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Topical Issues: Responsible Investment
Last updated April 18, 2007 - This page is no longer being updated
Trustees have many important responsibilities - deciding how and where to invest their organisation’s assets is certainly one such key responsibility.
Responsible Investment is about aligning a foundation’s investments with its objects. It is based on achieving the greatest impact from investments by both pursuing maximum financial return and using investments for non-financial gain. Incorporating concepts such as ‘ethical investment’ and ‘sustainable investment’ it has been steadily growing in importance over the last few years.
There is no one right way of investing ‘responsibly’ and accordingly there are a number of responsible investment options currently available to Australian foundations and charities. Both the number and the variety of options available is expected to grow rapidly as mainstream fund managers pay much greater attention to this area.
Philanthropy Australia has created this page to serve as a central location for Members looking for information relevant to this issue. Please contact us if you have resources that you can recommend for inclusion on this page.
| Date | Title & Summary of Resource | Download/Access |
| 02/08/07 | Guide to Ethical Investing Ethical Investor magazine has produced an introductory guide to ethical investing. According to EI, it is "Ideal for new readers just being introduced to this concept". |
 Download Guide (PDF) |
| 18 April 2007 | Ethical investing for foundations: generating returns and fulfilling your foundation’s mission In January of this year the Los Angeles Times published two articles that charged the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, with reaping, “vast financial gains from investments in companies that contributed to the human suffering in health, housing and social welfare that the foundation was trying to alleviate.” This raised a question that has long-troubled the philanthropic sector: should profit-maximisation be the sole focus of a foundation’s investment decisions? There are some who argue that to have any other focus would be in breach of a Trustee’s “prudent person” duties. Whereas others argue that ethical considerations and profit maximisation don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Furthermore they say, if on average, less than 10% of a foundation’s assets are distributed in grants each year then it is illogical to not use at least some part of the other 90% or more of a foundation’s assets in a way that will all support the foundation’s charitable objectives. One commentator* in the US went so far as to say that, “Creating an immutable firewall between a foundation’s investments and grants is nonsensical, a strategy worthy of ostriches, not leaders." Philanthropy Australia Members attended a session at which Louise O’Halloran from the Ethical Investment Association and Mark Wootton, from the Poola Foundation, provided an overview of the ethical investment sector, and an insight into the various approaches and ethical investment options available to foundations as well as a description of some of the ways the Poola Foundation has approached ethical investment. Louise and Mark were joined by a panel of investment experts who engaged with them and with audience members in a discussion about the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of ethical investment. * Allison H. Fine, a senior fellow at Demos: a Network for Ideas and Action, in New York – a panellist in the Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal’s discussion on 12 February 2007. |
Summary Notes (PDF) |
| Added 18 April 2007 | Ethical Investment Association Australasia | Visit Website |
| March 2007 |
How far do our values go? Opinion piece by Stephen Pittam, Secretary, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Alliance magazine, Vol 12, No 1, March 2007 |
Read online |
| 12 February 2007 | Aligning Investments with Grantmaking? A panel discussion hosted by the Hudson Institute's Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. |
Download Transcript (PDF) |
| January 6-14 2007 |
A contradiction at the Gates Foundation A series on the investment practices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. |
Read online |
| Added 18 April 2007 | United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment | Download (PDF) |
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