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A billionaire's foundation is investing all of its assets in companies that have a " measurable and beneficial social or environmental impact," the New York Times reports.
Nathan Cummings, a Canadian billionaire who built Sara Lee into a global packaged food company, established the Nathan Cummings Foundation in 2000 with a mission to "create a more just, vibrant, sustainable, and democratic society."
His goal was to invest 5% of his fortune in companies that help the environment and treat workers fairly.
But at a 2017 board meeting, several generations of the Cummings family had to vote in favor of investing all of the foundation's assets in companies that have a positive social or environmental impact.
"The usual investing wisdom is that if you want to b) have a measurable and beneficial impact, then you a) won't make as much money," CNBC quotes the Cummings Foundation as saying in a new report.
Instead, the foundation invested all of its assets in 100 companies that have a social or environmental impact of "at least not actively harm" the environment or violate human rights, according to the Times.
The investment paid off: The foundation's investments in companies that have a positive social or environmental impact have returned an average of 10.4% per year over the past five years, compared to 6.5%
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