Encouraging charities
If you feel strongly that a charity you support should be investing responsibly there are steps you can take to find out its investment policy and encourage the adoption of Responsible Investment. Options include writing to the charity, gaining the support of other charity supporters, learning about issues from campaigning groups and joining existing campaigns.
In this section
Discovering if a charity already invests responsibly
Encouraging a charity to invest responsibly
Discovering if a charity already invests responsibly
Charity trustees are required to report on 'the extent (if any) to which social, environmental or ethical (SEE) considerations are taken into account' within their investment policy. It should therefore be possible to determine whether a charity has a Responsible Investment policy from its annual report. Annual reports are usually available from a charity's own website, or they can be accessed through the Charity Commission and Guidestar websites.
You may wish to consider the following questions:
- Is there a specific section on ethical or socially responsible investment (SRI) in the annual report?
- Is there a clear and strong commitment to SRI or to taking into account social, environmental or ethical issues?
- Does the policy go into detail about mechanisms to ensure Responsible Investment objectives are met? E.g. is there information on a policy of engaging with companies the charity invests in or is specific information given about the screens employed?
- Does the charity disclose its top ten investments?
The level of transparency and disclosure regarding investments varies. If you find there is insufficient detail in an annual report on the SEE issues considered in investments, and how this is done, you could contact the charity directly for more information. Trustees are ultimately responsible for investment decisions, but the head of finance should be able to help. However, charities are not obliged to provide detailed information on their investment policy.
The Just Pensions publication Do UK Charities Invest Responsibly contains a useful list of questions for donors to ask charities regarding their investments.
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Encouraging a charity to invest responsibly
You may discover that the charity you support does not invest responsibly, or feel that its approach to Responsible Investment is inadequate. In either case you could engage with the charity to encourage it to adopt an appropriate `Responsible Investment policy.
Gather information on Responsible Investment
Before contacting a charity you may find it useful to gather information about Responsible Investment from elsewhere on this website. This will enable you to understand what a charity is legally able to do in terms of its investments and to build a convincing argument for the adoption of Responsible Investment. You may wish to see:
Why do it?
Financial returns
Legal issues
Ethical issues
Ways of doing SRI
Case studies
FAQs
Contact the charity
You could write to the charity's trustees, who are responsible for investment decisions. The names of trustees can be found on the Charity Commission website. You could contact the charity to find who the chair of the trustees is and who sits on the investment committee.
Alternatively you can write to the finance director or chief executive. Other staff members, such as supporter services or fundraising staff, may also be interested to hear your concerns. They can then bring up the topic with fellow staff and trustees.
You may wish to use your letter or email to:
- state your interest/involvement with the charity (e.g. donor, member)
- explain why you think the charity should consider social, environmental or ethical issues in its investments
- highlight areas where you think investments could be contradicting the work or objectives of the charity, or that could cause potential damage to its reputation
- highlight ways in which the charity could further its mission through its investments, for example through some positive screening or engagement approaches.
- highlight ways in which the charity could further its mission through its investments, for example through some positive screening or engagement approaches.
- ask a question that requires a reply to your letter - e.g. what action do they intend to take
If you do not receive a satisfactory response you may wish to write back and continue the dialogue. Some campaigning groups believe that a more lengthy correspondence can be more effective in encouraging change than one letter.
Contact other supporters
You may want to raise the issue of Responsible Investment with other supporters of the charity and gain their support. Large charities may have a supporters newsletter or supporter meetings which you could use to raise the issue and encourage others to contact the charity.
Contact campaigning groups
If you are concerned about a particular issue, such as access to medicines in developing countries or nuclear power, it may be useful to contact charities or other organisations that campaign on the issue to find out more about the subject, its implication for investments and how you can best raise it with the charity you support.
For example, the Campaign Against Arms Trade launched a clean investment campaign which provided individuals with resources and campaign materials for raising the issue with charities and other organisations.
Friends of the Earth supply resources on a range of campaign issues such as climate change, global trade and biodiversity. It produces briefing papers for investors on corporate power and in the past has launched campaigns to encourage particular financial institutions to improve their environmental and ethical performance.
Further information
Oxford University Guide to Socially Responsible Investment,
This booklet has been prepared by the Oxford University Student Union
Ethics Committee as a guide to anyone in an Oxford College who wishes
to encourage his/her college authorities to consider investing the college’s
money in an ethical way. It explains some of the steps you should take to
maximize your chances of a successful outcome, and offers different
strategies to help you think laterally if you meet the occasional brick wall.
Download booklet
The Responsible Endowments Coalition is a US nonprofit organisation that works to foster social and environmental change through university endowments. Its website includes resources on student campaigns.
