Global Impact Investing Network on New Horizons for 2024

by Kate Walsh, Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)

For the last four years, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) has engaged with faith-based organizations to increase their capacity to pursue impact through their investment strategies and align their financial choices with their organizational mission. The GIIN is the global champion of impact investing, dedicated to increasing its scale and effectiveness around the world. Impact investments seek intentional, positive and measurable social or environmental impact alongside financial returns. They are designed to invest in the solutions people and planet need to thrive — such as financing affordable housing, community services, clean energy and environmental preservation — areas where many faith-based institutions have previous interest and experience.

Through our multi-year endeavor, the GIIN has seen faith-based institutions develop a range of responses to the current social and environmental challenges of our world. There is no guide or playbook, as every organization is unique, but there are exciting advancements to note for 2024.

Consider Impact as a Lens: In December, the GIIN published a report that unpacked a new approach to portfolio construction, one in which impact is integrated holistically across all investments. This publication and its findings are an outcome of three years of roundtable discussions with 45 unique institutional asset owners across the globe. With this holistic construction approach, asset owners can then measure and manage impact outcomes in all investments, alongside their financial returns. While many may consider asset owners to only be public or private companies, there are many faith-based organizations that fit this description.

Institutional asset owners, can consider how their investments affect the lives of their beneficiaries — be it their current employees, pensioners, or those in their congregations — while meeting their fiduciary obligations. For a practical application, the report highlights an example scenario of a teachers’ pension fund investing in affordable housing. A more inclusive understanding of a portfolio’s purpose can align with the long-term investment goals of many faith-based asset owners.

Read Kate's full article here - https://greenmoney.com/faith-and-finance-new-horizons-for-2024/

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