Today’s post is courtesy of Annie McShiras, Development Director of the Responsible Endowments Coalition:
Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz will be the keynote speaker at Endow the Future, the Responsible Endowments Coalition (REC) Winter Celebration and Fundraiser, honoring Anuradha Mittal and the Oakland Institute.
REC is a student-led, non-profit organization that seeks to improve the environmental, social, and governance practices of banks and corporations by transforming the way universities invest their endowments. The organization was founded in 2004 by a group of undergraduates from Barnard College, Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and Williams College who wanted to encourage their alma maters to invest for a purpose higher than merely financial returns.
Honored speaker Joseph Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001, and in 2011, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His contribution to the field of economics and his critical stance on our current global economic system remains unprecedented.
Anuradha Mittal, founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights and agriculture issues. Recipient of several awards, she was named as the Most Valuable Thinker in 2008 by the Nation magazine.
Under Mittal’s leadership, the Oakland Institute unveiled land investment deals in Africa which revealed a disturbing pattern of a lack of transparency, fairness, and accountability amongst investors.
Mittal will focus her talk on the role of university endowments in African land grab deals, which often result in displacement of small farmers, environmental devastation, water loss and impoverishment in developing nations across Africa. The Oakland Institute first exposed the issue in this article from November 2011.
The Responsible Endowments Coalition (REC) provides information and technical assistance to students, administrators, and trustees who wish to engage their colleges and universities in more responsible investing. Much of REC’s work is focused on moving universities to consider the environment more holistically in their investment decisions.
The event itself will feature passed hors d’oeuvres provided by Tim Caveretta of bittergreen, a farm-to-table, sustainable food caterer.
For tickets, register here. Regular tickets are $100; student and low-income tickets , $38.
For more information about REC or the benefit event, contact Development Director Annie McShiras at 718-810-9407 or annie@endowmentethics.org.
