General Service Foundation Issues Open Call for Letters of Interest to Advisor Community

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

The General Service Foundation (GSF) seeks a new investment advisor to manage its endowment and align its investments with its mission to advance racial, gender, and economic justice. GSF is conducting an open call process to identify an advisor that will help GSF more deeply align its investments with its values and mission.

The investment advisor search will include two phases: an Open Call for Letters of Interest (LOI) that launches on August 2, 2021 and closes on September 8, 2021 followed by a Request for Proposal (RFP) which will be by invitation. Godeke Consulting is managing the search on behalf of GSF.

GSF's announcement is available here.

If you or anyone in your network would like to be considered, please submit your responses by September 8th.

Here's the LOI form for submission.
Here's the PDF version of the LOI questions.

Please reach out to me with any questions or comments. 

Regards,
Steve

Godeke Consulting supports Nathan Cummings Foundation in launching RFP for OCIO

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Godeke Consulting has been supporting the Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) in its search for an OCIO to guide NCF’s $450 million endowment toward 100% mission alignment. We're pleased to announce the launch of the Preliminary RFP for that OCIO search. 

The Preliminary RFP, which is open to all advisers who believe they would be a strong partner to NCF, will be followed by a Final RFP. Because criteria such as assets under management or years in business can create unintended barriers or biases in a traditional search process, we welcome joint proposals and other creative solutions from the field during this open invitation period.

If you or anyone in your network would like to be considered, please submit your responses by October 30. 

Here's NCF's press release.
Here's the RFP form.
Here's the PDF version of the RFP questions.

Please reach out to me with any questions or comments. 

All the best,
Steve

Impact Investing Handbook on ESGX Live

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Earlier this month, I got to moderate an episode of ESGX Live – exploring how asset owners, investment advisors, and asset managers can work together to unlock value across the impact investing ecosystem.

I started with highlights from our new Impact Investing Handbook to give an overview of the impact investing landscape.

Although asset owners can now intentionally steward their assets for social and environmental improvement, asset owners can’t do it alone. Systemic impact requires cross-sector collaboration among philanthropists, policymakers, and investors. Within the impact investing field itself, asset owners rely on investment advisors and investment managers to optimize outcomes.  

In the subsequent panel, we heard from some of these impact investing stakeholders. I was joined by Stacey Faella, Woodcock Foundation; Michael Lear, The Capital Group; Myrna Rivera, Consultiva Wealth Management Corp; and Tom Simunovic, Trillium Asset Management. The panelists emphasized the importance of cooperation and communication in advancing the field.

Here are some highlights: 

  • Stacey (asset owner): "Frequent communication [between asset owners and advisors/managers]… creates greater clarity, greater transparency on both sides. And it’s also led to more opportunity to discuss and hone our objectives together and make the process more collaborative.”

  • Michael (investment advisor): “Clients should really come to their advisors with questions about whether their portfolio is aligned with their values.” 

  • Myrna (investment advisor): “My job has been pedagogical. It’s been about teaching, about helping people imagine being able to make investments, make returns and at the same time create jobs in their own communities.”  

  • Tom (asset manager): “A big part of the evolution [of impact investing] is driven by the feedback cycle, the loop of communication and information that we get from our advisor partners and from their end clients."

Accelerating progress in impact investing will require just this kind of ongoing open exchange of ideas and goals.   

We look forward to working with you to make this happen.  

All the best,
Steve

Why we published the Impact Investing Handbook

Dear Colleagues and Friends,
 
In case you missed the news last week, I’m pleased to share that the Impact Investing Handbook: An Implementation Guide for Practitioners is now available for free to anyone interested in learning how to align their investments with their values.
 
After spending over two years interviewing experts and collecting tools, frameworks and case studies from impact investors around the world, it’s exciting to finally get this resource into the hands of both new and existing impact investors. In addition to media coverage in Barron’s, Pensions & Investments and Karma, you can also read excerpts from the handbook in ImpactAlpha -- starting with the “Who.”
 
But before you dive into the 180-page guide, I wanted to share a few words about why I started this project with my co-author, Patrick Briaud from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA).
 
As the impact investing field has grown and evolved, the mission of impact investing has become increasingly clear to me: deploying capital to tackle broad systemic challenges and crises like the climate emergency, COVID-19, institutionalized racism and the growing divide between Main Street and Wall Street. 
 
But deploying capital for impact won’t solve these challenges if there isn’t also a focus on systems change. There are no shortage of resources to describe what an impact investment is or how to build an impact portfolio. But often missing from these resources is any discussion of a theory of change -- the “why” behind why we identify as impact investors and what we are trying to accomplish. 

We need to collectively rethink the role of capital in driving positive change, not just investor by investor or portfolio by portfolio, but as a system. 
 
The handbook is designed to give asset owners a roadmap for thinking about these challenging questions, with step-by-step instructions and exercises for taking a theory of change and turning it into reality. By empowering those with capital to invest for impact, it is my belief and my hope that together we can achieve meaningful systems change. 
 
I invite you to take the next step in your impact investing journey. Let’s do this.
 
All the best,
Steve

Announcing the Impact Investing Handbook!

Dear Colleagues and Friends,
 
The impact investing landscape has changed dramatically in the nearly 20 years since I started working at the intersection of social change and investment. During the 2008/2009 financial crisis, I collaborated with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) and the KL Felicitas Foundation to publish two pioneering impact investing publications. First, in Philanthropy’s New Passing Gear, we tested the simple idea that impact goals could be achieved through investments. Then in Solutions for Impact Investors, we explored how to create impact across investing asset classes and began to think about how investors can systematically integrate theories of change into their investment process.
 
On Thursday, June 25, Godeke Consulting and RPA will introduce the next chapter in impact investing education with the publication of the Impact Investing Handbook: An Implementation Guide for Practitioners. I have co-authored the guide with Patrick Briaud, Senior Advisor, Impact Investing at RPA. It will include details on the latest impact tools, frameworks and best practices, providing both new and existing impact investors with a roadmap for how to complete each step of the impact investing journey. These steps may include:
 

  • What? – defining and locating impact investing

  • Who? – identifying the stakeholders and power dynamics

  • Why? – developing a theory of change

  • How? – constructing the portfolio

  • So What? – measuring and managing impacts

  • Now What? – implementing a plan for execution

 
We also created a hypothetical impact investor, Sophia, as an interactive example of what an impact investing journey might look like for a family office or high-net-worth investor.
 
We invite you to join us for an ImpactAlpha webinar this Thursday (10 AM PT / 1 PM ET) to discuss highlights from the handbook and hear first-hand from practitioners who will share details on their personal journeys into impact investing and how they overcame the challenges they faced along the way. RSVP here.
 
For a quick preview, we are working with ImpactAlpha to publish a series of excerpts from the handbook. The first one looks at the “Who” of impact investing and the power dynamics between investors, intermediaries, enterprises and other stakeholders. You can read it here.   
 
Thank you, and please let us know how Godeke Consulting can help you or your organization with the next steps in your impact investing journey.
 
All the best,
Steve

Join Our Webinar: Building and Implementing an Impact Investing Portfolio

Excited to be speaking in an Impact Entrepreneur webinar next week with @Patrick Briaud and @Justina Lai. We’ll be giving a sneak preview of our forthcoming book, Impact Investing Handbook: An Implementation Guide for Practitioners from @Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

To join the conversation next Thursday March 12th, register here!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-and-implementing-an-impact-investing-portfolio-tickets-95943125471?aff=eemailordconf&utm_campaign=order_confirm&utm_medium=email&ref=eemailordconf&utm_source=eventbrite&utm_term=viewevent

 

Impact Investing Open Call for Family Offices & NYU Stern Partnership

Dear Impact Investing Colleagues:

As part of the NYU Stern Solutions experiential learning program, Professor Richard Levich and I will be leading our fourth Impact Investing in Family Offices seminar during the Spring 2020 semester.

In the past, our MBA student teams have worked with partner firms to solve real time impact investing challenges. The engagements have ranged from modeling solar energy projects and evaluating ESG rating systems to benchmarking legal and operating structures and landscaping community investment opportunities. We have been very pleased with the results and would like to continue expanding in 2020 to more students and partners.

If you are interested in being a partner or know of family offices that would be interested, there are more details below. This year we have created a partner application form for interested family offices to propose their consulting projects. The deadline to apply is December 9th, and we will be notifying selected applicants by early January.

I appreciate your interest and look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Steven Godeke

New Guide from MMI and TIIP Helps Financial Advisors Integrate Sustainable Investment into Their Practices

I am honored to have been able to support the TIIP team for their latest publication. Congratulations to MMI and TIIP for creating another important industry guide!

——

“Fundamentals of Sustainable Investment: A guide for financial advisors” advances the conversation about sustainable investing and offers practical information and guidance for practice management."

Amid growing investor interest in integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investing, the Money Management Institute (MMI) and The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) have introduced a new guide to help financial advisors effectively integrate sustainable investment into their practices.

The guide, entitled “Fundamentals of Sustainable Investment: A guide for financial advisors,” addresses pervasive industry myths about sustainable investing, disentangles the complicated web of vocabulary used to describe the approach, and provides practical recommendations on how to help clients reach their sustainable investing goals.

Co-authored by William Burckart and Jessica Ziegler of TIIP, the guide is informed by extensive interviews with leading financial advisors and other sustainable investment thought leaders and influencers. Outlining a practical four-step process for how FAs can talk with their clients about sustainable investment, it helps advisors to:

  • Prepare for conversations with clients about sustainable investment by learning about the sustainable investment products that are available to them,

  • Discover client sustainability goals through structured conversations,

  • Recommend strategies that reflect risk tolerance, financial goals, and sustainability goals, and

  • Manage sustainable investment progress over time through appropriate monitoring and reporting.

The guide is appropriate for both independent and affiliated financial advisors, those with sustainable investment experience and those without. Beyond providing a “how to” for discussing sustainable investment with clients, the guide debunks common myths about sustainable investment and ESG and untangles and clarifies the often-overwhelming range of sustainable investment-related jargon.

It answers common questions from financial advisors, including: When should I discuss sustainable investment with clients? What exactly should I say? How should I conduct the conversation? How do I translate the discussion into action?

The guide includes four hypothetical “real world” scenarios – situations that financial advisors might recognize – and suggests how advisors can identify and address specific clients’ sustainable investment wants and needs. A series of appendices accompany the guide, including a checklist and talking points for advisor-client sustainable investment conversations, as well as examples of sustainability performance reports to help financial advisors better understand the what, why, and how of sustainability performance monitoring.

Jessie Smith Noyes Appoints Rini Banerjee as Foundation President

As Board Chair and on behalf of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, I am pleased to announce that Rini Banerjee will join the Foundation as its fourth president and the first woman to lead the Foundation. Banerjee’s appointment concludes an extensive nationwide search that began last summer. She will assume the position January 1, 2019.

Rini has the track record, extensive experience, and deep commitment to social justice that we were looking for in our next president. Her understanding of movement building through a racial and gender lens makes her a powerful voice for change. Rini is the right person at the right time for Noyes as we seek to build the power of people directly affected by injustice.
        
Banerjee brings more than twenty years of experience in social justice philanthropy. As the first executive director of the Foundation for a Just Society, she led the organization from its startup phase to its growth into one of the top global funders committed to advancing the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people. Throughout her career, she has worked to encourage collaboration, build trust and relationships with movement leaders, and organize the philanthropic community to increase giving for social justice issues. She also brings extensive leadership and programmatic experience from her work at the Overbrook Foundation and the New York Women’s Foundation.

“We are on an exciting journey that is built on the strength of our past and is full of opportunity for the future. I am confident in Rini’s ability to fulfill the family’s legacy and commitment to equity and justice for generations to come,” said Jenifer Getz, family Board member.
                                   
“I am very excited to join the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation as its next president,” said Rini. “I look forward to building upon the Foundation’s track record of integrating social justice grantmaking and mission-aligned investing strategies in ways that are accountable to the people on the frontlines working toward creating a just, equitable, and sustainable world.“
 
Rini is a trustee of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Board member of Funders for Reproductive Equity and has co-created or served on the boards of the NYC-based Asian Women’s Giving Circle, Philanthropy Advancing Women’s Human Rights, the Groundswell Fund, and the South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!). She was a past Board Chair of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP). She is also a Rockwood Leadership Institute National Leading from the Inside Out (LIO) Fellow and RSF Integrated Capital Fellow. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a BSc in finance from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

We look forward to working with Rini and invite you to join us in welcoming her!

In addition to this great news, the Foundation is also excited to share the launch of their new website and logo. We’re thrilled about the new look and think you will be too!

Impact Investing Open Call for Family Offices & NYU Stern Partnership

Dear Impact Investing Colleagues: 
 
As part of the NYU Stern Solutions experiential learning program, Professor Richard Levich and I will be leading our third Impact Investing in Family Offices seminar during the Spring 2019 semester. 

In the past, our MBA student teams have worked with partner firms to solve real time impact investing challenges. The engagements have ranged from modeling solar energy projects and evaluating ESG rating systems to benchmarking legal and operating structures and landscaping community investment opportunities. We have been very pleased with the results and would like to continue expanding in 2019 to more students and partners.     

If you are interested in being a partner or know of family offices that would be interested, there are more details below. This year, we have created a partner application form for interested family offices to propose their consulting projects. The deadline to apply is November 30th. We will be selecting partners in mid December in order to finalize the specific project scopes prior to the beginning of the seminar in February. 

I appreciate your interest and look forward to hearing from you.


All the best,
Steven Godeke

Godeke Consulting Authors UN PRI Report on Private Sector Retirement Plans & ESG Integration Opportunities

Godeke Consulting is proud to have authored a recent report in collaboration with UN PRI titled, "Untangling Stakeholders for Broader Impact: ERISA Plans and ESG Incorporation." In our report, we discuss the US private sector retirement market and the policy, governance and specific stakeholder factors that could drive the growth of ESG assets.

You can read the full report here.

 

Executive Summary:
The US accounts for the largest share of pension assets globally. Increasingly, US investors are incorporating ESG factors into their investment decisions. However, the country lags its peers in private sector retirement assets managed with explicit regard for ESG factors. 

The case for ESG incorporation by US private sector retirement plans has evolved over the last 30 years; from articulating that ESG is not prohibited, to demonstrating that ESG incorporation creates clear benefits for investors, to now viewing ESG incorporation as a core element of fiduciary duty.

This report explores the US private sector retirement market that is regulated through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the policy, governance and specific stakeholder factors that could drive the growth of ESG assets.

New White Paper Reveals Gaps and Opportunities in Social Impact Investing

I am a board member of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and we underwent a 7-month-long search to find a new investment advisor aligned with our social justice mission. We’ve just released our findings from that search. Read more in our white paper, "Building Power Across the Impact Investment Field" at noyesadvisorsearch.org.

New White Paper Reveals Gaps and Opportunities in Social Impact Investing

NEW YORK, NY – Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, a leader in impact investing and social justice grantmaking, has released the findings from its seven-month-long search for an impact investment advisor, shedding new light on this ever-evolving field.

“While there is growing interest in and demand for social impact investing, there is very little documentation of how investment advisors operate, leaving social impact investors with few tools to navigate that space,” said Steven Godeke, Board Chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. “Our white paper is an attempt to demystify the sector—and build greater accountability—by surfacing the themes that emerged from our open inquiry to the impact advisor community.”

The white paper, titled “Building Power Across the Impact Investment Field,” offers full transparency on the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation’s overall search process, including the historical context behind the foundation’s impact investments, the questions that were posed to the investment advisor community (with a deliberate lens on gender, race, and inclusion), its evaluation criteria for selecting a firm, and recommendations for foundations interested in taking similar steps.

The paper synthesizes a number of findings gleaned from 34 responses to Noyes Foundation’s Open Call for Letters of Interest. "We were pleased to see so many thoughtful responses,” said Lenora Suki, Finance Committee Chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. “Still, the industry's understanding of impact investing ranges widely. Investment products have grown but we need new products to fill gaps across asset classes."

Another significant finding is the apparent shortage of women- and minority-led firms, leading to a dearth of expertise on how to address gender and racial equality through investments. The report also points to some promising opportunities, including the accelerating pace of innovation in the field, and the important role that philanthropies can play in advancing the sector, through knowledge sharing, collaborative investments, and shareholder advocacy.

 “Our hope is that this paper will inspire anyone managing foundation endowments to explore opportunities for mission-aligned investing to generate long-term systemic change,” said Interim Executive Director Rini Banerjee. “We invite the sector to join us in this investment journey to regenerate our land, invest in people-powered solutions, and build stronger, more sustainable communities.”

“Building Power Across the Impact Investment Field” is available for download athttps://www.noyesadvisorsearch.org/.

------

About Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation

The Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation was established in 1947 by Charles F. Noyes as a memorial to his wife, Jessie Smith Noyes. The Foundation's mission is to support grassroots organizations and movements in the United States working to change environmental, social, economic and political conditions to bring about a more just, equitable and sustainable world. Since 1990, the Foundation has worked to align its $55 million endowment with its mission through a deliberate focus on impact investing. www.noyes.org

2018 Shop Outlook: From Walden Pond to the Long Island Expressway

When I entered consulting in 2001, the intersection of investment and philanthropy was a quiet trail though the forest. Over the next few years, I met fellow pioneers and talked around the campfire about the blended value capital market, mission-related investing, and ultimately, impact investing. We aspired to a utopian capitalism in which markets drove prosperity and social and environmental goals were magically rolled into a double (or triple) bottom line. Impact investing seemed like the perfect way to break open the piñata of capitalism and shower the world with goodies. Our work bemused and irritated serious investors.

A Different World
Tackling the business versus society dichotomy has since become mandatory, and everyone seems to have gotten the memo. We have made much progress as more resources, talent and products pour into the field. Larry Fink of BlackRock was just in Davos calling for corporations to create social purpose.
 

Cause for celebration, but driving on the Long Island Expressway is different than hiking through the woods


Names Don’t Matter
We have spent too much time on nomenclature. We now need to deploy capital with clear intention and hold ourselves accountable through measurement.

In The Tent
We can't be part of the investment industry while trying to remain outsiders and changemakers. The desire of philanthropy and policy makers to “catalyze” impact and drive change in investment systems is not the right mental frame. We are swimming in the mainstream capital markets - not running a science experiment.

Proprietary No More
Impact investing is not about proprietary products; it's about implementation and process. The complexity of implementing an impact investing process can create an advantage for those who can cut through the thicket.

Data not Diatribes
We pioneers must not just proselytize but also commit resources and build teams that can execute. As data sets and data providers proliferate, new insights and results will emerge that may not be comfortable to us. We need to continue to look for quality impact and not settle for owning the usual suspects. Transparency and intentionality will be key.

Embarrassment of Riches
Asset owners who want to deploy their capital for impact are overwhelmed with the number of options. Asset owners face the daunting challenge that we all face in the world of online shopping: everything is available everywhere, but how do we find what we need and want? Trusted advisors and guides are clearly needed to objectively shift through the industry players and products.

Be Explicit or Be Complicit
Complicit was the Word of Year in 2017, and it applies to our investments as much as to our politics and culture. We are all complicit in climate change, we are all complicit when our portfolios create poison toxins or lead to more inequality. That is the profound change between 2018 and 2001.

There are no more places to hide, so we all must own what we own.
At Godeke Consulting, 2017 was a great opportunity to work with clients ranging from large foundations to amazing individuals – all trying to more efficiently and effectively drive positive change. We also continue to fine tune how we work and collaborate.

Extracurricular Activities
As Board Chair at the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, I have also been able to grapple with the challenge of moving Noyes forward while not losing our connection to the communities we are supposed to serve. Working with my fellow board members and staff to make hard decisions in a clear way has been a great learning experience for me. 

At NYU Stern, I continue to be amazed and energized by my students and colleagues as we work together to learn and think about impact investing. It was great to speak to the Stern undergrads in the Business and Its Publics course as well as continuing our Impact Investing in Family Offices seminar for a second year. In the summer, I was excited to participate in a meeting of business school faculty from around the world teaching impact investing.
 

The field keeps getting bigger and broader, and I am pleased to be part of it.


Finally, please take a look at our refreshed Godeke Consulting website with new case studies, videos and our toolkit of services for impact investors and let us know what you think.

I greatly appreciate the chance to work again with my 2017 project partners, Scott Budde, William Burckart, Gaspar Cello, Sarah Cleveland, Christopher Lopez, Gregory Pettit, and look forward to finding more opportunities for all of us to push more good ideas up the hill in 2018.

All the best,
Steve

Responsible Investing Americas December 2017

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Measuring Impact of Your Portfolios Panel

I was fortunate to moderate a panel at RI Americas on the SDGs and Measuring Portfolio Impact with:

  • Aniket Shah, Sustainable Development Solutions Network

  • Emilie Beral, Research Director Vigeo Eiris 

  • Mikael Schvarzman, Market Development Manager Thomson Reuters 

With the UN SDGs' rapid growth as a tool for driving sustainable and responsible investing, our panel explored how the SDGs can be translated into a strategy to deploy capital on the ground. We began with how these high level development goals were created through a broad stakeholder engagement and then explored how ESG ratings and products are incorporating and addressing the SDGs. The audience raised issues about the challenges and gaps in taking policy objectives and then applying them to investment. These included incorporating the negative as well as the positive impacts of corporations and the geographic and sector concentration that the SDGs represent.  

 

Register Now: TIIP Event with Morningstar on February 8, 2018 in Chicago

On February 8, 2018, The Investment Integration Project (TIIP) and Morningstar will co-host an event that explores the ways in which investors can go beyond daily portfolio management activities like ESG integration and impact measurement and reporting and seek to influence the broader environmental, societal, and financial systems within which they operate.

The event will take place at Morningstar's headquarters at 22 W Washington St, Chicago, IL 60602, and will begin at 8:30am (registration opens at 8:00am) and will conclude by noon that day. The event will serve to launch their new joint report on the Roadmap to Measuring the Effectiveness of System-Level Investing Approaches, written by William Burckart, Steve Lydenberg, and Jessica Ziegler of TIIP.

In addition to remarks by Steve Godeke, Chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and Founder of Godeke Consulting, confirmed speakers include Craig Pfeiffer, the President & CEO of Money Management Institute, Jon Hale, the Head of Sustainability Research at Morningstar and Anna Snider, the Head of Due Diligence, Global Wealth and Investment Management CIO Office at Bank of America, among others.

Register here.

Impact Investing Open Call for Family Offices & NYU Stern Partnership

Dear Impact Investing Colleagues:

As part of the NYU Stern Solutions experiential learning program, Professor Richard Levich and I will be leading our second Impact Investing in Family Offices seminar during the Spring 2018 semester.

During our inaugural seminar earlier this year, our MBA student teams worked with four partner firms to solve real time impact investing challenges. The engagements ranged from modeling solar energy projects and evaluating ESG rating systems to benchmarking legal and operating structures and landscaping community investment opportunities. We were very pleased with the results and would like to expand in 2018 to more students and partners.

If you are interested in being a partner or know of family offices that would be interested, there are more details below. This year, we have created a simple form for interested family offices to propose their consulting projects. Our goal is to select the participating family offices by November 15th and finalize the specific project scopes prior to the beginning of the seminar in January.

I appreciate your interest and look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Steve

 
 

Dear Colleagues,

With multi-generational investment horizons and the ability to flexibly deploy capital, family offices sit in a unique position to incorporate impact investing strategies into their operations. A range of impact investing initiatives for family offices has emerged. However, faced with the need to balance ongoing operations, family dynamics and investing, family offices may not have sufficient resources and staff to dedicate to this work even as its importance has increased with next generation family members.

Given this challenge and the strong interest among MBA students in impact investing, Stern is offering an impact investing seminar for our students with select New York area family offices. During our initial seminar in the Spring of 2017, our students worked with four partner organizations on projects ranging from modeling solar energy projects, to evaluating ESG rating systems, and landscaping community investment opportunities in a large U.S. city.

We encourage you to consider applying to be a partner family office for the Spring 2018 semester.

We have the following learning objectives for the students and outcomes for the family office participants:

Students:

  • Student teams of 3-4 MBAs undertake 12-week consulting engagements to complete an analysis of a “live” impact investing opportunity/challenge facing a family office. The final consulting deliverable is a presentation to the client and a written analysis.

  • The seminar combines in-class lectures, guest lectures and open clinic sessions. Students will receive credit for the seminar. Students are expected to work 5-10 hours per week on the consulting project in addition to the class. The opportunity to visit and meet with the family office team is a key part of the learning experience.

  • Students have the opportunity to develop client and consulting skills while sharpening quantitative and analytical skills on the creation of a clear work product. The experience of working face-to-face with a client on a real business issue is one of the most important course objectives. The teams operate independently and manage the scope and expectations of the client over the course of the engagement.

Family Offices:

  • The family office actively engages with the team and receives a customized work product addressing a clear business need. Project engagements can be tailored for family offices that are just exploring impact investing and also for others who have already made direct or fund investments and would like to evaluate their holdings or complete due diligence.

  • Family office members should expect to host the student teams at least three or four times throughout the semester in their offices to provide project check-ins and feedback. Should the students be working with confidential information, the appropriate safeguards are put in place. Each office designates an internal contact to serve as the point of contact. NYU faculty members work closely with each student team and the family office at every phase of the project to assure the relevance, quality and ultimate output of these efforts.

At the end of the semester, the students present their projects to their clients as well as the other family offices.  In the inaugural spring 2017 class, our family office participants considered this one of the most valuable parts of their experience.

We will be offering the seminar during Spring 2018 semester. Our goal is to select the participating family offices by November 15th and finalize the specific project scopes prior to the beginning of the seminar in January.

In order to most easily connect family offices with the students, this year we have created a simple form for interested family offices to propose their consulting projects. We are, of course, happy to talk with you directly about possible projects and offer suggestions.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Steven Godeke
Adjunct Professor of Finance
NYU Stern School of Business

Richard M. Levich
Professor of Finance and International Business
Deputy Chair, Finance
NYU Stern School of Business