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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
A think tank targets economic climate assumptions
A recent report from Carbon Tracker, a think tank founded by FaithInvest Advisor Mark Campanale, asserts that ‘pension funds are risking...
Oct 5, 2023
Assessing internal support for sustainable banking
It has been a while since we’ve written on Sustainable Banking, in part because one of the conclusions of the FaithInvest Sustainable Banking Interest Group was shareholder advocacy for business policy and practices change at major banks was seen as far more effective than customer advocacy – the latter being the focus of our erstwhile effort – and good shareholder advocacy work is underway at organizations like ICCR and Shareholders for Change ( SFC ), and with the format
Oct 3, 2023
The Role of Ethics Committees for Faith and Values Investors
We recently covered research and findings on the use of Ethics Committees by faith-based asset owners (often appearing under many names – responsible investment committee, principals or values committee and more) for a faith organization exploring the topic. We’ll have much more to say on Ethics Committees in an paper to be published later this year, but it reminded me of research Unleashing the Potential of Faith-Based Investors for Positive Impact and Sustainable Developmen
Sep 27, 2023
Helpful guidance from The Investor Agenda on climate and investments – but does it suit all?
We’re working with several of you to integrate climate considerations into investment strategies. Because of this, we’re always keeping an eye on what’s available to help guide faith-based asset owners. Recently, we looked at The Investor Agenda Investor Climate Action Plans (ICAPs) Expectations Ladder – published earlier this year. We found that whilst the guidance might help investors use a range of levers to make investments more aligned with climate goals, many of the a
Sep 13, 2023
Many investable markets are up this year…but not this 'sustainable' one
Carbon credits are controversial , but they may underpin or partially finance the impact fund you’re in, the grant work you’re doing, they may be held directly or indirectly in your ESG, environment or sustainability fund, and are being relied on to incentivize the market --- they’ve also crashed this year: Why? Some point to structural concerns with this mostly unregulated market , others to recent malfeasance by market players, some to the impacts of ongoing conflicts . Ye
Sep 7, 2023
A top-scoring FBAO’s FCI Journey
We recently had an opportunity to talk faith-consistent investing with an asset owner holding a top scoring – perfect 10 – investment policy and guidelines statement (IP&G), as captured in our FCI Scoring methodology described in ‘ From Faith Values to Investment ’. Some larger learnings among many: Why did they embark on FCI? ‘It was highly situational’ – there was a major structural change in the Church, in this case two church organisations came together, at the same tim
Aug 30, 2023
Values-investing: is manager reporting up to snuff?
What is the state of values-based investment reporting, is it part of the solution to bringing sustainable investing to the masses, or does it fall short? And is this latest report just another example of a large, complex financial institution and public company balancing many stakeholders? The world’s largest asset manager (at US$9 trillion – that’s roughly two Germanys of annual GDP), US-based Blackrock is out with their annual Global Impact Report from their equity inve
Aug 24, 2023
Sustainable investing is smart, not political
FaithInvest Board Chair, and Chief Investment Officer for Wespath Institutional Investments (US Methodists) Dave Zellner is out with a faith-based perspective on sustainable investing ‘ Sustainable investing is smart, not political ’ as an introduction to Wespath’s latest Sustainable Investment Report . In the article, Dave notes a question many of you may also get: ‘We have received multiple questions about how ESG aligns with our fiduciary responsibilities to church emplo
Aug 21, 2023
Is sustainable investing counterproductive?
Seems a steady drip of academic research is out on the ‘real world’ impacts of ESG / sustainable investing, now with improving data sets. We’ve written on a few studies recently, like this . A new study out from two professors working with the National Bureau of Economic Research ( NBER ), Counterproductive Sustainable Investing… may refocus some of our sustainable investing efforts, finding that 'sustainable investing that directs capital away from brown firms and toward g
Aug 17, 2023
Impact Imbalance?
GIIN is out with the “Impact Investor Demographics” report, which – inadvertently? – highlights an imbalance we’ve noticed: more impact fund supply than impact fund demand (at least in the faith-based asset owner space), and despite the attention, and expectations, the vast majority of impact offerings are market rate – versus at or below market returns. For their report, GIIN queried over 2,000 impact investors, just 308 responded, mostly asset managers (fund providers) ,
Aug 9, 2023
How FBAOs engage in impact investing
Following up from our most recent FCI update (reviewed at the June FCI Interest Group meeting) and soon to be released in our updated Good Intentions paper, we find that just 37% of faith-based asset owners (FBAOs) mention impact investing in their Investment Policy & Guidelines (IP&G). While working with a faith-based asset owner (FBAO) on impact investing, we were recently asked to find examples of IP&G language on how other FBAOs treat their impact investments. We found a
Aug 3, 2023
Has increasing criticism of sustainable investing impacted sustainable funds?
Those of you in the US are no doubt aware of the rising “anti-ESG” chorus of critics (many renaming it “woke investing” – with this prominent critic announcing a run for US president ), politicians and laws . It’s a chorus that is even migrating to the UK with the recent kerfuffle around NatWest’s Coutts & Co banking unit. Is all this activity impacting on the assets invested in sustainable / ESG funds? US financial services firm Morningstar recently released a report s
Aug 2, 2023
Using ESG criteria for faith-consistent investing: clarity is the key!
Working recently with a faith-based asset owner (FBAO) on their investment policy and guidelines (IP&G) – we learned that they had received feedback from their asset managers that the following wording on the use of ESG was somewhat ambiguous and unactionable: The trustees expect the investment managers to apply Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria when selecting investments paying particular attention to our guiding principles... Asking: Who’s scores? What cri
Jul 27, 2023
Guest Commentary: A response to our post 'How much does Artificial Intelligence know about FCI'
By Michael Lustig FaithInvest’s exploration of how ChatGPT can be applied towards drafting faith-consistent investing guidelines is extremely interesting and illuminating. (To see FaithInvest's original post, click HERE .) Although I’ll admit to a bias against using this new tool as a shortcut, it truly does seem to have a lot of utility; at the same time, it falls-flat in a few respects. Wearing my Adjunct Professor ‘hat’ I teach an Impact Investing course, and the recent ri
Jul 18, 2023
Regulator seeks input on proxy voting
We previously have posted about some of the concerns that faith-based asset owners (FBAOs) have on the voting policies of their asset managers. As covered in our previous paper, From Faith Values to Investment , p roxy voting policy is a key element of our faith Investment Policy & Guideline (IP&G) framework. However, many FBAOs don’t directly control proxy voting for a variety of reasons. Instead, they rely on their asset managers to do this, which can present challenges,
Jul 13, 2023
Is ESG your organisation's faith values?
Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors ( KoCAA ) is out with a paper connecting Catholic beliefs, teachings and values to Mensuram Bonam (MB) and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines (SRIG) as representative Catholic investment guidelines – answering a question: is ESG investing the same as Catholic Social Teaching (CST) investing? Can I as a faith investor substitute ESG for my faith values, in this case, Catholicism? We’ve written
Jul 12, 2023
What one of the world's oldest religions says about investing
Jainism is a member of the Dharmic religions, which include Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, and 'is one of the world’s oldest religions, originating in India at least 2,500 years ago', according to a 2021 article by Pew Research Center . Estimates of global membership vary from 4 million to over 10 million , with the majority in India, where it’s estimated to be the smallest of the country’s six major religions. It’s a rich religion, with a core tenet of A himsa: have as li
Jun 27, 2023
Does divestment from fossil fuels have any real impact?
In a previous post , we explored the IP&G language that various FBAOs use to describe how they manage their oil & gas investments. Some of the faiths indicated that they use divestment under certain circumstances (mostly in the form of negative screens) to be more aligned with their beliefs, teachings and values. This raised an interesting question: does divestment actually impact new oil & gas fundraising? We explored the topic and found that, in the view of some researcher
Jun 23, 2023
ESG reporting: a matter of quality vs quantity
There’s a raft of revisions to regulations and oversight emerging worldwide on company ESG disclosures – according to one study , 'at present, 29 countries and territories maintain some degree of mandatory ESG disclosure regulation' – but will all this work improve the quality of ESG reporting (a challenge you have as values investors that we’ve covered in prior posts )? Recent analysis of expected regulatory changes to company ESG-related filing requirements in the US by th
Jun 21, 2023
How FBAOs engage, advocate and divest from fossil fuels: it's not one size fits all
One of the faith-based asset owners (FBAOs) we work with asked us to provide them with examples on how they could engage with and advocate for their beliefs, teachings and values in their energy investments. We took this as an opportunity to scan our Investment Policy & Guidelines (IP&G) database for examples on how other FBAOs manage the challenge of fossil fuels. We found that there were a variety of methods that other faith groups employed, varying from active ownership wi
Jun 15, 2023
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