Foundations' financial priorities combined with conventional interpretations of fiduciary duty are often used as barriers to moving capital in alignment with values. But what if the long-term sustainability of the very communities these foundations seek to serve are threatened by financial approaches that privilege the preservation of the institution? Building on work calling for reimagining fiduciary duty to include duty of community care, partiality to impacted communities, and loyalty to community, (see, “Nonprofit Quarterly: What Would Fiduciary Duty to the Community Look Like?”, Sandhya Nakhasi), panelists will invite us to question assumptions about endowment time horizons, including assumptions of perpetuity. They will explore how mission-alignment and community benefit can enrich understandings of and approaches to fiduciary duty, incorporating wider conceptualization of long-term systemic risk.
By reframing fiduciary duty through the lenses of community care, perpetuity, and risk, this session will create space for boards, committees, and investment advisors to consider how their understanding of fiduciary responsibility can evolve to create a local community that is equitable, resilient, and sustainable.
Speakers
Sandhya Nakhasi
Co-CEO at Common Future
Sandhya Nakhasi (she/her) is an executive leader and champion of reimagining a more equitable financial system. She is a co-CEO at Common Future after serving as Managing Director of Impact Investments, where she used an experimental approach to stewarding and growing a portfolio of field defining, equitable lending and community-led investment programs. In her career to date, she has worked at public, private, and non-profit financial institutions where she developed her expertise in impact investing, credit analysis, portfolio risk management, and portfolio operations.
Kate Barron-Alicante, MsC, CFP
Strategic Wealth Advisor, Capital J Collective
Kate Barron-Alicante is a strategic wealth consultant with Capital J Collective whose decades of work span the social change and financial services sectors. As a Certified Financial Planner, Kate is practiced in financial services as financial advisor, executive and board member of an employee-owned financial advisory firm. She has supported impact and legacy-minded foundations, non-profits, families and individuals to more authentically align their values and financial choices. Kate serves on the board of Taproot Earth, a non-profit building power and cultivating solutions among frontline communities to advance climate justice and democracy, as well as the board of the Francesco Collaborative, a faith-based investors community moving capital toward justice, solidarity and ecological care.
Moderator
Elizabeth Diffley
Corporate Lawyer, Legal and Governance Advisor
Elizabeth Diffley is a lawyer with over two decades of experience advising companies and their boards on corporate and securities matters, including corporate governance, public disclosures, capital raising transactions, and shareholder activism. Beth advises on transformational deals, complex governance issues and the evolving ESG landscape. She serves on the Title 15 committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, helping shape corporate law in Pennsylvania. Early in her career, she worked in audit for a Big 4 accounting firm.