Charities working with Impact Shares would specifically select ETF components based on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, principles that matter the most to them, Reuters reports.
“The Rockefeller Foundation saw an opportunity for socially-conscious organizations to generate awareness and engagement while simultaneously introducing new revenue streams to be used in advancing social good,” Adam Connaker, program associate at The Rockefeller Foundation, said in a note. “Impact Shares is the first nonprofit entity to sponsor exchange-traded products—a framework that fits the Foundation’s vision of how capital markets can help the social initiatives we support.”
Related: Taking a Bottom Up Approach to ESG ETF Investments
The financial industry is increasingly pushing the ESG theme in an attempt to appeal to younger investors and institutions like university endowments that seek to align investments with their core values. Over the past year, U.S. fund managers have launched 22 so-called socially responsible ETFs, compared to 13 a year ago and just five the year prior.
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