The philosophy driving WOMN's portfolio is a little different from SHE, which focuses on women in companies' senior ranks — WOMN looks for gender diversity. (Photo: Shutterstock)
(Bloomberg) –A new exchange-traded fund is betting on companies that support women at every level. Impact Shares Corp. will donate part of the fees charged for the YWCA Women's Empowerment ETF, which trades under the ticker WOMN, to the YWCA, which also helped set the investment criteria for the new fund.
The fund tracks the Morningstar Women's Empowerment Index, which selects companies based on strong gender diversity policies, commitment to equal pay and family-friendly programs like paid leave and flexible work options, among other criteria. As of now, Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. are the fund's top-two holdings.
WOMN is the second in a series of of single-issue funds with a charitable component from Frisco, Texas-based Impact Shares. The first, Impact Shares NAACP Minority Empowerment ETF (ticker NACP), started trading in July. The asset manager is itself a non-profit and received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation as part of its commitment to mission-driven investing.
“Innovative financial instruments can be impactful for us and other investors that want to have a social impact and make a financial return,” said Rajiv Shah, chief executive officer of The Rockefeller Foundation.
A little more than $1 billion is invested in the dozen ETFs with a focus on workplace equality, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The SPDR SSGA Gender Diversity Index ETF, ticker SHE, is the biggest, with more than $350 million in assets. It's up 29 percent since it launched in March 2016 compared with a 47 percent climb for the S&P 500 Index.
The philosophy driving WOMN's portfolio is a little different. Unlike SHE, which focuses on women in companies' senior ranks, WOMN looks for gender diversity throughout a company's entire workforce and policies that promote equality at all levels.
WOMN costs $7.60 a year for every $1,000 invested, nearly $6 more than the price of SHE and about $5 more than what BlackRock Inc. charges for an ETF with a broader socially conscious mandate.
Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
