At Nexus Impact Advisors we help organizations and individuals invest in accordance with their values.

Our clients desire to make the world a better place with all of their capital — not just their charitable contributions — and our experience has shown that attractive risk-adjusted financial returns and positive social impact are not mutually exclusive. We serve as trusted advisors in our clients’ journeys towards full portfolio values alignment, providing education, expertise, and insight along the way.

OUR SERVICE MODEL

Our discretionary portfolio management process is based on an iterative three-step framework: (1) Planning, (2) Execution, and (3) Feedback. The following services are presented in chronological order, however, the path toward values alignment is iterative and therefore many activities are often repeated.

Step 1: Planning

  1. Values discovery process. We work closely with clients to understand the values they wish to see furthered through their investments. A mix of quantitative and qualitative analyses are utilized to produce actionable frameworks for evaluating investment opportunities across asset classes. Both negative and positive screens are included.

  2. Investment strategy development. We help clients develop clear, actionable strategies to guide their investing activity across asset classes, including public equities, private equity and venture capital, hedge funds, fixed income, real estate and other real assets, and more. This typically results in the development of an Investment Policy Statement (IPS), which outlines a client’s financial goals, investment objectives, and non-financial impact targets as well as the policies and protocols to supervise, monitor, and evaluate performance over time. As desired, we also provide in-depth investing strategies for individual asset classes such as private markets impact investing.

  3. Portfolio analysis. We perform a comprehensive review of clients’ existing portfolios to understand how current holdings perform in light of their values.

Step 2: Execution

  1. Portfolio modeling & revisions. We design customized portfolio solutions that incorporate clients’ financial goals, impact objectives, and desired asset allocations. Values-aligned investment opportunities exist across asset classes and our extensive network of fund managers and subadvisors enable us to provide bespoke models tailored to each individual client.

  2. Investment execution. For public market allocations, we negotiate and enter subadvisory and model delivery contracts as needed for recommended asset managers. When applicable, we also manage the pre-trade compliance, trade execution, and post-trade compliance functions. Within private markets, we manage the execution of subscription documents for commitments and capital call notifications in conjunction with IPS guidelines and liquidity planning analyses.

  3. Investment due diligence. As new investment opportunities arise, we perform in-depth due diligence and provide deliverables tailored to each client’s objectives and decision-making processes.

Step 3: Feedback

  1. Monitoring & evaluation. As clients’ portfolios are transitioned toward values-aligned investment holdings, we establish monitoring protocols and reporting requirements to provide an objective assessment of performance and progress — including financial return as well as social, environmental, governance, and/or spiritual impact.

  2. Rebalancing. We regularly review clients’ portfolios to ensure alignment with target asset allocation. When the portfolio deviates materially from its asset class targets due to market performance or tactical decisions, we look to rebalance back to the target allocation.

  3. Regular strategy review. The Investment Policy Statement (IPS) is a living document requiring regular review to ensure it accurately reflects our clients’ investment objectives. We perform periodic reviews and present any recommended changes to our clients for review and approval.

  4. Ongoing guidance and advisory. The transition to a values-aligned portfolio takes time. We build trusted relationships with our clients and provide ongoing guidance to help them achieve their long-term objectives.

HOW WE SELECT INVESTMENTS

We partner with a network of industry experts and subadvisors in implementing a three-pronged approach to identify values-aligned investment opportunities:

  1. Avoid (“do no harm”) ­— Using findings from the values discovery process, we review clients’ portfolios to identify holdings that conflict with their convictions. This is commonly referred to as negative screening.

  2. Embrace (“do good”) — We identify investment opportunities that proactively further the positive social, environmental, spiritual, or other non-financial impacts our clients wish to see in the world. This is also known as positive screening.

  3. Engage (“shareholder advocacy/proxy voting”) — We help clients positively influence the behavior and trajectory of portfolio companies and funds through shareholder advocacy. This is typically done by the managers of holdings in which our clients are invested and not by clients themselves.