Billionaire Lukas Walton's Family Office Accelerates Impact-Investing Push

credit: USACE on Flickr

The billionaire grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton has announced a major shift in how his family's $1 billion endowment will be spent.

Lukas Walton, 36, says 90% of the endowment will be invested in "mission-related" investments that focus on "sustainable and equitable solutions" to some of the world's biggest problems, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Most foundations invest around 20% of their endowment in so-called ESG or impact investments.

"If we are going to make lasting change happen, we need our mission to show up in everything we do, especially in how we commit our resources," Walton says in a press release.

Walton is the president and COO of Builders Vision, a family office that has more than $4 billion in assets.

It's one of a growing number of family offices investing in social change.

A Credit Suisse survey of family offices found that nearly half plan to increase their sustainable investing over the next few years.

"This next generation is unstoppable," says the head of Sustainable and Impact Advisory and Thought Leadership at Credit Suisse.

"They are bringing out the best of free markets and of social innovation."

Read the Entire Article

A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.

How's Your Community Doing?
Check Out it's
Community Vital Signs

Can Crypto Actually Help Puerto Rico After Hurricane Fiona?
Foundation: Puerto Rico Community Foundation

"An official emergency has been declared, which means in the tax program, your physical presence time is suspended," cryptocurrency investor Hayden Bowles says in a video posted to TikTok this...more

Dimagi receives $25 million to develop transformative technology for Frontline Workers

The Steele Foundation for Hope has poured $25 million into a Massachusetts-based tech company that hopes to revolutionize the way community health workers around the world do their jobs. Dimagi, a...more

Billionaire Lukas Walton's Family Office Accelerates Impact-Investing Push
Foundation: Initiative Foundation

The billionaire grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton has announced a major shift in how his family's $1 billion endowment will be spent. Lukas Walton, 36, says 90% of the endowment will be...more

Building A Racial Justice Fund In Greater Atlanta
Foundation: Annie E. Casey Foundation, Pittsburgh Foundation

"To solve groundwater problems, we need groundwater solutions," Kim Addie and Katrina Mitchell write in an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That's the message they're trying to convey...more

Operating Archetypes Webinar - Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Foundation: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Skoll Foundation, California Wellness Foundation

Operating Archetypes is a new resource created by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to help philanthropies and other donors better understand their distinct position in the philanthropy ecosystem....more

What Investors Need To Know About The Impact Investing Landscape

There's a growing trend of investors looking to make a positive social or environmental impact with their money, and Fidelity Investments is one of the biggest players in the area. The...more

City Impact Investment Chief Jim Roth On Greenwashing

When it comes to "greenwashing" - the practice of companies claiming they're making a positive social or environmental impact when, in fact, that's not the case - investing in green is a tough...more

Erie Insurance And Arctaris Team Up On New $12.4 Million Investment
Foundation: Erie Community Foundation

When Boston-based Arctaris Impact Investors first committed $50 million to downtown Erie, Pa., in 2016, it promised to invest another $10 million in "designated low-income areas." What it didn't...more

Northants Social Enterprises Are 'stronger Together'

"Social enterprises are truly unique in that we exist to fulfill a social or environmental purpose and all our profits are ploughed back into achieving that," says Alison Holland, founder of...more

Impact Investing Goes More Mainstream As ESG Strategies Change

For decades, impact investing, or the strategy of investing assets in an ethical or socially minded way, sat at the fringe of the financial and philanthropic world. The practice has been tied to...more