Markets Magazine
NC State Built a ‘Responsible’ Fund That’s Outperforming Its Main Portfolio
A college finds ESG investing is actually paying off.
The news for North Carolina State University in 2013 couldn’t have been bigger. The Raleigh public school would receive one of the largest single private gifts in its history: $50 million. Yet the cash came with a catch: Every cent of it had to be invested in a “socially responsible fashion.”
NC State followed those parameters, and its parallel fund, currently valued at $13 million, has outperformed the school’s larger $1.1 billion endowment—20 percent vs. 12 percent—in the year through June 30, 2017.