Two nonprofit foundations seeking to align portfolios of about $30 million each to their missions and boost asset manager diversity tapped Zenith Wealth Partners to lead their efforts.
Creating "the link between the intentional investors and the entrepreneurs" represents "a huge component" of narrowing gender- and racial-based wealth gaps, according to Ray, Zenith's investment director.
"We're finding that a lot of the companies didn't have a financial model or a valuation. There was no ability to invest in them because they didn't have the terms of investing," he said. "We realized there was not just demand, but a need for it."
With Scattergood and the Kind Family, Zenith Wealth has identified early-stage investments and potential real estate opportunities as part of being "able to be flexible and adjust and learn alongside them," Ray added. Zenith Wealth will also locate potential asset managers for the foundation's portfolios.
"By choosing to place the Patricia Kind Family Foundation's endowment assets with Zenith Wealth Partners, a Black-owned and managed firm, we are supporting increased opportunity for managers who have been excluded or overlooked in the past," Managing Trustee Valerie Kind-Rubin said in a statement. "Through strategic investments aligned with our mission, values and grantmaking, we aim to break down barriers and uplift the lives of those in need. By fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in our investment approach, we reinforce our dedication to building a more compassionate and inclusive society."
Scattergood aims "to serve as a model for similar organizations" through the collaboration with the RIA, President Joe Pyle said in a statement.
"We've been researching how to capitalize on the full potential of our foundation, as showcased in our program-related investments directly tailored to our philanthropic goals," Pyle said. "Partnering with Zenith, we can broaden our mission of helping others succeed by extending it to all aspects of our business."
Ray, Ransom-Cooper and Partheev Shah, a managing partner with Zenith Wealth, have spoken frequently with Toussaint Bailey, the
"I'm a believer in what they're doing," Bailey said in an interview. "I think they're going to continue to grow and find more opportunities like the one they just found, and I'm excited to be in the same ecosystem with them."
Zenith Wealth works with about a dozen other endowments, and its strategic partnership with the Scattergood and Kind foundations will begin as "a carve-out" from the nonprofits' portfolios with the potential to grow over time, according to Ray. The firm currently has five advisors, four other employees and more than $40 million in client assets, plus additional customers among businesses using Zenith Wealth's planning and consulting services. Part of the collaboration with the foundations will include tracking their impact portfolios' performance against benchmarks and collecting data about the effects on the racial wealth gap, Ray said.
"The foundations' bold leadership and willingness to be an early adopter of a more diverse and regionally invested investment policy directly align with our mission to amplify the work of local, pivotal, social service institutions," Ray said. "Working together, we hope to break the myth that locally sourced, mission-aligned, long-term investments are concessionary."
