakti Mirchandani, MD, Responsible Investing, Trinity Church Wall Street
• Shannon O’Leary, CIO, St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation
• Marvin Owens, Chief Engagement Officer, Impact Shares
• Vanessa Roanhorse, Founder and Portfolio Lead, Roanhorse Consulting
• Santhosh Ramdoss, Interim President & CEO, Gary Community Ventures
• David Wood, Director, Institute for Responsible Investment, Harvard University
• Jessica Ziegler, Director of Research, TIIP

“Working with such an impressive group of leaders will help us align the industry around this important topic and provide investors with the resources they need,” said Rodney Foxworth, CEO of Common Future and the other working group co-chair. “There is no greater systemic risk to the health and functioning of our economy than existing racial inequities in how we allocate capital.”

The Racial Equity Working Group is one of multiple investor cohorts that will support TIIP over the next 12 months. Together, the investor cohorts will inform and strengthen TIIP’s Systems Aware Investing Launchpad (or SAIL), providing a suite of tools and a community of practice to help investors advance racial equity, mitigate other systemic risks and invest in a way that helps to solve them.

To learn more about supporting this initiative as well as applying to join an investor cohort, please contact TIIP at SetSAIL@TIIProject.com.