{"id":36101,"date":"2022-10-26T10:08:52","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T14:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=36101"},"modified":"2022-11-24T11:45:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T16:45:50","slug":"good-intentions-what-faiths-say-about-how-they-invest-and-how-they-can-do-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/good-intentions-what-faiths-say-about-how-they-invest-and-how-they-can-do-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Intentions: What faiths say about how they invest \u2013 and how they can do more"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to November 2022 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n

First in-depth, multi-faith analysis of the extent to which faith groups align their values with their investment portfolios<\/h3>\n

There’s been a huge rise in interest in values-driven investing in recent years, including among faith groups who are increasingly aware of the importance of investing in line with their faith values \u2013 particularly when it comes to achieving their environmental and social goals.<\/p>\n

However, there is still a big gap between their aspirations to align their investments with their faith values and actual implementation, according to a new study by FaithInvest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Good Intentions<\/h2>\n

The world’s faiths have billions of dollars invested in global markets. is the first multifaith, in-depth assessment of faith groups’ publicly available statements about their investment policies.<\/p>\n

\"GoodFaithInvest, a UK-based international non-profit founded to empower the faiths to invest in line with their beliefs and values, developed an analytical framework to assess the extent to which faiths are integrating values into their investments.<\/p>\n

It found that while many faith groups profess a faith component in their investments, this practice is by no means universal, and of those that do, the extent of the alignment varies widely.<\/p>\n

The FaithInvest study looked at the investment policies and guidelines of organizations that are formally a part of, or affiliated with, a faith practice. The extensive survey was multi-faith and global in scope, and in addition to faith organizations it also included faith-oriented financial institutions, professional networks, non-profits, schools, and other faith-based institutions.<\/p>\n

Essential Guiding Principles<\/h2>\n

“Investment policy and guidelines (IPG) statements are the essential guiding principles and prescriptions for how faith-based investment portfolios are managed,”<\/em> says Mathew Jensen, author of the study and a member of FaithInvest’s Investment Solutions team.“Turns out, faith-aligned IPG statements are more a rarity among faith-based asset owners than one might expect.”<\/em><\/p>\n

With 84% of people globally belonging to a religion, according to the Pew Research Center<\/a>, and thousands of religious organizations worldwide, Jensen says: \u201cWe were surprised to find only 164 publicly available statements about faith investment policies.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Of these, only 42 provided enough information in their investment policy statements to make a credible analysis, and just 69% of these indicated that faith values have a role in the principles and guidelines that govern their financial assets.<\/p>\n

Even among this group, the extent to which faith values were integrated into portfolios varied widely. In fact, only two of the 42 investment policy and guidelines statements studied indicated extensive integration of faith values in their investments.<\/p>\n

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