A tool for change
We view the whole of our endowment as a tool to help us achieve our mission. Our aspiration is that all our investments should generate both financial returns and positive social and environmental returns. We believe that our decisions on what to invest in, what not to invest in, how we exercise our stewardship responsibilities as a shareholder, and how we engage with the financial system as a whole in our capacity as an investor should contribute to our aim of building international, national and local resilience, and an economy that is fair, equitable and environmentally sustainable.
Market Rate Portfolio
We allocate 90% of our endowment to generate income to support our grant making and refer to this as our ‘market-rate portfolio’. Our approach to generating social and environmental returns in our market-rate portfolio is set out in our Investment principles and policy and covers:
- Areas in which we will not invest under any circumstances because we judge that they are profoundly inconsistent with our mission;
- Areas that we will particularly favour in our investments wherever possible;
- Areas where will use our influence as a shareholder, working alone and with other investors, to encourage changes in corporate practices that serve our mission.
See Investor and shareholder engagement for more information on how we use our ‘market-rate portfolio’ to progress our mission.
Social Investment Portfolio
We allocate up to 10% of our endowment to investments that generate particularly strong social and environmental returns, and from which we are prepared to accept lower financial returns because these investments further our charitable objectives. We refer to this as our ‘social investment portfolio’.
See Social impact investing for more information.
Working in partnership
We also work with other charities, foundations and likeminded investors to progress our investment objectives, including as members of the Charities Responsible Investment Network, Church Investors Group, Social Impact Investors Group and the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change.