Non-profit

Intentional Endowments Network (IEN)

Website:

www.intentionalendowments.org

Location:

Andover, MA

Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Project of:

Crane Institute of Sustainability

Type:

Membership Network

Environmental Group

Co-Founders:

Georges Dyer and Anthony Cortese

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Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) is a membership organization of over 200 endowments, foundations, investment consultants and managers, and nonprofits involved in environmentalist initiatives, as well as racial justice and economic equality. 1

IEN is a fiscally sponsored project of the Crane Institute of Sustainability, a charitable fund that supports environmentalist groups and causes. 2 3

Activities

Intentional Endowments Network’s mission is to ensure that “all endowed institutions,” any organizations that has received a significant amount of wealth, can “mobilize capital” or most efficiently fund causes like climate-change environmentalism, racial justice, gender equality, and economic equality. It particularly supports higher education institutions that are interested in supporting such causes. 4

IEN warns that the “climate crisis” could “cause catastrophic damage to human life, ecosystem integrity, economic prosperity, and business success,” and that anyone interested in righting unjust inequalities ought to be concerned with climate change, since “inequality and the climate crisis are inextricably linked and interconnected.” 5

IEN has a resource explaining how to create a student-managed sustainable investment fund for college students. It aims to recruit new life-long participants in the environmentalist movement and help them meet investors and other contacts to use throughout their careers. 6

As a project of the Crane Institute of Sustainability, IEN reports its location to be the same as the Institute’s, namely Andover, Massachusetts. 7

IEN has a Twitter account which it uses to showcase its fellows and events. 8

Partners

Intentional Endowments Network’s official partners are Ceres, Confluence Philanthropy, Diverse Asset Managers Initiative, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), HBCU Green Fund, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the ImPact, Impact Capital Managers, Mission Investors Exchange, Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), SIILK Network (Sustainable and Impact Investing Learning and Knowledge), Second Nature, Social Venture Circle (SVC), US SIFL: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, and Toniic Institute. 9

Network Members

As a membership network, IEN has over 200 membership organizations, institutions, and donors. Its “leadership level members” include Arizona State University, California State University, Federated Hermes, Glenmede, Hampshire College, Middlebury College, Natixis Investment Managers, Portland State University Foundation, Prime Buchholz, San Francisco State University Foundation, Schroders, TIAA – Nuveen, Trillium Asset Management, and Warren Wilson College. 10

Funding

IEN has received funding from the Claudia and Peter Kinder Charitable Fund, the Denver Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Generation Foundation, Letterman Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Wallace Global Fund. 11

Leadership

Intentional Endowments Network and parent group Crane Institute of Sustainability were founded by Georges Dyer and Anthony Cortese. 12 13

As of September 2022, Dyer was the executive director of IEN and its parent group Crane Institute of Sustainability. Dyer has worked on environmentalist projects for two decades, such as Second Nature, where he became vice president and worked on the president’s Climate Leadership Commitment, a network of colleges working to make their campuses environmentally friendly. 14

Dyer created a consultancy firm, Greenland Enterprises, to offer services to “sustainability projects” for institutions from Arizona State University to the Norwegian government’s International Climate and Forest Initiative. He formerly worked in the “equity” department of LaBranche Financial Services in New York and helped real estate developers in Vermont and Colorado on “green building projects.”  Dyer sits on the board of Change is Simple, an environmentalist educational group which seeks to influence school curriculums in Massachusetts. 15

Cortese is a senior fellow of both Crane Institute and IEN. He has been a climate change activist and policy advisor for four decades. He founded climate change policy advocacy group Second Nature with former Senator John Kerry, his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, and environmentalist Bruce Droste. Cortese was president of Second Nature from 1993 to 2012. He co-founded the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the Higher Education Association Sustainability Consortium. Cortese is the principal of sustainability education firm Sustainable Visions LLC. He was one of the “founding employees” of the U.S. federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. 16

References

  1. “Georges Dyer.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/georges_dyer.
  2. “About.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/about.
  3. “Home.” The Crane Institute of Sustainability. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://cranesustainability.wordpress.com/about/.
  4. “Mission and Vision.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/about_ien.
  5. “IEN’s Focus Areas.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/ien_s_focus_areas.
  6. “Toolkit: How to Start and Run a Student-Managed Sustainable Investment Fund.” Siilk Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://siilk-intentionalendowments.nationbuilder.com/student_managed_fund_toolkit.
  7. “Contact Us.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/contact_us.
  8. “IntentionalEndowment.” Twitter, Accessed September 3, 2022. https://twitter.com/IntentEndowment.
  9. “IEN’s Partners.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/partners.
  10. “Network Members.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/network_members.
  11. “IEN’s Partners.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/partners.
  12. “Georges Dyer.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/georges_dyer.
  13. “Anthony Cortese.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/anthony_cortese.
  14. “Georges Dyer.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/georges_dyer.
  15. “Georges Dyer.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/georges_dyer.
  16. “Anthony Cortese.” Intentional Endowments Network. Accessed September 3, 2022. https://www.intentionalendowments.org/anthony_cortese.
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Intentional Endowments Network (IEN)


Andover, MA