eNews
November 2022
INVESTING FOR GOOD, INVESTING FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
Deaconess Community,

Earlier this fall Deaconess joined our investment partners at Bank of America Private Bank to discuss our socially responsible investment strategy that prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion in the management of the Foundation’s endowment. Though our strategy has evolved over the years, our goals for our investment portfolio have always been clear: provide operational dollars for the Foundation while ensuring the Deaconess mission continues indefinitely. Since 1998, when Deaconess first began grantmaking, Deaconess has distributed more than $85 million in grants to community organizations for the improved health of the metropolitan St. Louis community, which includes Southern Illinois, and its people. 

As Vice President of Operations at Deaconess Foundation, I work closely with our partners at Bank of America Private Bank who are charged with managing our $50 million investment portfolio. As our appreciation of socially responsible investing and racial equity evolved over the years our commitment to integrating these values into desired outcomes and processes required us to refine our goals with our investment office. Our desired outcomes extend beyond the performance of our investments. With intentionality, our hope is to change and influence conditions beyond the reach of our financial assets.
Bethany Johnson-Javois, President and CEO of Deaconess Foundation, and Matt Oldani, Vice President of Operations at Deaconess Foundation discuss the value and impact of a diverse and equitable investment strategy with financial institutions.
To this end, our strategy includes the following three different tactics:

  • We believe, first, in doing no harm. We request that our investment office screen out companies that are engaged in the manufacture, sale, or distribution of weapons, tobacco, pornography, gaming, and alcoholic beverages. We have also divested from companies that profit from the prison industrial complex including privately owned correctional facilities.

  • We request our investment office to identify companies with values that align with Deaconess’ regarding the treatment of employees and a commitment to the responsible use and protection of the environment. Thus, we favor investment in corporations that showcase progressive and industry-leading policies relating to people management and environmental stewardship and have a proven historical performance record in relation to such policies.  

  • We believe that the best outcomes come from diverse teams. Therefore, we request our investment office to direct a minimum of 5% of the Foundation’s assets to historically underfunded or undercapitalized firms led by African American, Native American, or Latinx managers. Historically these firms have faced challenges raising capital which may lead to less competitive businesses, higher costs of capital and higher risks of bankruptcy. Prioritizing investments with these firms add investment capital and provide for operational longevity. 
 
We are proud to say that nearly 90% of our portfolio is invested in a socially responsible manner and more than 23% of our portfolio is invested with fund managers who identify as members of the world’s global majority. We will continue our efforts to increase those percentages. 

In implementing these strategies, Deaconess has continued to see positive financial returns, invest deeply in our community, and maintain $50 million investment portfolio. To us, process, which is how we go about doing the work, is just as important as outcomes. Watch the recording to learn more.

We invite the philanthropic sector, businesses, individuals and more to join us socially responsible investing that prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In service to the mission,  
   
Matt Oldani 
Vice President, Operations 
Deaconess Foundation 
PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: LEADMO
LeadMo is a nonprofit organization that helps to develop a diverse and inclusive pipeline of talented leaders who are devoted to building a Missouri that is centered on equitable progress. It connects future change makers with opportunities that allow them to grow and carve out their own niche in Missouri's civic forward space without leaving for "greener pastures." LeadMO brings new skills to organizers working across a myriad of issues and helps tear down barriers to access.  

Deaconess Foundation provides funding to LeadMO through its Responsive Grant portfolio to support its efforts to build on foundational programs and maximize new capacity brought to partners. This helps young staff and emerging leaders have the support they need to bring systemic change to the communities served. Funding expands programming that raises up and creates space for people of color and those closest to economic hardship to build power.

Learn more about LeadMO here. 
FROM THE FOUNDATION
Welcome New Trustees
Deaconess Foundation's Board of Trustees appointed three new board members during the Annual Public Joint Meeting of the Deaconess Foundation and Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being Boards. Join us in welcoming our new trustees as they begin their terms in January 2023!
Rev. Jennifer Sowell Glover
Senior Pastor & Teacher
St. John United Church of Christ

Rev. Sowell Glover is a pastor called to heal, unite and serve communities. She has shepherded her Collinsville, IL congregation through the difficult years of the pandemic and pastoral turmoil to a place of healing, joy and celebration once again. She is a builder of bridges and safe places, helping congregations, parishioners, and communities reunite and align. Rev. Sowell Glover has a deep breadth of experience in facilitating and preaching at congregations while serving as the creator and organizer of programming, curriculum and events. She is also involved in activism and advocacy in the disabled and queer communities.
 
Accomplishments include successfully launching young adult, youth, and women’s ministries, balancing church budgets, repairing church schism, recruiting new parishioners, diversifying congregations in age, race, culture, and sexuality, expanding church mission to include action/involvement rather than donations only, and more.
 
Previously, Rev. Sowell Glover held positions at congregations in Wheaton, MD, Catonsville, MD, St. Pete Beach, FL, Rockville Centre, NY, and New York, NY. She is a current candidate for the Doctor of Ministry Program at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC.
Ciearra (CJ) Walker
President and CEO
St. Louis Community Health Worker Coalition

A public health leader, Ms. Walker is dedicated to her community as a catalyst through informed research. Her work in social impact offers place-based intervention that addresses social need, elevates resident voice, champions policy, and encourages community solution through authentic, intuitional partnership. Ms. Walker is dedicated to creating system-focused infrastructure that improves public impact. The cornerstone of her work aims to help transform institutions into racially responsive systems that promote generational community well-being while simultaneously building power and cultivating leaders in neighborhoods of those same systems. “Connecting vision to actionable on-the-ground strategy” is said to be Ms. Walker's differentiating gift.

Previously, Ms. Walker served as the Community Affairs Coordinator for Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace and a Community Health Worker (CHW) in St. Louis where she engaged a growing network of more than 150 CHW neighborhood leaders and more than 35 organizations around legislative strategy. She is a current Doctoral student in Public Health Leadership Program at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Senator Brian Williams
14th Senatorial District
Missouri State Senate


Senator Williams has represented the 14th Senatorial District in St. Louis County since 2018. He currently serves as the assistant minority floor leader and is the first Black male to serve in the Missouri Senate in two decades. Senator Williams has dedicated his time to passing legislation on comprehensive police reforms focus on humane law regarding violent force and access to feminine hygiene products, and helping set innocent people free. Additional accomplishments as senator include creating legislation to advocate for access to pain medication prescriptions for sickle cell anemia patients, protecting MO ABLE funds for disability costs, leading the Capitol’s annual human trafficking awareness day, and securing $98 million for development in North St. Louis County projects.
  
As a Congressional staffer, he oversaw Missouri’s rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace under President Obama’s administration and helped land the $1.75 billion new headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in North St. Louis City.

Sen. Williams has a background in government and public health policy. He serves as a board director for People’s Health Center, where he helped develop a behavioral health care center for underserved children. Additionally, Senator Williams is a member of the advisory boards for St. Louis Crisis Nursery, Simmons Bank, iHeart Media, Nurses for Newborns and the University City Children’s Center. He is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.
PARTNERS IN THE NEWS
Ashcroft's book ban proposal slammed by ACLU

Kurt Erickson | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | November 30, 2022

JEFFERSON CITY — The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri joined the fight Wednesday to torpedo a plan by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to block public funding for libraries if they offer books that might appeal to the sexual interests of minors.
Calling the proposed rule change a threat to free speech, the ACLU joined the Missouri Library Association and the Missouri Association of School Librarians in seeking to stop the rule from going into effect.

“We, as Missourians, should find it unacceptable that state funding is being wielded as a tool to provoke and encourage censorship. The ACLU of Missouri stands with libraries and our librarians,” the organization said in the formal comment it submitted about the proposal. Read more. 
PARTNER OPPORTUNITIES & EVENTS
Now Hiring:

December 1: IFCLA's Community Bake-Off. Register.
December 2 (and continuing Fridays): BRIC LOV Fridays by The T. Register.
December 2: December Friday Forum - Legislative Preview with Empower Missouri. Register.
December 3: "Freedom Arts WinterFest" from 11 am - 3 pm. 826 Union Blvd. 63108. Learn more.
December 5: Community First Responder Training by The T. Register.
January 7: “Black Men: Do you really know where you at?” The T. Register.  
People's Assembly Meeting
December 10: Take part in voicing the North Central Plan's wins, challenges, and approaching solutions together. Residents and stakeholders of the Covenant Blu Grand Center and Vandeventer neighborhoods are invited to discuss the future of your community through the North Central Plan People’s Assembly. Continue to take an active role in shaping housing, education, health, and environmental changes throughout your neighborhoods.

Saturday, 12/10 from 1-5 pm. Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being (1000 N. Vandeventer Ave., St. Louis, MO). Childcare provided. Register.

Watch a brief recap of the last meeting and view the Needs and Offers Dashboard (includes a submission form for requests) to track activities for the North Central Plan's activities. This dashboard lists needs to be expressed by participants at the last meeting and will be expanded as meetings continue.
WHAT WE'RE READING
What is Healing Justice? | Nonprofit Quarterly | October 2022 

Housing and Climate: Funding Holistic Solutions | Stanford Social Innovation Review | October 2022

Solutions Centering Black Women in Housing | Nonprofit Quarterly | November 2022

What Large, Unrestricted Gifts do for Leaders | Stanford Social Innovation Review | November 2022
ICYMI: ANNUAL JOINT PUBLIC MEETING
On Tuesday, November 15, 2022, the Annual Joint Public Meeting of the Deaconess Foundation and Deaconess Center for Child Well-Being Boards was conducted in a hybrid format and live streamed. 

In addition to our traditional joint board meeting that included remarks from Deaconess Foundation CEO & President Bethany Johnson-Javois and board chairs, we sought community feedback regarding our evolving strategy around public policy priorities, investments, and desired impacts. This strategy propels our work and the movement of child and community well-being in alignment with our 100-year vision.
Follow us on social media for continued shared news, opportunities, events, and more.