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Find out about our news, activities and events. You can also access resources and our media page, where you will find links to our latest press releases, our communications team and a selection of the news stories written about FaithInvest and our activities.
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Our 2024 Annual Report: A busy year of change and consolidation
2024 was a year of change and consolidation for FaithInvest, as we outline in our newly published Annual Report. We navigated leadership transitions, sharpened our focus on what faith communities most practically need, and kept building the bridge between faith beliefs and investment decisions. Executive Chair Dave Zellner 'That image of a bridge has long guided our work because it is what we seek to be: a trusted span between values and action, between faith communities and
Susie Weldon
How the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020
The world’s population expanded from 2010 to 2020, and so did most religious groups, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of more than 2,700 censuses and surveys. But while some religious groups grew, others did not keep pace with global population growth, and the total global percentage of people affliiated with a faith or belief dropped from 84% to 75.8% , according to the report, How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2010 . Since 2010, the share o
Susie Weldon
New guide 'a practical roadmap' to help faiths invest in line with values
Press release: The movement of faith-based investing is growing fast as increasing numbers of religious groups seek to ensure their values are reflected in their investments. Now non-profit FaithInvest has published a comprehensive guide, From Faith Values to Investment , t o help faith-based organisations develop faith-consistent investing (FCI) programmes. FaithInvest Executive Chair Dave Zellner says the guide is very timely given the sharp rise in interest in FCI in r
FaithInvest
'Let us take seriously the business of religion' – Martin Palmer
FaithInvest took part in an unusual and fascinating international forum held by the University of Hong Kong on the future of community...
Susie Weldon
New Masterclass helps investment professionals engage the trillion-dollar faith-based market
Press release: Faith-based investors globally control trillions in assets , yet most investment professionals are missing opportunities...
Susie Weldon
FaithInvest gathering of faiths in Australia live-streamed to 37,000 people globally
FaithInvest has co-hosted an extraordinary gathering of faiths and traditional cultures in Australia – which was also live-streamed to...
Susie Weldon
A lively FCI Forum focuses on building a new ecosystem for Catholic investing
We had a fascinating and inspiring FCI Forum on Catholic Investing, which offered a wide-ranging analysis of what is needed to develop a...
Susie Weldon
Radical engagement: Seven everyday habits for transforming systems
In these uncertain and conflict-driven times, it's vital to find ways of holding on to a sense of hope and agency as we strive to be...
Susie Weldon
Newly released FaithInvest report challenges the FCI 'performance penalty myth'
FaithInvest has released a new report: Faith-Consistent Investing: Challenging the Performance Penalty Myth. This paper examines the...
FaithInvest
A stellar line up of speakers – including the head of Vatican Bank – for our June FCI forum on Catholic investing
This year was already shaping up to be a significant year for the Catholic Church, even before the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday...
Susie Weldon
The trillion-dollar faith-driven investment market is expanding fast – but many faiths still lack confidence
Our Faithful Finance course aims to change that. Starts May 20. Book by May 9 for our Early Bird Offer Press release: There has been a...
Susie Weldon
Faithful Finance course starts May 20 – book now for our £250 early bird offer
The next round of our popular Faithful Finance training course on the fundamentals of faith-consistent investing starts on Tuesday May...
Susie Weldon
Pope Francis dies on Easter Monday, aged 88. World leaders pay tribute
FaithInvest expresses its deep sorrow and offers condolences to the global Catholic community upon the death of His Holiness Pope...
Susie Weldon
Bridging the Gap: New masterclass on engaging the trillion-dollar faith investment market
The faith-driven investment market is expanding rapidly – with faith-based asset owners managing trillions of dollars of investments ...
Susie Weldon
Survey: What do faith-based investors want from their asset managers?
This year FaithInvest is complementing its Faithful Finance training programme with a new course designed for investment professionals...
FaithInvest
Launch of masterclasses in engaging faith-based investors for industry professionals
FaithInvest is launching a new programme of masterclasses aimed at equipping investment industry professionals with the tools and...
FaithInvest
Faith-based investors: The time to lead is now
In times of uncertainty, leadership often emerges from unexpected places. Today, as we witness mounting pressure against sustainable and...
Dave Zellner
How can faith-based investors influence corporate behaviour? Learn more at our FCI forum on March 6
We've got a fantastic FCI Forum coming up on Thursday March 6, exploring how faith-based investors can influence corporate behaviour and...
FaithInvest
Dr Lorna Gold appointed to head the Laudato Si' Movement
FaithInvest congratulates Dr Lorna Gold on her appointment as Executive Director of the Laudato Si’ Movement – one of FaithInvest’s...
FaithInvest
Mathew Jensen takes up a new challenge
Mathew Jensen, CFA Director of Faith-consistent Investing Programmes Mathew Jensen has left FaithInvest to take up a position as Senior...
FaithInvest
A new FCI ecosystem to be developed for Christian investors
FaithInvest came away from the recent Mensuram Bonam conference in London, UK, convinced that the event marked a watershed moment for...
FaithInvest
Our third Faithful Finance training course just finished. How did it go?
What a wonderful Faithful Finance training course we have just completed, with participants from as far afield as Ireland and Sri Lanka,...
FaithInvest
Working with your investment managers: new CIG resource
The UK-based Church Investors Group has published a new resource to support church investors in the process of working with their...
FaithInvest
Mensuram Bonam summit marks major step forward for FCI in the Catholic Church
Catholic institutions have hundreds of millions of dollars to invest – but almost no investment options if they want to ensure their...
FaithInvest
Solving the two-pocket problem: aligning values & investments
How do you motivate faith groups to actively drive impact through their investments? That was the question posed to FaithInvest's Director of Faith-consistent Mathew Jensen by Siddharth Chatterjee, host of AVPN Academy's Money Meets Mission podcast . Mathew's answer raised an issue that we have focused on a great deal at FaithInvest – the disconnect between a faith's teachings and activities, and what their money is doing. 'It's something we've termed the two-pocket problem,'
Susie Weldon
Survey finds 88% of Christians want investments to reflect values
Press release: 4 November 2024: A new survey has confirmed what FaithInvest already knew – that the vast majority of Christians who...
FaithInvest
FIIND report challenges investors to rethink poverty reduction strategies
The FIIND Impact Foundation's latest report, Can you help solve multidimensional poverty with your investment portfolio? , presents a...
Susie Weldon
UUA pushes back against accusation of ‘woke’ investing
The Unitarian Universalist Association has pushed back against the accusation that it – and dozens of other US investors, including...
Susie Weldon
Tighter reporting rules for gas & oil companies? Consultation closes Friday
The gangster Al Capone did not go to jail for all the people he massacred, but the US authorities got him in the end – for tax evasion....
Susie Weldon
Role of finance in transforming the world's food and farming systems
FaithInvest recently attended a two-day TABLE workshop on the politics and economics of food system transformation at Oxford University....
FaithInvest
Faith: The oldest currency in the world?
Our eyes were caught recently by a graphic produced by Visual Capitalist on the oldest currency still in use and trading today. The...
Trish Groves
An intense few days with the 'heirs of hope' in Northern Ireland
FaithInvest founding president Martin Palmer spent an 'intense' few days in Northern Ireland last week at a series of events focused on...
FaithInvest
Third round of our popular Faithful Finance training course starts Oct 29
FaithInvest launches the third round of its popular online course, Faithful Finance: An Introduction to Aligning Investments with Faith...
FaithInvest
Leading environmental campaigner Martin Palmer joins faiths in Northern Ireland on climate justice
F aithInvest Founding President and prominent environmental campaigner Martin Palmer will join faith-based organisations and civil...
FaithInvest
Dave Zellner: A pioneer in FCI and responsible investing
FaithInvest considers itself very fortunate that its Chair of Trustees, Dave Zellner, is taking on a more active role in the organisation...
Susie Weldon
Dave Zellner assumes leadership role as Executive Chair, launches capital campaign to fund major expansion
Press release: FaithInvest is delighted to announce that Dave Zellner, longtime Chief Investment Officer of Wespath Benefits...
Susie Weldon
Launch of the Collaboratorium for faith consistent investing
FaithInvest is delighted to announce a new resource for anyone interested in faith- and values-consistent investing. Since 2020, eight...
Trish Groves
Thinking Beyond an Apocalypse
A blog by FaithInvest Founding President Martin Palmer was featured today in Modern Church, a media outlet advocating 'for liberal...
FaithInvest
FaithInvest announces resignation of Dr Lorna Gold, pays tribute to her service & 'unwavering commitment'
FaithInvest is sorry to announce the departure of its interim CEO Dr Lorna Gold, who has decided to step down at the end of her period as...
FaithInvest
World Federation of Daoists takes a 'first step' onto the world stage
The World Federation of Daoists held its inaugural council meeting recently – and Martin Palmer was there to represent FaithInvest as...
Susie Weldon
Can FBAOs get solid FCI guidance from providers? It’s a coin toss.
Many faith-based asset owners rely on financial advisors or investment consultants to guide or inform important investment decisions. How confident is this group in providing advice or guidance in ways that incorporate values? Swiss-based asset manager Vontobel is out with a survey of investment advisors showing in fact they’re not all that confident in recommending investment products which are ‘…profitable and aligned to [values] preferences’. Vontobel surveyed 300 fina
Aug 6, 2024
Penalize or optimize – What’s a better approach to portfolio sustainability and performance?
New paper out from researchers at Robeco , a Dutch asset manager, in the most recent issue of the Financial Analysts Journal , addressing the question – is it optimal to constrain your portfolio from holding companies engaged in undesirable activities (e.g. carbon energy production), or can investors incorporate sustainability measures as part of the portfolio’s objectives? Titled ' 3D Investing: Jointly Optimizing Return, Risk, and Sustainability ,' the authors seek to ans
Jul 30, 2024
Faith asset owners – what do they want from their managers?
I had the pleasure of leading a panel of accomplished institutional faith investment consultants and asset owners at a recent convening hosted by the Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors . As part, I asked the panel “what should asset managers know about faith asset owners, and what should they do more of - and less of - for this audience?” I suspect you’re now conjuring answers to these questions, here’s a summary of what I heard. Know Your Client : Know what type of returns
Jul 23, 2024
Can AI assess your Investment Policy and Guidelines?
Background on FI’s approach to IP&G scoring At FaithInvest, our mission is to guide faith-based asset owners in aligning their investments with their beliefs, teachings, and values. A critical component of this process is the assessment and scoring of Investment Policies and Guidelines (IP&Gs, also referred to as Investment Policy Statements). This involves an analysis and evaluation against our comprehensive faith-consistent investing (FCI) framework, which examines various
Jul 16, 2024
Navigating AI: What does Pope Francis have to say?
In June 2023, we published a blog post titled How Much Does Artificial Intelligence Know About Faith-Consistent Investing? In it, we posed a question for ChatGPT ‘to act as if you're a Jewish religious scholar and an experienced investment advisor and please detail for me the unique aspects of Judaism that could be translated into investment guidelines similar to ESG.’ The post turned out to be one of our more popular notes of the year. It's a topic that continues to intere
Jul 10, 2024
Mid-year "Top Five" Roundup of Research News and Posts
As we arrive at mid-year, we look back at the top five most popular posts of 2024, year-to-date. But first, a look at the FCI Interest...
Jul 2, 2024
Everyone Becomes an Impact Investor
Wonderful reflections from the Chief Investment Officer of the Doris Duke Foundation, Leena Bhutta in Institutional Investor recently Is Values-Oriented Investing Dead? In it Leena notes the pressures and complexities that can be placed on values-based investors, as '…mission-driven investment …. [gets] maligned from different directions…' noting political pressures, legal campaigns, and 'very public social media meltdowns'. However, she notes, 'divorcing capital manageme
Jun 25, 2024
Does your ‘Socially Responsible Investing’ change companies?
'While the financial performance of [socially responsible] investments has been explored, it is less clear whether the presence of SR funds has any real consequences for firm behaviour.' Interesting study out from professors at the London and Stockholm schools of economics ‘A Theory of Socially Responsible Investment’ examines this very question: does your SR investing change company behaviour? The authors focus on “ negative externalities ” that often benefit the company –
Jun 18, 2024
Voice of the Asset Owner report provides insights for FBAOs
Global investment data and research provider Morningstar (from their investment index division ) has published Voice of the Asset Owner, a qualitative survey of institutional asset owners with a goal of understanding the '…motivations, attitudes and challenges of institutional asset owners (AOs) in the current environment'. As a qualitative survey, Morningstar conducted interviews with asset owners of various 'types and sizes across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific'.
Jun 10, 2024
The FCI Interest Group quarterly forum recap
At the FCI Interest Group Quarterly Forum on June 6, we were very fortunate to have two speakers who brought practical insights on...
Jun 6, 2024
FCI and bonds – time for a look?
We don’t often talk about bonds and faith-consistent investing, indeed the most recent slice of our Investment Policy and Guideline (IP&G) database that underpins our Good Intentions research, shows that while nearly 80% of faith-based asset owners apply values to their equities (stocks), 20% fewer apply them to their bonds. Why? The International Finance Corporation ( IFC, part of the World Bank Group ) has published a report on major developments in the green, social, s
May 28, 2024
Company engagement – A report card from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity
Highlighting a recent report from the pro-growth Committee to Unleash Prosperity , as it may come up from members of your investment committee or investment service providers: Putting Politics over Pensions , a ‘Report Card on Investment Fund Managers and Proxy Voting Behavior’. The Committee was founded in 2015 as an outgrowth of prior ' supply side economics ' groups, to promote ‘government policies that have been proven…to maximize economic growth’. They’ve found press at
May 20, 2024
Community Investment Options Expand
For faith asset owners in the US , community development financial institutions are a developed and utilized method for putting impact investment allocations to work. Why? It’s an organized market, in its modern form existing since the early 1990’s and supported by the US Treasury; there are nearly 1,400 CDFI institutions around the country, and US CDFI Funds are available for investment or deposit (with aggregators like Opportunity Finance Network providing searchable data
May 10, 2024
Outperformance of renewables versus traditional oil and gas
We are frequently asked about the performance impact of reducing or eliminating investments in 'XYZ' sector or companies, in-line with a faith’s values --- where 'XZY' is often oil and gas. Performance studies are tricky, often suffering from the time period chosen for study given the availability of data, and the ubiquitous investment warning 'past performance is not indicative of future results'. But, as inputs for the basis of the faith-informed judgmental decisions we ma
Apr 29, 2024
Islamic ETFs: Evidence of stability during periods of market unrest
In recent history, global equity markets have observed considerable volatility, leading some investors to either seek more stable...
Apr 24, 2024
New guidance from the Union for Reform Judaism on fossil fuels
The US-based Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), representing one of the largest Jewish denominations in the US, recently released a resolution providing investment guidance to Jewish organizations ‘ Addressing the Climate Crisis Through Investment Strategies ’. It is a fascinating read, bringing together a thorough theological context with scientific findings and an overview of how the capital markets and companies / investments operate to set the stage for a series of resolut
Apr 15, 2024
What is the EU Taxonomy and why should it matter to FBAOs?
Several faith organisations we work with have recently mentioned how the EU Taxonomy for sustainable activities has come up in conversations with their asset managers. In this post, we explain what it is and what it means for faith-based asset owners based in the European Union. The EU Taxonomy is a standardised tool established by the EU to identify and categorize economic activities that contribute to environmental sustainability – such as mitigating climate change, prote
Apr 9, 2024
Faith-based investors complete first-of-its-kind FCI course
FaithInvest's first online course on faith-consistent investing (FCI) was recently completed by a group of faith-based asset owners – and...
Apr 3, 2024
Using investments to curb climate change – 3 cases, 5 practical learnings
According to a new report from Philea , a collaborative of Foundations in Europe, titled Feeling the Heat: How Foundations Can Use Their Investments to Curb Climate Change '…we are noticing slow progress…[on]…integrating climate considerations into investment strategies...'. Helpfully, beyond this observation, Philea profiles three organizations of varying sizes, and their practical learnings from integrating more climate investing into their programs, with five wonderful l
Mar 26, 2024
Al-Mizan's vision and the path towards practical Islamic finance
Al-Mizan , convened by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), represents a pioneering effort to fuse Islamic-based ethics with environmental stewardship, addressing ecological degradation and conservation through a faith-based lens. This ground-breaking, first of its kind, document underscores the significant role that Islamic beliefs, teachings, and values can play in promoting sustainable development and environmental care. By intricately weaving together the thre
Mar 21, 2024
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