Riverside Church

Riverside Church

Riverside Church opened in 1930 as an interdenominational, interracial congregation in Morningside Heights, funded primarily by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and affiliated with both the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. The endowment operates from the church's main campus at 490 Riverside Drive, with supplementary real estate holdings that include the neighboring McGiffert Hall at 97–99 Claremont Avenue and 99 Claremont Avenue, a former dormitory property. The endowment pursues a dual-strategy mandate covering buyout and early-stage venture allocations, including seed-stage commitments. Its investment framework is explicitly guided by 'Justice Based Investing,' a policy authored by Finance Committee Chair Lisa Hinds, who concurrently serves as an executive at EnTrust Global. This policy directs the portfolio toward managers and strategies aligned with the church's longstanding social-justice mission. Known professional connections include Mark Yim, a GAMCO Investors portfolio manager who serves on the church's search committee, and institutional ties to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, where Riverside Church is an active member and host of sustainable-investing events. The endowment's real-property portfolio anchors its balance sheet. The main campus at 490 Riverside Drive functions as a mixed-use complex, supplemented by McGiffert Hall and the adjacent former dormitory at 99 Claremont Avenue. Investment management oversight runs through the finance committee with no publicly named chief investment officer. Riverside Church participates in ecumenical networks — the Council of Churches in the City of New York, the Interfaith Center of New York, and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists — though none of these affiliations alter its independent investment governance. Riverside Church distinguishes itself through an investment policy framework that is both author-driven and structurally embedded. Where many faith-based endowments apply broad exclusions, Riverside Church's 'Justice Based Investing' policy, authored by a finance committee chair who is herself an investment professional, creates a proactive lens for sourcing and diligence. Paired with the church's real estate holdings adjacent to Union Theological Seminary and Columbia University, the endowment's architecture binds together local institutional land stewardship with a national interfaith investor network, making its mandate unusually personal and place-based.