Morley Fund Management ('Morley') has launched a campaign to show how charities can align their investments with their organisational principles without compromising returns.
Morley Fund Management ('Morley') has launched a campaign to show how charities can align their investments with their organisational principles without compromising returns.
Morley's Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) team, one of the biggest in Europe, is sending an information pack to more than 1,100 UK charities this week, demonstrating how charities can use their financial weight to invest for good.
The campaign pack describes many of the main social and environmental issues that SRI addresses - healthcare, environment, human rights, trade and development, climate change and corporate governance - and shows where Morley has actively engaged to improve the performance of listed companies in these areas. It also encourages charities to contact their investment adviser to ensure their pension funds and other investments are invested in a socially responsible manner.
During 2003, the Government made the recommendation that registered charities with an annual income of over Ł1m should report annually on the extent to which social, environmental and ethical (SEE) issues are taken into account in their investment policies. Morley sees this as an indication that if charities do not take SEE issues into account voluntarily, the Government may bring in legislation to make them do so.
Melissa Gamble, SRI Analyst, said: "Increasing pressure from government to disclose investment policies is forcing more charities to consider socially responsible investments. Charities that fail to take account of where their assets are invested may find themselves open to reputation risks if those investments conflict with their campaigning priorities."
Simon McRae, UK Corporate Policy and Investment Coordinator, Friends of the Earth, said: "As an environmental campaigning NGO a socially responsible pension is important for our credibility. We want to avoid investing in companies that ignore environmental and social impacts. Investing in socially responsible pension funds can help us to influence companies to do the right thing as well as make money for our retirement."
Research from the UK Social Investment Forum shows that 60% of top charities still have no written ethical or socially responsible investment policy. In addition, of those with policies, only 30% use their shareholder votes and only 26% have direct engagement with the companies in which they invest.
Morley's SRI funds are different from most ethically screened funds. Rather than merely focusing on negative criteria to screen out investments in 'undesirable companies', the funds actively look to invest in companies making a direct link between sustainable development and long-term returns.
Morley's SRI UK equity funds all returned top quartile performance for 2003 and the team currently has Ł570m in funds under management.
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Notes to Editors
Morley Fund Management
- Morley Fund Management (‘Morley’) is an independently managed, London based, asset management business with over Ł107 billion under management (as at 30 September 2003, not including mortgage assets). It actively manages a diverse range of asset classes and employs in the region of 900 employees worldwide based in London, Singapore and an associate office in Boston*.
- Morley is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Aviva Group and manages both institutional and retail funds under the Morley brand. It also acts as investment manager for a range of retail investment funds, marketed in the UK by Norwich Union, and international funds marketed under the Aviva Funds brand.
Awards
- Fund Manager of the Year - Property Week Awards 2004
- Best Property Fund Manager - Pensions Management Provider Awards 2003
- Fund Manager of the Year - Pensions Week Awards 2002
- Specialist Manager of the Year - UK Pensions Awards 2002
- Insurance Fund Manager of the Year (awarded to Norwich Union) - Standard and Poor's 2002
- Sustainable and Ethical Investment and Asset Management Award - Liveable City Awards 2002
*Morley Fund Management International Limited, an Aviva company