FYI:
Regards,
Ted
Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber,
Are we in a new age of civic engagement? No matter where you look there is change afoot and it is particularly evident in the private sector among individuals, investors and visionary business leaders.
In his 2018 annual letter to CEOs, titled “A Sense of Purpose,” Larry Fink the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $6 trillion under management wrote: Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose. To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.
In his 2019 letter to CEOs, titled “Purpose and Profit,” Fink doubled down on the message emphasizing that purpose and profit are inextricably linked and that: Profits are essential if a company is to serve all of its stakeholders over time - not only shareholders, but also employees, customers, and communities. Similarly, when a company truly understands and expresses its purpose, it functions with the focus and strategic discipline that drive long-term profitability.
Purpose matters, particularly to younger generations. In a recent survey of millennials by Deloitte, almost 87% of them said: The success of business should be measured in terms of more than just its financial performance, and when asked what the primary purpose of businesses should be - 63% more of them said improving society than said generating profit.
Younger generations are putting their money where their beliefs are. In its report “Impact Investing: at a Tipping Point? ” independent public charity, Fidelity Charitable found in its survey of affluent philanthropic individuals that 77% of millennials and 72% of Gen-Xers have made some sort of impact investments, that means in companies deemed socially responsible.
As we covered on a recent WEALTHTRACK more than $12 trillion, a quarter of all the professionally managed assets in the U.S., are now in socially responsible or sustainable investments. And it is a global trend. In this era of high angst we have found reasons to be optimistic.
We have two guests representing the better side of human nature. Both are deeply involved in giving, transforming and making life better for the rest of us.
Pamela Norley is president of Fidelity Charitable, the oldest donor-advised fund in the country and now one of the largest grant makers as well. In 2018 Fidelity Charitable’s more than 200,000 donors recommended nearly 1.3 million grants totaling $5.2 billion dollars through their giving accounts. The $5.2 billion was donated to more than 144,000 charitable organizations, large and small in every state in the country and across the world.
Toby Usnik is the founder and head of Philanthropic Impact Partners, a global advisory firm he founded in 2016 to advise individuals and corporations on how to optimize their philanthropic missions. He is also the author of a recently published book, The Caring Economy: How to Win With Corporate Social Responsibility. It is a guide for senior executives and aspiring ones on how to successfully integrate socially responsible practices into a company’s operations at any stage of development. Prior to establishing his advisory firm Usnik was the Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer at Christie’s, where he created the CSR program at the world’s leading art auction house.
Both Norley and Usnik are incredibly optimistic about the future. They make the case for a new civic age.
In this week’s exclusive EXTRA feature, Norley discusses why donor-advised funds have taken off as vehicles for charitable giving and Usnik describes the genesis of The Caring Economy.
If you are unable to join us for the show on television, you can watch it on our website over the weekend. If you’d like to see it earlier, it is available to our PREMIUM subscribers right now.
If you would prefer to take WEALTHTRACK with you on your commute or travels, you can now find the WEALTHTRACK podcast on TuneIn, Stitcher and SoundCloud, as well as iTunes and Spotify.
Thank you for watching. Have a lovely weekend and make the week ahead a profitable and a productive one.
Best regards,
Consuelo
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