James S. Bower Foundation

The Foundation helps to create a better future by making grants to partners who share the belief that a healthier world can be fostered through compassionate action and social change. We believe that philanthropy can play an important role in understanding and influencing societal change processes that will lead to positive results. We are committed to strategic, purpose-driven and outcome-oriented grant making and are interested in how we, as individuals and members of diverse cultural, religious, economic and political groups, can find commonality and further changes in: - Educational, developmental and health processes for infants, children, and youth, - Educational, developmental and health processes for seniors, - Environmental conditions, - Human consciousness and social awareness. The Foundation’s giving is focused mostly in Santa Barbara, California. Investments and Mission In keeping with our fiduciary role, the primary investment objective of our portfolio is to provide a sufficient rate of return to support our mission, which is met mostly through grant making. That said, we believe that our portfolio can and should be aligned with our mission and grant making, and that the alignment can happen without having a negative impact on financial return. Our primary focus is reducing the carbon footprint of our investment portfolio over time. We will also take into account other social and governance factors. While we will continue to evaluate all firms and strategies based on their ability to produce a financial return, we will look to partner with investment firms that have shown a commitment to ESG principals, with a priority on climate change. We will look to invest with passive managers who engage in effective shareholder advocacy. We will also invest with active managers who integrate ESG factors into their investment decision making and risk management process. Finally, we may also invest a portion of the portfolio with thematically focused managers who look for opportunities within the sustainable investment landscape. This may take place in public and private markets. By early 2022, over $30 million of our publically traded equities will be aligned with the strategies outlined above. This is about half of our total non-real estate investment portfolio. In terms of our properties, our headquarters and our largest investment property will both have solar power by early 2022. Like many investors, we see this as a journey taking place in an evolving investment landscape.