Outcomes
that Matter
Impact Report 2023
A Message from President & CEO Rey Ramsey
NCF Overview
Our Journey to Impact
2018
All in on Mission-Aligned Investing
NCF commits 100% of its endowment to mission-aligned investing. This marks its evolution from a traditional grantmaking institution into an impact investor.
NOVEMBER 2022
Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice
NCF sets a five-year strategic plan, committing to focus solely on advancing racial, economic, and environmental justice (REEJ) and dedicating the totality of its assets – including its endowment and beyond – for impact. As part of the plan, NCF creates a $22 million program-related investment (PRI) fund, led by Bob Bancroft, and a place-based focus in the U.S. South and Israel-Palestine.
JANUARY 2023
Aligning Infrastructure
NCF aligns its infrastructure and operations with its strategic plan, breaking down organizational silos and fostering collaboration across asset types (e.g., grants, endowment, shareholder advocacy).
Highlights include:
- To break down silos between departments and leverage all our assets in pursuit of social impact, NCF launches three Solutions Teams, one for each of the issues under the REEJ umbrella.
- NCF welcomes a Chief Impact Officer, Kristi C. Whitfield.
- NCF refocuses its finance team on “mission investing,” led by Bob Bancroft.
- NCF introduces Asset Management function, led by Janet Disla.
- NCF reimagines human resources as “people and culture,” led by Shelly Harper.
SEPTEMBER 2023
Ethos of Learning
NCF makes an all-in organizational commitment to measurement and learning, with impact indicators to be developed in 2024 to help us understand and be accountable to our impact goals.
BY THE NUMBERS
Grant Snapshot 2023
163 grants paid, totaling:
$16,186,500
Average grant size:
$161,455
Total grantee partners:
150
NCF’s grants made across the U.S. and in Israel-Palestine:
- $12,042,576 went to partners working at a national level in th U.S.
- $100,000 went to partners working in the U.S. West*
- $1,771,150 went to partners working in the U.S. South
- $850,000 went to partners working in the U.S. Northeast
- $1,171,400 went to partners working in the Israel-Palestine region**
Footnotes:
* In 2023, no grants were made to organizations based in the U.S. Midwest.
** We fund grantee partners in the Israel-Palestine region via an intermediary, the New Israel Fund.
Demographic Snapshot of Grantee Partners 2023
NCF invests with a
racial-equity-and-inclusion lens.
62% of our grants support BIPOC-led organizations.
Leadership Demographics
By Race:
- 35% Black/African American/Afro-Caribbean
- 11% Asian American
- 9% Latinx/Latino/Hispanic
- 6% Arab/Middle Eastern/North African (AMENA)
- 3% Multiracial
- 1% Native American/Alaskan Native, Hawaiian
By Gender:
- 58% Female
- 32% Male
- 4% Non-binary/Gender non-conforming
Footnotes:
- Some partners did not ask staff members to self-report on gender or did not identify with the options provided in NCF’s DEI table template, so the figures do not add up to 100%.
- These figures represent the makeup of the organizations’ senior leadership and boards.
Endowment Snapshot 2023
Endowment
(as of December 2023)
$462M total endowment, 5.0% real return
89% of the endowment is mission-aligned*
- 38% of investments are classified as Avoids Harm (A)
- 40% are classified as Benefits Stakeholders (B)
- 11% are classified as Contributes to Solutions (C)
- 11% are classified as Traditional (T)
Fund Manager Diversity:
51% of fund managers are majority-owned by women or people of color.
Definitions:
- [A]cts to Avoid Harm: screened to avoid harmful behaviors, such as industries or practices at odds with our mission.
- [B]enefits Stakeholders: screened to seek positive behaviors, such as companies who manage their environmental impacts toward sustainable levels.
- [C]ontributes to Solutions: investments in companies that directly advance positive social and environmental outcomes, particularly for marginalized communities.
- [T]raditional: neutral or unclassified investments, such as cash, and some misaligned investments we are in the process of exiting.
PRI Snapshot 2023
NCF has committed $22 million for PRIs over the next five years with a target budget of $3 million for the first year (2024).
Past pilot investments:
1863 Ventures Fund
Southern Bancorp Community Partners
South Carolina Community Loan Fund
Shareholder-Activism Snapshot 2023
NCF filed four shareholder proposals during the 2023 proxy season:
AT&T
Issue
Civil Rights/Racial-Equity
Audit
Result:
The proposal received the highest vote (22%) of any new racial-equity proposal filed last year.
Before the vote, AT&T committed to an independent racial-equity audit of its largest charitable project (broadband in underserved communities). Though this outcome was not a direct result of the 2023 vote, we believe that strong votes on similar proposals in previous years laid the groundwork for AT&T’s actions.
Alphabet
Issue
Civil Rights/Racial-Equity
Audit
Result:
We withdrew the proposal because the company conducted and published a civil rights audit, which covered the company’s products, practices, and policies. Download the full report and see the full case study on page 15.
Elevance Health
Issue
Transparent Political
Spending
Result:
The proposal, the first of its kind with the company, received an 8% vote, clearing the threshold for resubmission. We plan to resubmit the proposal in 2024.
Disney
Issue
Retention, Recruitment,
and Promotion
Result:
We withdrew the proposal because the company agreed to break down recruitment, retention, and promotion data by race and gender.
NCF leverages proxy voting as an important shareholder tool. Through voting proxies, we provide boards and management with input on a wide range of issues, from the appropriateness of executive compensation to the importance of strategic efforts to address climate change. A summary of votes cast in 2023 can be found here.
Behind the Numbers
Opening Doors + Accessing Capital: Our Partnership with Bivium Westfuller
When we conducted a formal search for our next investment advisor, we did everything we could to ensure we were opening every door to find the best partner to advance our investment strategy.
One of the things we did differently in our search process was to welcome joint proposals. This allowed firms to combine their talents and capacities to ensure they could meet the assets-under-management threshold we established. That led us to our partnership with Bivium Westfuller (BWF), a joint venture between Bivium Capital and Westfuller Advisors, which are both Black-owned and BIPOC-led firms.
Our partnership with BWF has already made a real difference. For example, BWF collaborates deeply with our staff, including grantmaking staff, to bring a clear mission lens to our investing. And BWF hired a slate of new managers. Out of those, 68% are majority owned by people of color and/or women.
“Guided by our values, we sought to remove barriers and open new doors in our search for the best investment team. We are excited to partner with Bivium Westfuller on our journey toward greater impact.”
– Bob Bancroft, Vice President of Mission Investing and Finance
Leveraging our Standing as an Investor to Advance Racial Equity
We are among a growing number of investors filing resolutions to end systemic racism and oppression within corporations. One such resolution, led by NCF in consultation with our grantee partners at Open MIC, helped prompt the release of a report on an independent civil rights audit at tech giant Google.
Civil rights audits, also referred to as racial equity audits, are important tools to help companies uncover and begin to remedy harm tied to people’s race, ethnicity, sex, and other protected characteristics.
The report shared key insights regarding racial equity in Google’s workplace practices, products, economic-opportunity programs, and philanthropic efforts. Recommendations included the development of a civil rights infrastructure to review and provide expertise on policies, processes, and product changes across the business and mandating the use of best practices for inclusive hiring. These and other recommendations in the report are an important first step, but companies must view these audits as the beginning of a process of improvement and growth, not the end.
“Racial-equity audits can yield benefits for society and enhance long-term shareholder value. We hope that more investors call on companies to conduct these audits.”
– Laura Campos, Senior Director of Economic Justice
LOOKING AHEAD
On a Journey to Justice
Dear community,
If you take one thing from this report, I hope it is that NCF is on a journey to achieve results that matter. We are supporting many partners along that journey, all with eyes on the prize of advancing racial, economic, and environmental justice (REEJ). Our team and partners worked incredibly hard in 2023, and we’re excited to build on that impact in the year ahead.
In the coming months, we will make key decisions about our place-based work. This will include 1) aligning our strategy in the Israel-Palestine region with our focus on REEJ, and 2) selecting location(s) for our U.S. South place-based initiative.
We will also deepen our commitment to transparency, learning, and measurement. We are working on institution-wide impact indicators, which will help us determine whether we’re making appropriate progress and hold ourselves accountable for meaningful results. In the spirit of contributing to our collective learning, we’ll be publishing these impact reports on an annual basis.
Rey Ramsey
President and CEO, Independent Trustee
Kristi C. Whitfield
Chief Impact Officer