Rockefeller Brothers Fund
What problem is the fund solving?
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (founded in 1940) has a commitment that all of its activities and resources must be utilised for meaningful progress toward its mission to advance social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.
The JEDI lens
RBF's Mission-Aligned Investment efforts include divestment from fossil fuels, impact investments, screening for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, and shareholder engagement.
Then in 2019, they recognised the need to further align their investments with their institutional mission by increasing opportunities for investment with firms led by women and people of color, including racial/ethnic groups that have been historically underrepresented in the U.S. investment sector. They developed the Gender Racial Equity Lens (GREL) investing approach.
This began by assessing the current level of diversity amongst the investment managers in their endowment holdings, identifying any bias in their investment processes, and exploring how to increase the gender, racial, and ethnic diversity of the investment managers in the portfolio.
Following a series of internal discussions as well as meetings with peer foundations, investor networks, and leaders in this work, the Fund made the decision to commit to invest 25 percent of their endowment with firms majority-owned by women and people of color.
Beyond their 25% commitment, they recognised the need for additional measures to support increases in opportunities for investment with firms led by those who have been historically underrepresented in the U.S. investment sector.
How Impact is Measured
RBF commits to the principles of accountability and transparency and will be sharing annual updates on the progress of this commitment on their website.
The following metrics are applied to firms within their portfolio and those they seek to join it:
Metric 1 - Ownership: women and/or people of colour hold "Majority Ownership" of the firm (defined as 51% or more);
Metric 2 - Leadership: women and/or people of colour are voting members of the Investment Committee and/or Portfolio Managers for the fund/strategy;
Metric 3 - Next Generation Pipeline: Firm makes intentional efforts to transition women and/or people of colour to more senior roles; and
Metric 4 - Diverse-Led Portfolio Companies: Venture Capital & Private Equity fund commits to a minimum of 30% portfolio companies led by women and/or people of colour.
Example of GREL Investment
Rethink Impact Fund II:
Focuses on early-stage investments with women-led technology companies, led by gender-diverse teams, including underrepresented women of colour. Sectors include economic empowerment, education, health, and environmental sustainability.
Importantly, Rethink Impact invests venture capital at critical early junctures, enabling women-led portfolio companies to achieve scale. Rethink Impact Fund II qualifies for Metric #1 Majority ownership by women and people of colour and Metric #2 Leadership at the fund manager level and Metric #4 Diverse-Led Portfolio Companies for the underlying fund investments.
Impact is evaluated through the lenses of intentionality, outcomes, and scalability. With Rethink Impact Fund II, impact measurement focuses not only on capital deployed to female-founded companies and how those companies perform and scale over time but also on the underlying impact of the services and products of the companies.
Snapshot
Name: Rockefeller Brothers Fund Gender Racial Equity Lens (GREL) investing
Size: $791.9M invested as of 31 December 2021
Focus: Commit to invest 25 percent of their endowment with firms majority-owned by women and people of color.
Location: US
“[We wanted to understand] what role can the RBF play in signalling to the market and in engaging with the managers of their portfolio to address these issues and get more representation at scale.”