Too many faith investment policies ‘could be written by secular groups’
- Susie Weldon
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
We held a wonderful FCI Quarterly Forum on Thursday June 4, which also marked the second in our Good Intentions 2026 webinar series following the publication of our most ambitious research project to date.
The series takes a deep dive into the findings from our Good Intentions study, which sets out to assess the state of faith-consistent investing (FCI) globally. This webinar focused on the first four criteria in our 10-point Level One FCI Assessment Framework.
Study co-author Catherine Devitt said these four criteria say ‘at the heart of any faith-consistent investing (FCI) investment policy’.
She explained: ‘They cover what your policy says about your faith, what you won’t invest in, what you want to support, and whether the funds you use can actually deliver on those commitments.’
The four categories are: Faith documentation; Ethical exclusions; Positive screening; and Investment vehicle selection. In each case Catherine discussed the key findings and where the gaps are, and offered suggestions for how faith groups could improve their scores.
For example, Criterion One - faith documentation - is considered the essential foundation to any FCI policy. ‘It asks a simple question: does your investment policy actually explain that you are a faith organisation - and what that means for how you invest?’ she said.
‘You might think: of course it does. We’re a Catholic diocese or a Methodist foundation, surely that is obvious. But what the research found is that naming your faith tradition and explaining how that tradition shapes investment decisions are two very different things.’
Our Good Intentions study found that a significant number of policies contained ‘minimal or no faith-specific content at all’, she said. ‘The policy could been written by any secular organisation. Faith was assumed, not expressed.’
This matters, she added, because if the policy doesn’t explain how your faith shapes your decisions, then your trustees, advisers and fund managers have no clear mandate to work with. FaithInvest assessed 275 actual faith investment policies for Good Intentions 2026 and the average score for Criterion One was 2.5 out of a possible score of 5.
‘It is one of the most straightforward improvements any organisation can make,’ said Catherine. ‘Stronger faith documentation requires three things: name your faith tradition explicitly; state the core principles that flow from that tradition; and explain - even briefly - how those principles connect to your investment decisions. Many of the highest scoring organisations in our research did exactly that in a paragraph or two.’
You can watch a recording of the webinar to hear further insights as well as key findings from the other three criteria, and also to hear from our guest speaker, Arjen Overweel, Senior Relationship Manager for Oikocredit. As well as being a sponsor of Good Intentions, Oikocredit has a long experience of helping faiths achieve greater impact with their investments.
