Developing a policy
Developing a Responsible Investment policy can be straightforward.
The steps outlined below will lead you through the process of developing and implementing a policy. It will highlight some of the issues for you to consider and provide useful links to further information and resources. It is important to bear in mind that the level of detail and sophistication required of the policy may well depend upon the size and nature of your charity and investments.
Click on the links below to learn more about each stage of the process:
1. Gather information on
- Responsible Investment
- your charity’s current investments
2. Agree to move forward
- gain support from trustees
- agree why you should adopt Responsible Investment and what you want to achieve
3. Develop a policy
- examine how you can reflect your mission in your investments
- define social, environmental and ethical criteria
- decide on approach to positive and negative screening, engagement and voting
4. Implement Responsible Investment
- clarifying roles of staff, trustees and external organisations
- communicating your policy effectively
- selecting the right fund/fund manager
5. Report and review
- reporting on investments to stakeholders
- reviewing the investment policy
- evaluating and monitoring the performance of investments (financial and other)
You may wish to use the services of an investment adviser to help you through part or all of this process. The stage at which you seek advice will depend upon your requirements. The finding advisers section provides further guidance on this subject.
