The Kresge Foundation, Detroit, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, have teamed up with financial technology firm Lenox Park Solutions to assess the racial and gender diversity makeup of their external money managers.
It is the latest phase of the Kresge Foundation's "25% by '25" pledge, spokeswoman Jennifer Kulczycki said.
Meeting that pledge to invest one-quarter of the foundation's U.S. assets in diverse-owned firms by 2025, which was launched in April 2019, consists of three phases, Ms. Kulczycki said. The foundation has taken steps to intentionally attract more diverse candidate pools for its own investment office, diversify the external money manager lineup, and set the basis for peer organizations and the investment industry to follow their lead.
Ms. Kulczycki said Robert J. Manilla, the $3.7 billion Kresge Foundation's vice president and chief investment officer, reached out to the $7.1 billion MacArthur Foundation to join them in working with Lenox Park Solutions in the assessment.
Having one standardized survey will help managers avoid "survey fatigue," Ms. Kulczycki said. The foundation is actively reaching out to other similar-sized foundations to join them in working with Lenox Park Solutions.
The firm's study "is a holistic, systematized assessment to help managers distinguish themselves and to drive better diversity outcomes through the use of a standardized diversity measure over time," Ms. Kulczycki said. The study is intended to help the managers assess their own diversity and improve it.
