Melanie Audette

Senior Vice President, Member and Partner Engagement, Mission Investors Exchange

As Senior Vice President, Member and Partner Engagement, Melanie plays a strategic leadership role at Mission Investors Exchange, helping to set organizational direction. She works with MIE members to identify and drive additional resources towards innovative impact investing opportunities, facilitates partnerships across the sector, and represents the MIE network in an increasingly expanding field.

Melanie began her career as a member of the U.S. Foreign Service and subsequently managed family offices and a private foundation. She has deep experience in the nonprofit sector, having been in leadership roles in four membership associations and nine nonprofit organizations. Melanie is a board member of the Energy Foundation and a founding member of the Impact Investing Committee for the Council of Michigan Foundations and Invest for Better. She is a graduate of Indiana University and is based in Seattle.

Contributions

Impact Investing: Aligning All Capital for Good

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Erika Seth Davies, Kathleen Simpson, Melanie Audette, Doug Bitonti Stewart

Impact investing is a powerful tool to align and maximize assets for good. The practice is growing increasingly common, yet many families are in search of guidance on how to begin or accelerate their impact investing pursuits. Join us to explore the fundamentals of impact investing, and learn more about structures like mission- and program-related investments as well as legal… Read More

What is the Biggest Danger or Red Light to Think About with Regard to Mission Investing?

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Melanie Audette, Tomer Inbar, Tony Wells

What, if anything, is the biggest danger or red light to think about with regard to mission investing? And how do we avoid them? Tony Wells: Before going into the red lights of mission investing, it is worth mentioning that in nine years of mission investing at the Wells Foundation there has been a 100% return on our non-profit loans… Read More

How Does the Divesting Strategy Work Within Mission Investing, and How Do We Evaluate Its Success?

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Melanie Audette

DivestInvest  is a national movement that has signatories looking at divestment of fossil fuels from their portfolio. There are 64 foundations signed on at the DivestInvest.org website and there are resources about divestment strategies there, as well. At the same time, it’s just as important, if not more so, to look at opportunities to invest in alternative strategies for energy… Read More

How do you measure impact or potential impact when deciding how to be most effective?

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Melanie Audette, Tomer Inbar, Tony Wells

How do you measure impact or potential impact when deciding how to be most effective, particularly when comparing the strategy of maximizing investment returns to having more money for grants versus impact investing? Melanie Audette:This starts with where you are in the process. You should think about your mission and how you are evaluating your grants, and take the same… Read More

Mission Investing: Overcoming Resistance and Getting Started

Posted on October 9, 2014 by John Hawkins, Melanie Audette, Tomer Inbar, Tony Wells

How can you engage your board in a thoughtful conversation about the options and added benefits of the mission investing approach? What are some of the best ways to get started with mission investing, and how do family foundations, especially those with limited staff capacity, manage these new strategies to better leverage their philanthropic assets and mission?… Read More

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