Mission Investing in Europe – A Meta-analysis

Unter dem Oberbegriff “Mission Investing” (MI) versteht sich die Praxis bei Nonprofit Organisationen (NPO), das organisationseigene Sachziel in die Anlagestrategie mit einzuschliessen. Trotz stets steigender Popularität fehlt dem Konzept bisher weitgehend eine wissen schaftliche Fundierung. Mittels einer begrifflichen Diskussion identifiziert dieser Beitrag Schlüsselmerkmale des Anlagekonzepts. Diese Merkmale umfassen unter anderem den Einschluss von non-monetären Anlagezielen, welche eng mit dem Organisationszweck verwandt sind, sowie die Zielsetzung der effektiveren Umsetzung des Organisationszwecks durch die Verknüpfung von Anlage - und Förderpolitik. Weiter vergleicht dieser Beitrag im Rahmen einer Metaanalyse neu erschienene Daten zum aktuellen Umsetzungsstand von MI in Europa. Ausgehend von den drei Instrumenten des MI(Screening, Shareholder Advocacy und Proactive Mission Investing) wird dieses derzeit am häufigsten mittels Screening umgesetzt

Nonprofit Organizations as Ideal Type of Socially Responsible and Impact Investors

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) as mission-driven organizations could profit from investing in stocks diametrically opposed to their mission, as they serve as a perfect hedge. Earning more income from oil or tobacco companies when there is a greater need for ecological interventions or cancer research might help effectively fighting the cause. We show the flaw in this logic as in its optimal state, this strategy is at most a financial zero-sum game. However, as NPOs strive at creating net value by aiming at a most effective mission-accomplishment, socially responsible and impact investments may offer a better way of doing so. We present NPOs as an ideal type of a socially responsible and impact investor and give the corresponding formal economic reasoning. For mission-driven organizations only the combination of financial and mission-based goals allows for an effective, goal-oriented financial decision-making. The full application of this logic is what is broadly understood under the term of mission investing (MI). Based on a theoretic introduction, we present a formalized way of analyzing multidimensional tradeoffs in the case of NPOs being mission-driven investors. This formalization will supply NPOs with a tool that enables them to capture their investments’ financial and mission-based impact and therefore the full benefit of responsible and impact-driven investments

Eine Lagerstätte kreidezeitlicher und paläogener Chondrichthyes-Reste bei Fürstenau (Niedersachsen)

Aus einer durch Glaziotektonik verstellten Kiesbank innerhalb einer Folge mariner Sedimente bei Fürstenau wird eine 49 Arten umfassende Liste von Chondrichthyes genannt. Diese Fauna enthält Arten des Campans, Oberpaläozäns und Unter- bis Mitteleozäns. Die Entstehung dieser Kiesbank könnte einerseits einer Transgressionsphase oder andererseits einer Kondensation verbunden mit der Erosion von Folgen des oben genannten Alters während des Lediums zugeschrieben werden. Diese Kiesbank besitzt in Oldenburg und im Emsland eine weite Verbreitung

Benefits and Drivers of Nonprofit Revenue Concentration

Nonprofit organizations (NPO) rely on a diverse mix of revenue sources. The existing literature mainly supports diversification among different revenue sources as desirable because it enables organizational stability. Using a new data set of over 200 Swiss fundraising charities, we prove the opposite to be true: organizations that displayed a higher degree of revenue concentration grew stronger between 2005 and 2012. We identify factors influencing the organization’s capital and revenue structure. These factors can be divided into “nature” and “nurture” factors, which allows us to demonstrate which of them may be actively influenced by an organization’s management and which stem from conditions of the organization that cannot be readily overcome by managerial interventions (such as age, size, and legal form). Revenue concentration is positively influenced both by an organization’s geographical range of activity and dependence on its primary revenue source, and negatively influenced by board size and diversit

UPPER OLIGOCENE BRACHIOPODS FROM NW GERMANY, WITH DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PLATIDIINAE GENUS, GERMANOPLATIDIA N. GEN.

Upper Oligocene brachiopods of NW Germany were studied in two collections: the Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Leiden, the Netherlands) and the F. von der Hocht private Collection (Kerpen, Germany). Overall, six brachiopod taxa have been identified. Generic attributions of “Rhynchonella” supraoligocaenica Görges, 1952 (Aphelesia) and “Terebratula” pusilla Philippi, 1843 (Germanoplatidia n. gen) have been solved. The Chattian occurrence of Aphelesia is the first confirmed record of the genus in the Paleogene. Chattian record of the well-known Neogene Discinisca fallens (Wood, 1872) confirms that faunal change within brachiopods happened before the Paleogene/Neogene boundary. Similarly to the Mediterranean Terebratula-Aphelesia association, Aphelesia occurs also together with a large terebratulide genus (Pliothyrina) in the upper Oligocene Pre-North Sea. Along with some previously recognized genera (Orthothyris, Bronnothyris, Rugia), a further brachiopod evolutionary lineage was found to survive from the Mesozoic to the Paleogene (Aemula-Germanoplatidia n. gen.). According to the morphological characters of the genus and sedimentological characters of the surrounding deposits, Germanoplatidia n. gen. species lived on sandy bottom environments, and attached to small hard objects in the fine sediment by a pedicle longer than that of Aemula. Half of the identified species are endemic in Pre-North Sea. Here we document the first record of Argyrotheca bitnerae Dulai in Dulai & Stachacz, 2011 from the Pre-North Sea; this recently described species shows a cosmopolitan distribution in the Cenozoic. &nbsp

Cloning of a Carcinoembryonic Antigen Gene Family Member Expressed in Leukocytes of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients and Bone Marrow

The carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) gene family belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily and can be subdivided into the CEA and pregnancy-specific glycoprotein subgroups. The basic structure of the encoded proteins consists of, in addition to a leader, one IgV-like and 2, 3, or 6 IgC-like domains. These domains are followed by varying COOH-terminal regions responsible for secretion, transmembrane anchoring, or insertion into the membrane by a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol tail. Here we report on the characterization of CGM6, a new member of the CEA gene subgroup, by complementary DNA cloning. The deduced coding region comprises 349 amino acids and consists of a leader, one IgV-like, two IgC-like domains, and a hydrophobic region, which is replaced by a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol moiety in the mature protein. CGM6 transcripts were only found thus far in leukocytes of chronic myeloid leukemia patients, in normal bone marrow, and in marginal amounts in normal granulocytes. The CGM6 gene product might, therefore, represent a myeloid marker. Analyses of CGM6 protein-expressing HeLa transfectants with monoclonal antibodies strongly indicate that the CGM6 gene codes for the CEA family member NCA-95

Sedimentology-based reconstructions of paleoclimate changes in the Central Andes in response to the uplift of the Andes, Arica region between 19 and 21°S latitude, northern Chile

We focus on the sedimentological record of the Middle Miocene to modern deposits in the Andes of northern Chile between 19 and 21°S. These sediments, deposited at the Western Escarpment of the Central Depression, indicate successively more moisture on the western margin of the Altiplano and the Western Cordillera where the sources are. At the Pacific Coast, 20-Ma-old exposure ages and salic gypsisols reflect an existing and ongoing hyperarid climate. We interpret the increased divergence of climates between the Coast and the Altiplano as consequence of the Andean rise to elevations higher than approximately 2,500m a.s.l., when the topography of the Altiplano was sufficiently high and areally extensive to attract Atlantic moisture. Accordingly, the inferred general increase in run-off was closely coupled with the uplift of the Andes if the steady rise model applies. In case that the rapid rise model for Andean uplift is correct, the inferred changes in sediment transport would have occurred independently of uplift, requiring an alternative, yet unknown drive