Representatives from 20 European foundations met today in Brussels at the headquarters of the European Foundation Centre. The day's key question was: "How to mainstream mission-aligned investing at European foundations in 10 years?"

Mission-aligned investing enables a foundation to use its capital endowment for a social purpose while still safeguarding the financial health of the organization through a combination of responsible investments and impact investments. While some foundations and regions in Europe are advanced in this practice, in general European foundations lag other institutional asset owners in implementing investment policies that consider environmental, social and governance factors as part of standard investment analysis.

Participants in the workshop—entitled 360-degrees for Mission—discussed concrete steps to accelerate mission-aligned investing in Europe over the next decade. The workshop concluded that real opportunities for collaborative action among foundations exist and can resolve many of the remaining challenges facing foundation investors. A working group of the European Foundation Centre is currently being planned to continue making progress in this area.

360-degrees for Mission was co-hosted by the Mistra Foundation (Sweden), Fondazione Cariplo (Italy), and Fonds 1818 (Netherlands) and organized by onValues and the European Foundation Centre.

Download the meeting report
«360-degrees for Mission Meeting Report»