This summer, Oberlin’s Impact Investment Platform was expanded. The platform, which promotes “socially conscious investment,” has a new goal of investing $100 million in funds that promote this value.
The platform was established in 2013 with $5 million allocated from the endowment; later, a new target of $70 million was set. Chief Investment Officer Jun Yang said he could not provide a precise time frame for when the platform would reach its latest goal of $100 million, but that he expected growth to occur at a similar rate as it had under previous commitments.
Previously, the fund was limited to investing in “sectors pertaining to community development, renewable energy and climate change, and education,” according to a release from the College. With the expansion, the fund will also start investing in the redevelopment of war-torn regions. Yang said that the platform has yet to develop a specific investment strategy in this area, but the Impact Investment Advisory Group will conduct research for the Investment Committee to determine how the platform’s goals can be fulfilled.
The IIAG was formed in 2022, replacing the smaller Impact Investment Platform Subcommittee. It advises the Board of Trustees’ Investment Committee and communicates with the student body about impact investing and the endowment as a whole. The IIAG consists of a nine person panel including four student fellows, alumni, faculty, members of the Board’s Investment Committee, and Chief Investment Officer Jun Yang. This year the IIAG appointed its first coordinator: Iman Abdullah, OC ’24, a former IIAG fellow and Economics major. Applications for this year’s IIAG fellows closed Aug. 31, and fellows will be announced within a few weeks, according to Yang.
The expansion of the Impact Investment Platform comes after the Board turned down a proposal to divest from companies invested in the war in Gaza and Palestinian occupation. The Platform was created at the same time as the College adopted its divestment policy, under which the proposal was submitted. Yang said that there is no connection between the expansion and the divestment proposal.
“Our efforts to advance this commitment are independent of individual calls for divestment or other appeals that may also align with the rationale for impact investing,” he wrote in an email to the Review.
The expansion received the blessing of Chair of the Board of Trustees Chris Canavan.
“Oberlin taught me to keep my eyes and mind open to the many ways we can engage with the most difficult challenges and influence the world for good,” Canavan said in a release from the College. “People’s movements are what we tend to think of first. But we should also appreciate — and try to influence — money movements as well.”
Investment Chair Sean Gavin agreed that the Impact Investment Platform was a way for Oberlin to do good.
“Impact investing is a natural fit with Oberlin’s mission of education and global engagement while generating necessary financial returns,” he said in the same release. “Engaging students in this process facilitates learning and gives agency to students in acting as a catalyst for good.”
