August 28, 2024

Dan Maddox used to say, “It is my job to make the money and her job to give it away. She is doing a better job than I am.” He was referring to his wife Margaret – in fact a Vice President of the Maddox companies and fully engaged in business matters. Still, the anecdote (a popular joke at parties in the ’70s and ’80s) illustrates a persistent practice among foundations: the disconnect over how the money is made and how it is given away.

Historically, the Maddox Fund’s Investment Committee structured the organization’s investment program with the singular focus maximizing returns. The Grant Committee, another group altogether, developed a process for giving the money away. The committees reported to each other at board meetings; their work, however, was guided by different values and directives.

With this siloed structure, Maddox’s market investments and grants could easily work against each other. For example, we might have invested in a company that degrades water quality while our grants prioritized healthy water systems; or, we might have invested in companies with extractive labor practices even as Maddox espouses justice and liberation.

During our 2020 equity audit, we interrogated our practices and began to ask how we could align our resources with our values. We asked ourselves what it would look like if every dollar we invested worked to further our mission.

Meanwhile, the Investment Committee went to work crafting our investment North Stars, which led to a 14-month search for an investment adviser who specialized in mission-aligned investments. In 2022, we hired Bivium Westfuller – a multi-racial, gender-diverse investment advisor “compelled by the power of financial resources, invested with purpose, to drive a flourishing society and planet.”

As of March 2024, approximately 71%, or $41M, of our assets have moved to Bivium Westfuller and invested with seven (7) diverse managers focused on solutions to three of our society’s most pressing problems – affordable housing, renewable energy and economic equity.

One of Maddox’s overarching North Stars is to be a “learning organization embracing all stages of transformation and change toward liberation.” We are in a steep learning curve right now as we plan for the transition of the remaining 29% of Maddox’s legacy investments toward alignment with our North Stars. In the year ahead we will be learning about impact measurement, shareholder activism and Net Zero investing. We are also learning, alongside other area foundations, about program- and mission-related investments in order to invest 95% of our resources in companies/markets that work for good.

The Maddox Fund seeks a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from oppression and threat. The old ways of working will not address our society’s most intractable systems and problems. New ways of thinking and investing are required.