Our policy on ethical investment
The Rayne Foundation and Trust have a joint policy and strategy for the investment of the endowments which finance all of our grant-giving.
The policy sets out what we want our investment managers to achieve through responsible investing. We expect them to consider material environmental, social and governance (‘ESG’) factors and engage with companies and funds to ensure that systemic challenges are addressed. We want them to work actively, including through voting, to encourage sustainable practice and ensure compliance with legislation covering ESG issues. As ‘active investors’ they are involved to influence companies towards greater ESG responsibility. We also specify a small number of areas in which we will not invest, for ESG reasons.
Our investment policy and our approach to ESG investment is kept under review by our joint finance and investment committee, which includes trustees and independent expert advisers. We also want to increase the positive social impact of our investing. Our aim is to achieve greater alignment between our charitable objectives, grantmaking priorities and investment policy by developing our approach to, and promoting social, impact and mission-related investment.
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