The Just Transition Investing Academy equips philanthropy professionals with practical and conceptual investment knowledge and to explore the transformative potential of applying a Just Transition lens to investment portfolios.
The Just Transition Investing Academy equips philanthropy professionals with practical and conceptual investment knowledge and to explore the transformative potential of applying a Just Transition lens to investment portfolios.
A growing number of social justice movement leaders and philanthropic allies are sounding the alarm about the harmful ways in which foundations typically manage their endowments: in 2020, the amount of assets that U.S.-based foundations collectively invested in extractive global financial markets was 13 times more than they disbursed in grants.
A Just Transition from our current extractive, profit-driven, capitalist economic system toward a more regenerative economy requires foundations to do more than mobilize grant dollars to organizing and movement-building efforts to advance societal transformation. A Just Transition also requires foundations to divest their assets from the dominant financial system and redirect that capital into community-controlled institutions and activities that build economic power and self-determination in BIPOC communities, thereby reducing their reliance on philanthropy over the long term. This is the vision that Justice Funders and our movement partners have articulated in the Just Transition Investment Framework.
Unfortunately, the field of investing is rife with gatekeeping, including confusing and inaccessible terminology and concepts that prevent values-aligned philanthropy professionals from questioning the status quo. Those working in philanthropic institutions who lack formal training in finance often face barriers to initiating conversations with their institution’s investment officers, executive leadership, and trustees about re-imagining their investment strategies.
The Just Transition Investing Academy (JTIA) is a new program offering from Justice Funders to support philanthropy professionals – especially those in programmatic and grantmaking departments of institutions that manage an endowment – who want to deepen their practical and conceptual investment knowledge and explore the transformative potential of applying a Just Transition lens to investment portfolios. Throughout the program, participants will engage with dynamic lectures, listen to live fireside chats with field practitioners, learn fundamental investing and just transition investing terminology, demystify and interrogate current philanthropic and investment structures to be able to identify opportunity gaps to introduce Just Transition principles and values to their own foundation’s investment practices.
The focus areas are informed by our work with multiple stakeholders activating a JT in their respective institutions, such as:
We will explore the program areas together and learn from field practitioners in philanthropy, values-aligned investment advisory firms, and the Just Transition movement.
6 Weeks of Instruction (Note: all sessions will take place 10 am – 1 pm Pacific):
Week 1: April 1 & 3
Week 2: April 8 & 10
Week 3: April 15 & 17
Week 4: April 22 & 24
Week 5: April 29 & May 1
Week 6: May 6 & 8
Coaching Session:
June 3-18 (participants choose 1 hour during this time frame)
Regular: $3,500 per participant
Solidarity: $4,500 per participant
Scholarship based on financial need: $2,500
Payments: Payment may be made in one or two installments, payable via ACH, check, or credit card.
Discounts: $250 discount for Justice Funders Network Organizational Members.
We are seeking applications from current philanthropy professionals to join the JTIA 2025 inaugural cohort.
Please make sure to peruse the JTI Academy 2025 Cohort Application – PREVIEW document before applying to draft your answers since the software may or may not save your answers as you fill out the application. For additional questions, please email JTInvesting [at] justicefunders [dot] org.
Please APPLY HERE.