Our Story: Sharpening The Russell Family Foundation’s Philanthropic Tools to Help Drive Transparent Climate Action

CEO Kathleen Simpson explains the philanthropic organization’s method of adopting transparency and accountability.

Kathleen Simpson

When I consider the opportunity I have as CEO of The Russell Family Foundation, I am excited about using philanthropic tools, investments, grants and collaboration, as well as our voices, to help repair our Earth for all. Each day, I am motivated to work together with others to drive meaningful climate action and community resilience.

TRFF’s “impact investing” journey began in 2004, with a pilot venture into mission-related investing and an exploration into additional advocacy and field-building tools. Since then, we have taken many incremental and iterative steps toward reaching a 100% impact-aligned portfolio. Along the way, we have shared lessons learned, updated policies and practices accordingly, and communicated our journey, practices and investments transparently, including in our Investment Policy Statement at the end of 2023. We also held an open call interview process to bring in new members for our Investment and Audit Committee in early 2022 to encourage diverse and new perspectives. Open calls for board and committee members are not common practice in philanthropy. In 2022, we also initiated our Catalytic Climate Finance Program, when we joined the United Nations-convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance and announced our commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions as a foundation by 2030.

Achieving a platinum rating through the Intentional Endowments Network’s Endowment Impact Benchmark assessment in 2024 was an inspiring milestone, reflecting the dedication and rigorous efforts we applied throughout our journey. First, we systematically aligned our assets to our mission of investing in people and places to advance environmental sustainability and address the climate crisis. Second, we demonstrated our commitment to climate solutions clearly through our actions. Finally, we committed to doing so transparently , thus inviting accountability into our processes. The EIB has helped us to look critically at the way we work and to sharpen our tools with an evaluation process led by BlueMark, an independent impact verification firm, to ensure that ratings are credible and reflective of best practices.

Transparency and accountability are becoming sustainability buzzwords. Applying these tenets as a foundation, especially with fewer guidelines than exist for other types of organizations, can be tricky. Still, for us, it comes down to defining and staying true to our values. For other similar-sized foundations grappling with transparency and accountability, it is important to commit to a clear set of values, get into the work, evaluate impact and outcomes, revise and continue to learn, improve and share. Our values at TRFF are clear: putting relationships at the center of our work; prioritizing equity, justice and belonging in all that we do; caring for the natural world; being courageous and taking risks while continually learning; and building trust through transparency and integrity.

Committing to transparency is also about being open to discussing challenges. One of the challenges the foundation has faced on the journey toward investing in climate solutions is ensuring we identify scalable solutions and balance risk with impactful outcomes. Sometimes we may have to consider longer-term outcomes; sometimes we may need to reassess or consider a trade-off; and, always, we must stay true to the heart of our mission. Over time, we have found that some of the best ways of tackling these challenges are to leverage our networks, invest in collaborations and prioritize resilience in our strategies.

For example, earlier this year, we convened other like-minded foundations to discuss the role of philanthropies in the fight against climate change and to share insights. There is ample opportunity for foundations to embrace their role here more fully, setting an example for other sectors to follow and working toward a sustainable and just future for all. Regarding our investment approach, we work closely with our investment adviser, AlTi Tiedemann Global, using five strategic tools to guide our investments. These help us target and address various aspects of the climate crisis through our organizational activities and investment portfolio. Collaborations and partnerships with other foundations, AlTi and networks like IEN enhance our strategies, offer shared insights and diverse perspectives, and support us in navigating complex investment landscapes— all key to elevating this vital work.

Participating in the EIB assessment allowed us to engage with a benchmarking framework that helped us analyze how we are progressing along our journey toward sustainable investing. Having a third party review our practices and compare us to peers has revealed areas of strength and, most importantly, areas for improvement, holding us accountable to our goals as we move forward and improving how we present our work. I would urge other foundations who have yet to engage with the EIB to reach out to the team at IEN and look at ways they can participate too. It is an important step to support genuinely impactful investing in the philanthropic community.

Finally, I encourage other leaders to use their influence to empower climate solutions. At TRFF, we believe strongly that foundations are meant to be catalytic. To lead by example, we need to invest in being an example and talking about it openly.

Kathleen Simpson is the CEO of The Russell Family Foundation, where she collaborates with the board to guide the foundation’s strategic planning, programs and community affairs and oversees the Foundation’s impact investing.

This feature is to provide general information only, does not constitute legal or tax advice, and cannot be used or substituted for legal or tax advice. Any opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the stance of ISS STOXX or its affiliates.

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Oregon Bill Would Ban State Pension Investments in Private Markets Funds Invested in Fossil Fuels

Senate Bill 681 would prohibit the state treasurer from renewing or making investments in private equity or other alternative funds which state an intention to invest in fossil fuels.



Members of the Oregon State Senate have introduced legislation that would create a five-year moratorium on state investments in private equity and other private market funds that invest in fossil fuel companies.
Senate Bill 681, known as the “Pause Act,” introduced this month, would halt such investing for a five-year period.  

The bill, which includes the caveat that its moratorium is “subject to fiduciary duties,” describes funds investing in fossil fuels as those that are making or intend to make investments of at least 10% of their assets under management in companies that are producing, exploring, extracting, transmitting or exporting fossil fuels, as well as companies that maintain or deal in fossil fuel infrastructure, such as pipelines and terminals.  

In February 2024, then-State Treasurer Tobias Read introduced a net-zero plan for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund. That plan required divestments from fossil fuel producers and a tripling of investments in climate-positive holdings in its private market holdings. The treasury released the plan’s first annual progress report in December 2024.  

The proposed legislation largely follows proposals in the treasury’s net-zero plans, which call for the restriction of “new investments in funds primarily focused on fossil fuels” in the fund’s private equity and real assets portfolio. The net-zero plan also requires, as a part of the fund’s 2035 interim target, credible transition plans from companies or assets in the private assets portfolio that derive more than 20% of their revenues from thermal coal, oil sands, shale oil and gas activities.  

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A spokesperson for the Oregon State Treasury says the department will work with legislators this session to cement Oregon’s net-zero investment goals in statute, while reducing the fund’s risk of losses from investments in carbon emitting business.  

“We’ve been having thoughtful and open discussions with legislators, labor leaders, and others on how we reach Oregon’s Net Zero goal,” the spokesperson says. The same spokesperson also says the state treasury—now led by State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner after Read was elected as Oregon’s secretary of state—is concerned that the legislation, in its current form, could reduce the investment returns of the fund, increase unfunded liabilities for public agencies across the state, and create unintended consequences that could undermine the state treasury’s net-zero goal.  

The Oregon State Treasury seeks to achieve a 60% reduction in portfolio emissions intensity by 2035 from relative to the fund’s 2022 emissions baseline. In the fund’s public equity and fixed-income portfolios, the fund seeks 10% of active and 30% of passive investments to be climate or transition-aligned investments. The fund also seeks 90% of emissions from directly owned properties to have credible net-zero transition plans.  

The fund classifies climate-aligned investments as those “moving the economy to net zero and climate resilience,” per the fund’s net-zero plan. Transition-aligned investments are classified as those aligned with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.  

OPERF managed $100.9 billion in assets as of November 30, 2024. The fund is a significant investor in private equity, with a 27.7% allocation to the asset class. The fund allocates 23.4% of the portfolio to fixed income, 16.3% to equities, 14% to real estate, 10.5% to real assets, 5% to diversifying strategies and 3.0% to an opportunity portfolio.  

Related Stories: 

Oregon Pension Publishes Inaugural Progress Report on Net-Zero Plan 

Oregon Enacts Thermal Coal Divestment Law 

Oregon Plans for Net Zero Portfolio by 2050 

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