Spring greetings,

While we work to redirect $1.7 trillion in foundation endowments, another $7 trillion lies hidden in plain sight — quietly invested in the stock and bond markets, funded by nothing more than our everyday insurance premiums. Yes, your car insurance premium, your renters or house insurance premiums, your foundation’s liability insurance premiums…all of them are sitting and invested in ways that you probably wouldn’t like. For example, 40% of that $7 trillion is in fossil fuel stocks. Really!

To the rescue comes Premiums for the Planet (PFP), a Certified B Corporation on a mission to change the insurance industry. Talk about a business for good! Through representing a growing number of businesses and nonprofits by being their insurance broker, PFP will have the power to demand change with where our premiums are invested. They will also challenge underwriting. You probably know businesses and nonprofits that have been denied insurance: our small and mighty foundation was denied D & O insurance for 25 years because underwriters didn’t understand mission-aligned investing!

I know, I know…we get wedded to our insurance agents with their excellent service and don’t like to switch. But where are your premiums invested? You don’t know – and your agents don’t know either. So, we moved our insurance at both the UnTours Foundation and UnTours (the travel company) to PFP. Here’s your Earth Day 2026 action item: move your insurance policies! You can also support PFP through grants and/or investments. 

Following is more on PFP with an interview with the Founder & CEO, Brad Stevenson.

Hugs to get you through!

Elizabeth

Meet an Endowment Champion

At Work…

How did you come up with the idea for Premiums for the Planet?

I built a similar initiative in banking, getting sustainable brands and nonprofit organizations to both change banks and become co-movement builders – when I realized that insurers are even more powerful determinants of the direction of our market economy… and that the brokerage function (which the banking sector doesn’t have) could be harnessed even more efficiently to create collective action, it was a no brainer.

How far along are you in shifting capital from extractive investments to climate-forward ones?

We are at the beginning of the journey – it starts with gaining the mass and scale to matter. Along the way to that audacious vision, we have an impact roadmap where each successive step drives a needed and meaningful difference: 

Step 1 – done! Become the only B Corp insurance brokerage in the United States, create broad scale awareness and brand ubiquity for Premiums for the Planet and our mission and give back as much as we can to communities and causes while still being financially sustainable.  

Step 2 – in progress! Organize the buying power of fragile, climate-influential and sustainability-driven communities and organizations in order to create insurance options that help scale new technologies, materials and processes we need for a thriving future, reinvest in resilience, better stewardship and community wellbeing… instead of the status quo – our premiums being invested in things that are increasing risk and reducing access to insurance.  

Step 3 – use the combined brand voice and dollar voting market power of our member base to influence investment, underwriting and other important practices of the insurance industry to support a more just and habitable planet.

How will PFP change insurance practices?

See above. Making insurance a tailwind for better stewardship and sustainability while increasingly inspiring insurers to use their influence for a better future.

What surprises have you found along the way as you build PFP?

Insurance can actually be interesting, inspiring and captivating for audiences when it is framed within its true role and shown for the tremendous influence it has in our personal and professional lives.  When folks understand the current state vs. what is possible if we can shift the status quo – and how easy it is now to take action – they are passionate about the topic. Yes, it is hard to even see in the same sentence, but passionate about insurance, exists 🙂

Where should our premiums be invested?

In climate solutions and organizations that are verifiably committed to business processes, products and overall impacts consistent with sustaining life and health on our home planet.

How can foundations support PFP?

Foundations can be multifaceted allies! (1) Become a member – join us and experience equal (or most often better) price, coverage and service from your insurance where the dollars you spend aren’t reinforcing a devastating status quo. (2) Spread the word – use your influence to help gather others that accelerate our path to impact – the bigger we are, the more impact we achieve and the more benefit we can create for members and cause communities. (3) Help resource our work – you can do that without any cost or investment by just joining (#1 above)… but you can also provide grant/pay-for-outcomes or consulting funds, in-kind contributions or concessionary funding/lending.

May individuals buy insurance through PFP? 

In some cases, for high net worth individuals, we are taking individual members. We are also working on a mass market individual/personal lines program and will take information from interested individuals to reach out when we’re ready to launch.

After Work…

Guilty pleasure: Skin up the mountain in winter, bike on our amazing array of single-track here in Aspen/Snowmass. Not so guilty, but the greatest of pleasure.

Kickback film: Royal Tennenbaums

Last series you binge-watched: I started Premiums for the Planet about 5 years ago. No time for TV! (and my memory doesn’t reach back to BPFP 🙂

Favorite caffeine source: COFFEE

Sweet or salty: YES 🙂

A favorite novel: All the Light We Cannot See – it is a phenomenal novel, but moreso, it was the first novel my oldest daughter recommended that I read as her passion for reading took hold.

Animal friend(s): our trusted team members, my heroes 🙂 not to mention cute, furry and they usually have great wisdom to add in our newsletter.

Childhood ambition: Cowboy

Biggest challenge: Routine… but it is so needed!

Soundtrack of your life: Brick House Radio 🙂

Music that lifts your spirits: Funk

Most unusual gift given: Helping people feel seen. Summarizing a rant in a way that emphasizes its importance and the intentions of the rater 🙂

Most unusual gift received: Rejection/refusal/disappointment. The gift that makes you grow and find another way.

Last splurge: My new used mountain bike!

— See other mission aligned trailblazers on our website! —