MORE IMPACT
Use all our assets for good
That’s what will help us tip the scales from doing good to creating change.
The basic tenet of a community foundation is to better a community collectively with donors. But granting can only go so far in addressing longstanding and systemic issues. While fund interest is granted annually, the fund capital entrusted to us could be working harder to improve the wellbeing of people and the planet.
We believe we can do more to help tackle intractable issues like inequality when we invest responsibly. By participating in financial markets and investing in individual enterprises that both return a profit while benefiting people and planet, we can influence the financial and social systems that underpin society—the basis of capitalism.
We're sharing our first-ever report on responsible investing. Scroll for more on how we got here and our approach or read a letter from OCIO RockCreek before skipping ahead for our impact report on people and planet so far.
Investment Portfolio Snapshot
Our Impact Evolution
How we got here and why
For years we’ve used an action-oriented and equity-focused research agenda. That informs donor and community engagement designed to disrupt traditional philanthropic practices, including flowing more money to smaller, local and equity-focused organizations. When only 15% of our funds are endowed, our collective impact through fundholder granting matters that much more.
Equity is the central pillar of our discretionary granting. Over the last three years, we’ve disbursed an increasing amount: averaging 15%, well above the 5% minimum. But more and more we’re looking to integrate impact across all that we do.
From Granting to Investing and Leveraging the Capital in Between
In 2017 we created a standalone social impact investing pool for groups that needed more money than we could grant and where there was an opportunity to repurpose capital from one social purpose venture to the next.
Then we hired internationally renowned Outsourced Chief Investment Officer, RockCreek, to re-imagine our broader investing strategy for more aggressive, yet responsible, financial returns. What started with a finance-first agenda with our establishment in 1981, is evolving to match our equity-driven vision that bold financial and social yields can be achieved in tandem.
After launching a responsible investing strategy for our general investments in 2021, we’re now ready to share our first-ever investment-focused impact report.
More on our collective impact
Impact Continuum
Give charitable gifts
Prioritize social or environmental benefits while also generating financial gains.
Prioritize financial returns while creating social or environmental gain through private strategies and companies.
Proactive approach to incorporating environmental, social and governance ESG factors into investments through public markets.
Maximize financial returns only.
Geography:
Toronto/Canada
Example:
Toronto's Vital Signs
Geography:
Canada
Example:
Windmill
Microlending
Geography:
Global
Examples:
Generate Capital
Equality Fund
Private Debt Fund
Geography:
Global
Example:
CMO Climate
Change Fund
Geography:
Global
Example:
a16z
Investment-Focused Impact Report 2023
To achieve higher impact and returns more responsibly, Toronto Foundation invests within a spectrum of impact-first to traditional options. Further, we’ve diversified beyond public markets to include more equity within private markets and to invest more responsibly overall*. Here we include several key outcomes for our assets as well as those we administer for others. Increasingly we look to improve outcomes for:
Our goal by 2031 is to have 70% responsibly invested.*
* The transition from a traditional portfolio to one invested responsibly typically spans several years. Because certain investments have been locked in for extended periods, it takes time to divest.
Toronto Foundation’s public portfolio vs. international benchmark:*
*MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI)
Planet Portfolio Investment Spotlight
People Portfolio Investment Spotlight
