SUSTAINABLE INVESTING SOLUTIONS

Charities and Foundations

We work with charities, foundations and other nonprofit organizations to help them pursue mission-aligned objectives. Through a disciplined and thoughtful approach, we help clients invest their capital in a manner that supports their long-term financial obligations as well as their goals for their communities and for society at large.

 

Adding a mission-aligned dimension to a charity's investment program can be a complex exercise. The consideration of ESG factors for performance reasons is becoming widely accepted, but when it comes to mission alignment, charities often have multiple return, risk, alignment and impact they seek to pursue simultaneously. Moreover, many charities, endowments and foundations have a variety of stakeholders with different priorities.

We work with a wide range of organizations with different values and missions, and our sustainable investment capabilities are valuable tools that we can leverage alongside strategic advice regarding the pursuit of mission alignment. 


Capabilities:

  Common elements of our work with E&F clients include:
  • Addressing the scope of mission alignment—will we be taking action across the entirety of the client’s investment assets, or focusing on a “carve out” pool of capital for mission alignment.
  • Determining the pace of mission alignment—will we seek to align 100% of assets at inception, or begin with a smaller percentage of assets, and set targets for increasing that percentage over time.
  • Developing or refining investment policies—as we work with clients to better understand their goals and priorities, we can codify those priorities in an investment policy that effectively translates intention into reality.
    • Depending on the client, these policies may include defined screens that prohibit or require investment in certain sectors, set priorities for ESG factors such as environmental or diversity that guide manager selection, or goals for impact on key issues related to the client’s mission.*
  • Working with the full range of stakeholders—we act as more than portfolio managers for many of our clients, and serve also as advisors and partners in an effort to help clients navigate decisions related to sustainable investing and mission alignment. In particular, many of our clients have different stakeholder groups who may not always see eye to eye on certain issues, and we have experience helping to bridge these divides and bring stakeholders together to support a strategy.

For more information, please contact us.

 

   

sustainable-team

ARIS ANALYTICS:
Our Sustainable Analysis and Reporting Tool

 

To help effectively manage and monitor our sustainable portfolios, we developed a proprietary system called ARIS Analytics, and have refined and enhanced this system extensively over the past two years. ARIS (which is an acronym for Alignment, Risk, Impact and Sustainability) can cross-reference Brown Advisory’s primary ESG research and third-party ESG data sources against the holdings data for hundreds of managers in our approved and recommended list.

Importantly, ARIS is available to all portfolio managers across the firm, and they can use it to quickly generate analysis for any client's portfolio. For more information about ARIS, we encourage you to read through “Moving Forward: 2021 Sustainable Asset Allocation Perspectives,” our first comprehensive publication discussing our philosophy and process for managing sustainable multiasset portfolios.

This sample dashboard provides an ARIS-derived snapshot of a hypothetical portfolio’s sustainable attributes: Allocation between various types of sustainable investments, carbon footprint relative to a broad-market index, and evolution of its carbon footprint and its exposure to what we deem to be ESG-related controversies over time.

Read Moving Forward

This analysis is not intended to be a guarantee of future results. It is not representative of an actual portfolio and is provided for informational purposes only. Asset allocations could change depending on risk tolerance,  investment objective and assets available for investment. The relationship team will customize portfolios to meet the guidelines, requirements and risk tolerance of our clients. The information provided in this is not intended to be and should not be considered to be a recommendation or suggestion to engage in or refrain from a particular investment strategy, including whether or not to buy, sell or hold investments in any asset class mentioned. It should not be assumed that investments in such asset classes have been or will be profitable.

 


Recent News

Brown Advisory Launches Global Sustainable Total Return Bond Strategy

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Brown Advisory Launches Sustainable International Leaders Strategy

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Brown Advisory’s 2021 PRI Assessment Report

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See More Recent News
 

Reporting and Policy Statements

 

Transparency and disclosure are essential drivers of progress in sustainable investing. We seek to hold ourselves to the same standards that we expect of companies, municipalities and bond issuers, in terms of offering clear policies that describe our sustainable investment approach, as well as periodic reports on the impact and sustainable merits of our strategies. In addition to the reports listed here, we work with clients to develop customized reporting that is tailored to their specific goals and investment guidelines, using our ARIS Analytics system as noted above.

Policies

Reports

 

 

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*All investments involve risk. The value of the investment and the income from it will vary. There is no guarantee that the initial investment will be returned. ESG considerations that are material will vary by investment style, sector/industry, market trends and client objectives. ESG strategies seek to identify companies that they believe may have desirable ESG outcomes, but investors may differ in their views of what constitutes positive or negative ESG outcomes. As a result, the strategies may invest in companies that do not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor. The strategies may also invest in companies that would otherwise be screened out of other ESG oriented funds. Security selection will be impacted by the combined focus on ESG assessments and forecasts of return and risk. ESG strategies intend to invest in companies with measurable ESG outcomes, as determined by Brown Advisory, and seeks to screen out particular companies and industries. Brown Advisory relies on third parties to provide data and screening tools. There is no assurance that this information will be accurate or complete or that it will properly exclude all applicable securities. Investments selected using these tools may perform differently than as forecasted due to the factors incorporated into the screening process, changes from historical trends, and issues in the construction and implementation of the screens (including, but not limited to, software issues and other technological issues). There is no guarantee that Brown Advisory’s use of these tools will result in effective investment decisions.

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Locate the Brown Advisory office closest to you, or reach out to a member of our team.

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