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News Analysis
Ares-inspired Promote Giving gains new backers
by Lisa Lee & Kathryn Gaw
Joel Holsinger’s mission to transform the way Wall Street gives back is gaining traction. Promote Giving has signed on new signatories willing to pledge a portion of their performance fees to charity.
The latest to join the initiative launched by Holsinger, co-head of alternative credit at Ares, include Bennett Goodman’s Hunter Point Capital and Sina Toussi’s Two Seas Capital. That brings the fund count to 15, alongside the nine founding members, who include Ares Management, Pantheon and Silver Point Capital.
“What we’re doing is really building a mechanism for giving,” Holsinger said. “On Wall Street, a lot of the philanthropy is done on an individual basis, or maybe there are some larger players that have a foundation. What this does is directly tie philanthropy it into the DNA of every signatory so that every single deal in the funds is tied to giving.”
Holsinger now wants to broaden the scope of the charity and bring in even more market participants, aiming to bring the total to 26 signatories by the end of this year.
“It has moved quickly,” he said. “The momentum that we’ve gained even in the last few months has been great to see.”
Simple 5% pledge
The mission is simple: to create a collective of funds where managers will commit to donating at least 5% of their fund performance fees. fees. Promote Giving has estimated that with the ongoing support of the existing 15 signatories, between USD 300m and USD 350m could be raised for charitable causes over the next decade. These charities focus primarily on solving healthcare and education challenges in some of the poorest places in the world, places that Holsinger has visited and holds close to his heart.
Promote Giving, established in early 2025, is modelled after the Ares Pathfinder family of funds. Holsinger was inspired to create a charitable venture of his own during a trip to India in association with Path Global Health. While there he visited local hospitals and witnessed first-hand the need for investment in malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.
Promote Giving aligns the internal team culture we are building with how we operate externally
Adam Piekarski
Founder, CEO and CIO
Derby Lane Partners
Charitable giving has been in Holsinger’s DNA since he was a child. His father was a pastor who travelled the world working with charities in places including India, Ukraine and South Sudan. His mother, three aunts and both grandmothers were nurses.
“We did not have a lot, but what they instilled is giving back,” Holsinger said. “In the end, it’s giving back to your family and community, and giving your time, even if you don’t have money. I’ve been very lucky and blessed in being able to give more than my time.”
To drum up support for Promote Giving, he initially tapped his personal network of friends and former co-workers, then fanned out to others. Portfolio managers from a wide range of firms are now starting to embrace the idea.
“Coller was proud to be a founding signatory of Promote Giving and we look forward to continuing our involvement in Joel and Ares’s unique model of philanthropy as Coller EQT,” said Jeremy Coller, head and CIO of Coller EQT.
Another founding signatory, Adam Piekarski, founder, CEO and CIO of Derby Lane, says that Promote Giving offered a natural complement to the internal team culture that he is building.
“I always wanted to give back in a larger way and saw a unique ability with Promote Giving to align the internal team culture we are building at Derby Lane with how we operate externally,” said Piekarski. “Incorporating philanthropy at a firm level from the onset was an important part of that.”
This directly ties philanthropy into the DNA of every signatory so that every single deal in the funds is tied to giving
Joel Holsinger
Co-head of alternative credit
Ares Management
Personal motivation
All donations to Promote Giving are taken from manager earnings, so investor returns are not impacted at all. In fact, Holsinger believes that the charitable element may even motivate portfolio managers to deliver even stronger results.
For Holsinger, this is investing with a greater purpose. Every day spent at work is a day spent improving the quality of life of a stranger living halfway across the world.
“As we build this community, we’re trying to come up with ways to get others involved beyond just the signatories,” he said. This means finding ways to get advisors, bankers or others to become ambassadors.
The success of the Pathfinder initiative shows the impact that the industry can have when managers work together to pool their earnings and fund important work. Pathfinder has already helped to improve access to education for girls in India, create clean water-supply chains, and build surgical centres in Uganda and Zimbabwe.
It’s now working on a dual vaccination against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It all starts with just setting up the fundamental mechanism,” Holsinger said.
