August 31, 2021 (Washington, D.C.) The Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) today released the second report in its Diversity in Action – Sharing Our Progress series. The report series is an extension of ILPA’s Diversity in Action initiative and aims to provide actionable recommendations on steps that can be taken to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in private markets.

“The industry continues to respond positively to the Diversity in Action Initiative with new signatories joining every week,” said Steve Nelson, CEO of ILPA. “The Initiative now claims 180 signatories who have all been incredibly active in conversations with one another and have acted as tremendous partners to ILPA on our related work, having meaningfully contributed to our updated ILPA Diversity Metrics Template.”

The Diversity in Action – Sharing Our Progress report series tracks the evolution of Initiative signatories by geography, strategy and fund size as well as progress on adoption of all the actions within the Framework. As of August 2021, the Initiative’s geographic reach is increasing, now with 38 signatories outside North America, a 52% increase in this cohort since April.

The latest report focuses on how signatories are integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into investment strategies including in manager selection, due diligence and ongoing evaluation and monitoring. Of note:

  • DEI is clearly a focus beyond initial investment making decisions, with many signatories monitoring DEI on a recurring, annual basis – 58% of allocators and 45% of GPs are doing this. Signatories indicate that this information is being put to good use, both informing GPs’ value creation plans or shaping LPs’ future investment decisions
  • GPs have prioritized board diversity: 83% of GP signatories currently track gender diversity on portfolio company boards, 26% of GPs engage on diversity even where they do not have the ability to influence board appointments, and 24% of GP signatories have set board diversity targets
  • LPs remain focused on information gathering and qualitative assessments, still 21% of LP signatories indicate that progress on DEI will be considered as a factor in the decision to invest in a successor fund

“We’re pleased to bring awareness to how some of the industry’s leaders are approaching DEI through this ongoing report series,” added ILPA’s Managing Director of Industry Affairs and Diversity in Action initiative lead Jen Choi. “We’re hopeful that those who are just beginning their journey on DEI can take some actionable advice from the signatory insights in this report.”

The report also highlights proposed revisions to the ILPA Diversity Metrics Template. First released in 2018 as the industry’s first standard for capturing team-level diversity, the signatory group has provided input to help modernize the Template to reflect the current state of reporting in the market, as well as long-term goals for enhanced reporting. The Template is now out for public comment through September 24, 2021.

Media Contact:

Kari Grant
Director of Strategic Communications, ILPA
[email protected]

+1 416-941-9393