Putting Your Money Where Your Mission Is: Philanthropic Strategies for Divestment and Impact Investing

With the recent passage of the federal budget bill that slashed Medicaid and food assistance for millions of Americans while directing $170 billion to border militarization and the surveillance, detention, and deportation of immigrants, it is clear that private industry stands to profit while tearing families and communities apart. Between Trump’s election in November 2024 and April of this year, the stock prices of the nation’s two largest private detention facility operators, GEO Group and CoreCivic, soared 94% and 62% respectively – a pattern that the Brennan Center for Justice notes followed Trump’s first election. Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the budget bill’s signing, both companies saw a further 3% increase in stock value.

With billions in philanthropic assets invested in financial markets, advocates have long called for divestment from private detention facilities and the broader prison-industrial complex. These efforts exist as part of the larger movement for divestment from the range of extractive industries that harm the very communities that foundations seek to support through their grantmaking. Numerous funders have taken up the challenge of revisiting their investment strategies to better align with their missions, with some also pursuing restorative grantmaking practices. In this session we’ll engage in a discussion with several of those funders, as well as an impact investment firm committed to advancing a regenerative economy.

This session will be an excellent opportunity for staff on both the investment and grantmaking sides of the house to learn first-hand what it looks like to operationalize divestment and impact investing strategies, so invite your colleagues and bring your questions!

Target Audience

This program is open to staff and board members of foundations, corporate-giving programs, philanthropic consultancies, affinity groups, and invited governmental grantmaking agencies.