Step 2: Agree to move forward
This step is about moving from a point of interest in Responsible Investment to agreeing to move forward with the adoption of Responsible Investment. It is about clarifying
- why your charity wishes to invest responsibly?
- what it is seeking to achieve?
Gaining support
This stage is about discussing the information collected in step one and encouraging trustees to become familiar with Responsible Investment issues. It is about discussing what your charity could gain from Responsible Investment, or lose by not doing it. It may be useful to:
- share resources - such as the Investing Responsibly toolkit or other sections of this website, so that all trustees have a good basic awareness of Responsible Investment issues
- invite ‘experts’ on responsible investment to your trustee meetings – such as advisers, fund managers, lawyers and other charities that are already investing responsibly.
It may be at this stage that the trustees decide it is inappropriate for the charity to implement Responsible Investment. It is important to be clear about the reasons for making such a decision. Or they may decide to move forward and define why and how the charity should invest in line with its mission.
Setting Aims
Trustees should articulate the motivations for adopting Responsible Investment and consider how it links to the charity’s
- objects
- core values
- strategy
- investment approach
- risk assessment (particularly reputation risk)
It may be useful to consider the reasons why charities adopt Responsible Investment outlined in the Why do it? Section
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