2023 Year-in-Review
2023 has been a big year for TIIP, we have much to be grateful for as we reflect on the past 12 months.
- TIIP hosted “Introducing the Next Evolution in Finance: System-level Investing” in April, celebrating the 2-year anniversary of the book 21st Century Investing and that featured numerous speakers at the forefront of the system-level investing movement. Watch the video here.
- We launched SAIL, our plug-and-play tool for implementing system-level investing.
- In June, TIIP published “Introduction to Racial Inequity as a Systemic Risk”.
- Also in June, we kicked off our first SAIL cohort program with an array of asset managers, institutional investors and others for a learning journey to system-level investing. Read more about it here.
- TIIP and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, as well as the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative (SIRI), announced in July a partnership to advance the field of system-level investing. Read more about it here.
- In December, TIIP will close the year with our second report of 2023 “(Re)Calibrating Feedback Loops,” supported with grant funding by the Tipping Point Fund for Impact Investing. We’re happy to offer “key findings and implications” info sessions for folks in our community after it’s release. Email us if you’d like to organize such a conversation.
- What’s ahead? TIIP will publish in January a set of case studies detailing how 5 institutional investors are integrating a system-level focus.
SAIL Updates
We set SAIL in 2023! SAIL is now open for subscribers. Ask us about our holiday promotion!
SAIL is a SaaS platform that provides practical tools, templates, guidance and deep research on systemic issues to help investors implement or refine system-level investment strategies with the goal of reducing costs, winning business, preserving long-term returns, and staying informed. SAIL is comprised of 3 parts:
- Launchpad: A strategic planning tool equips investors to develop or adapt institutional policies, investment belief statements, programs, products and procedures to chart their course to become a system-level investor.
- Benchmark, a customizable database that supports deep due diligence to help investors manage their managers, providing insight and comparisons into which of their managers, and others in the public dataset, are utilizing system-level investing techniques (in addition to sustainable and/or impact investing strategies), and how a manager is progressing over time.
- CoPractice: A free resource, open to all, to support broader industry collaboration, coordination and transformation.
Want a 30-minute demonstration? Contact TIIP at [email protected].
TIIP + Friends About Town 2023 Recap
As a component of the partnership between SIPA, SIRI and TIIP, William Burckart, TIIP’s CEO, is co-teaching a course on system-level investing with Jon Lukomnik. The course is covering the basics of system-level investing, why it is important, and how it can be harnessed to manage systemic risks and long-term performance.
TIIP friends and family such as Maguette Diop, Rodney Foxworth, Mirtha Kastrapeli, Jon Lukomnik, Steve Lydenberg, Jessica Matthews, Fran Seegull, Piers Hugh Smith, Anna Snider, and George Suttles are some of the field leaders joining the course to guest lecture.
As part of Climate Week NYC, William was a featured panelist for “Race to Resilience: The Intersection of Racial Justice,” presented by Gitterman Asset Management. The other featured speakers for the session included Jenna Nicholas, CEO, Impact Experience and Rachel Robasciotti, Founder and CEO, Adasina Social Capital.
Monique gave the opening keynote speech at the WELL Summit on Monday, September 25th. Her speech, “Using Investor Influence to Change the World: How to Move Capital Toward Racial Justice” was called a “masterclass on system-level investing” that explored how racial inequity is a threat to the US economy and the financial system, and how flawed beliefs lead to vulnerable systems. The keynote was based on findings from TIIP’s Racial Inequity “Issue Brief” published in June. A summary of the remarks can be found here.
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) gathered in Tokyo for the annual PRI in Person event. William Burckart penned a summary entitled “Did someone say systems?” published by ImpactAlpha. In a session moderated by Susheela Peres da Costa, Burckart and panelists explored how all investors are systems actors, and a number of pathways they might pursue to help to build the beta of the market, and ensure the resiliency of the social and environmental systems that we all rely on for long-term performance and global prosperity. Panelists included:
- Rick Alexander, CEO, The Shareholder Commons
- Emma Henningsson, Active Ownership, The Seventh Swedish National Pension Fund (AP)
- John Hoeppner, Head of US Stewardship and Sustainable Investment, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM)
- Zachary May, Executive Director – Strategy and Policy, IFM Investors
- Brynn O’Brien, Executive Director, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR)
- Nao Sudo (Iwamoto), Director, Impact Frontiers
Monique Aiken joined the annual Impact Alpha Agents of Impact Call, which continued a tradition started a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance. They were joined by Cathy Clark of Duke University to round up the state of the impact investing field and assess where impact investing goes from here. “I’m actually an optimist,” Aiken said. “Because on the other side of risk-identification is clarity about the things we need to do and the work we need to collectively prioritize.”
Check out the video at ImpactAlpha.
Monique was one of two keynote speakers at Cambridge Associates 9th Annual Impact Investing Forum which took place October 17-18, 2023 in Toronto.
Publications and Podcasts
Monique Aiken joined Jon Lukomnik on the Outside In podcast. Listen on Spotify or Apple.
Dr. Gillian Marcelle is featured in Make Justice Normal’s podcast, Into the Record hosted by Monique. Listen on Spotify or Apple.
Shannon O’Leary joined Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation colleagues Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert on the I So Appreciate You! podcast to chat about mission-based investing, the values of diverse teams in the investment industry and her bi-weekly newsletter, Say It Out Loud.
In her latest article at Forbes, Bhakti Mirchandani asks what can we learn from 136 investors with $4.5 trillion who are banding together to reduce the financial, reputational, and systems-level risk associated with low wages.
April 18th Gathering Redux: Rodney Foxworth – Worthmore
On April 18th, 2023, TIIP hosted a gathering entitled “The Next Evolution in Finance: System-level Investing”. In the below video, Rodney Foxworth, of Worthmore discusses racial injustice as a systemic risk.
