Featured Articles
Loving Our Neighbor in a Time of Crisis
"How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech but in truth and action." (1 John 3:17-18, NRSV) Traditionally seen as a call to greater charity, in 2020 this verse can provide inspiration for investors to integrate their values and pursue impact through their portfolios as well.
Pursuing Justice Through Faith-Based Impact Investing
For all investors, but particularly for communities of faith in these turbulent times, the prospect of impact investing offers an abundance of meaningful opportunities to realign and reaffirm how our values support our investment strategies. From a congregation that decides to make a deposit in a local credit union or Black-owned community development bank, or to a church-based pension fund that invests in climate resilience.
Responsible Investment and the Faith-Based Investor
Religious investors have been a vital force in the development of modern responsible investment. Pax World, the first SRI mutual fund in the U.S., was launched in 1971 by two Methodist ministers. In that same year the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility was founded, and over the next half-century ICCR members have been engaging with corporations on issues ranging from the South Africa boycott to climate change.
The Love of Money
We need to find a way forward that allows us to care for the poor and our planet, without feeling guilty about having money, and enjoying it wholeheartedly for the good it produces in the world and our lives. I suggest being mindful about your money by giving your money some love—the right kind of love. Not avarice or greed, but spiritual love that is mindful of our responsibility to live in alignment with our values.
Additional Articles
The United Church of Christ: Pioneer in Faith and Finance and a Force for Change 50 Years Later
(From the archives) The United Church of Christ was present at the creation of a new era in the intersection of faith and finance. In the early 70s, energized by the anti-war and anti-apartheid movements, the women’s movement, and the battle for civil rights, Protestant denominations began to examine how their religious values and social justice positions were reflected in their investing and business decisions.
The Connection Between Investing and Our Values
We aren’t owners; we are stewards of the resources that God has given us. This knowledge should radically change the how, where, and why behind our investment strategies. Imagine the impact that would occur when all Christ-following investors use investment capital to deliver community impact, spiritual integration, and financial return. We can take what God has given and put it back into the work He is doing on earth.
Grace vs. Greed: The Church of England Steps into the Climate Breach
Adam Matthews, director of ethics and engagement at The Church of England Pensions Board is on the vanguard of a growing trend among activist institutional investors of all sizes who are no longer waiting for governments to tackle the world’s most important and impactful environmental and social issues, particularly climate change.
Faithful Finance: Strategies for Connecting Values and Capital to Generate Real-World Impact
As faith communities know from their decades of advocacy, there is deep benefit in coming together to share knowledge and grow commitments aimed at achieving meaningful real-world changes. Those same lessons can be applied to faith-based investing efforts. As investors, faith communities must learn from each other, coordinate across different groups, and make their collective capital count.
Moving Beyond Child Labor: Faith Investors Must Pay Greater Attention to Impacts on Children from Our Market Decisions
Faith investors have long engaged companies and governments on exploitative practices involving child labor. They have also weighed in on negative infant formula marketing, violent video games, and obesity impacts from junk food over the past four decades. In fact, faith investors are typically the first shareowners to flag negative business impacts on children.
