How one mission-led foundation is showing that courage, collaboration, and conviction in values-aligned investing can transform capital into a powerful catalyst for widespread systemic change.
Photo courtesy of Dispower; La Guajira, Colombia
Catherine Donnelly was not a woman content to remain behind cloistered walls. A teacher, community organizer, and visionary, she founded the Sisters of Service, driven by the conviction that faith demanded action in the world. This legacy of compassion, courage, and service to those most in need continues to guide the Catherine Donnelly Foundation (CDF) today.
CDF applies that ethos to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time: climate justice, mobilizing for affordable housing solutions, and civic engagement for social change, all through a gender and equity lens. As Claire Barcik, the Foundation’s Executive Director, puts it: “The values that imbue the Foundation came from the Sisters. They were educated women — teachers, nurses, social workers — who lived and worked in the communities they served.”
In a recent conversation, Deetken Impact spoke with Claire, Yousuf Najmee (Director of Finance and Investment), and Sucheta Rajagopal (Investment Committee Chair), who reflected on how faith, courage, and collaboration have guided their journey.
In 2019, CDF became the first faith-based foundation to invest in Deetken Impact’s Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, recognizing the Fund’s focus on inclusive economic growth, climate action, and women’s leadership in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the years, CDF has deepened this partnership, seeing in Deetken Impact a like-minded collaborator that shares its conviction that finance can be a tool for dignity, equity, and transformation. Sucheta describes the connection this way: “It’s really very satisfying when the Sisters tell us what a good job we’re doing stewarding the money. That’s never far from our thoughts.”
Sisters Catherine Wymbs, Margaret Guest and Catherine Donnelly in Toronto before they left for the first Western Canadian mission at Camp Morton, August 1924. (SOSA 9-04.1-1-14, The Field at Home-October 1924)
Values as a Compass for Impact Investing
For the Foundation, core values are its compass. It bases investment choices on values such as stewardship, responsibility, and solidarity with the most vulnerable. As Yousuf describes it, “We don’t see faith as a means to an end. It’s an anchor that strengthens our mission and gives us the courage to act decisively.”
This anchor allows CDF to think differently about risk and return, seeing capital not merely as a resource to be safeguarded, but as a tool to address the systemic inequities that perpetuate poverty, environmental harm, and social exclusion. Guided by this conviction, they have directed capital into solutions often overlooked by conventional markets and sought partners who share their mission.
The Ilu Fund represented more than an investment opportunity for CDF, it offered a way to extend the Foundation’s reach beyond Canada into underserved communities across Latin America and the Caribbean. As the first gender lens investing fund in the region, the Ilu Fund supports businesses and projects that expand access to clean energy, affordable housing, healthcare, climate resilience, and financial inclusion, often led by women and designed to benefit marginalized groups. Its focus on generating measurable impact alongside financial returns resonates deeply with CDF’s approach to treating capital as a tool for service rather than speculation.
Courage, Climate Justice, and Breaking Convention
Catherine Donnelly Foundation’s founding ethos — that meaningful change requires both courage and action — continues to inspire CDF’s willingness to step into spaces others consider risky or unconventional. One of the first foundations in Canada to divest fully from fossil fuels, CDF views climate action as both a strategic and moral imperative. “Our roots remind us that climate action is not just a portfolio choice,” Yousuf says. “It’s a moral responsibility.”
Another pioneering move by these trailblazers was the Foundation’s early adoption of socially responsible investing, and later embracing impact investing as an integral expression of its mission rather than a peripheral or outsourced function. Out of more than 11,000 foundations in Canada, only a small fraction practice impact investing. CDF’s innovative grantmaking and investing approach has earned it recognition — including ranking eighth among Canada’s Top 50 Equitable Funders — and positioned it as an example for others seeking to align their capital with their values.
Actively engaged with grantees to strengthen environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, CDF views these milestones not merely as a portfolio management strategy, but as a public affirmation of its principles; demonstrating that values-aligned investing is both morally urgent and financially sound, and paving the way for others to follow suit.
Photo courtesy of Fundación Espoir, Ecuador
The Discipline of Values-Aligned Investing
At its core, CDF is a grantmaking foundation dedicated to empowering the organizations and movements that are working to address the root causes of inequity. Demand for this support is rising sharply —the Foundation experienced a 310% increase in grant applications between spring 2023 and fall 2025, a trend it expects will continue.
Impact investing provides a vehicle to promote the long-term growth of its portfolio. Funds such as the Ilu Fund provide investors like CDF with access to a diversified portfolio of enterprises and projects across Latin America and the Caribbean, simultaneously growing its assets with market returns while expanding the Foundation’s reach into sectors that align with its mission but would be difficult to invest in directly.
Yousuf reflects on the Foundation’s guiding focus: “Our core priority will always remain granting, and granting more effectively. We want to deploy our balance sheet in ways where we are not just promoting an equitable world, but also creating the financial resilience to modestly grow our year-over-year granting.”
While CDF’s investment philosophy is guided by values, it is anchored in rigorous analysis. The Foundation applies a dual lens of financial performance and mission alignment, seeking credible returns while ensuring that capital supports enterprises and fund managers advancing its core priorities.
This discipline has shaped its relationship with the Ilu Fund. CDF was drawn not only to the Fund’s thematic alignment but also to Deetken Impact’s transparent reporting, thoughtful risk management, and active engagement with the communities it serves.
Yousuf recalls his first impressions: “When I looked at the Ilu Fund’s reporting, it felt like more than a quarterly report, it was an operating playbook. You could see the values lived out in how the Fund was managed and in the outcomes for the communities served.”
For CDF, the partnership with the Ilu Fund underscores a vital principle: impact investing can be disciplined, data-informed, and mission-driven all at once. This relationship offers a template for other values-based and philanthropic investors seeking to deploy capital effectively at scale.
The Power of Collaboration, and Ecosystem Building
For the Foundation, collaboration is more than a strategy — it’s a way of honoring the spirit of the Sisters of Service, who believed that real change begins when people come together to serve the common good. That same belief now guides CDF’s approach to investing: building coalitions, sharing lessons, and seeking partners who share its vision for justice and equity. In conversations with peers across the philanthropic and investment community, they encourage other values-driven investors to step forward with courage, learn from one another, and trust that careful due diligence — paired with a focus on community-led solutions — can achieve both meaningful impact and enduring returns.
In a world grappling with urgent social and environmental challenges, CDF stands as a powerful testament to the enduring strength of values-driven leadership. By integrating core principles with disciplined investing and collaborative philanthropy, CDF unequivocally demonstrates that capital, when stewarded with courage and care, is not merely a resource but a potent force for systemic change.
Through vital partnerships like that with Deetken Impact’s Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, the Foundation is dynamically extending Catherine Donnelly’s transformative legacy into new geographies and pioneering frontiers of impact. This commitment showcases how values-aligned investing can bridge values and finance, profoundly transforming lives and communities, and setting a compelling precedent for other values-driven investors to catalyze meaningful change on an even broader scale.
