Our Commitment to Support Diversity in the Investment Sector

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has set a new goal to invest 25 percent of its endowment holdings with firms majority-owned by women and/or people of color. As of December 2019, approximately 12 percent of the Fund's endowment is invested with firms led by women and/or people of color.

This goal is part of a suite of efforts the RBF is undertaking to support a more diverse finance sector and incentivize the creation of new opportunities for women and under-represented people of color (defined as African American/Black, Hispanic/Latin American/Latinx, and American Indian/Alaska Native) in investment firms and venture capital and private equity funds.

The Fund's efforts to better align its investment practices with its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion recognize our moral obligation to do our part to address past and current injustices to groups that have been historically socially, politically, and economically marginalized. Theories suggest that investors underestimate the value of funds managed by people of color and women. A recent analysis of the asset management sector commissioned by the Knight Foundation finds that these firms account for only 1.3 percent of the financial industry’s $69.1 trillion assets under management.