Following news that the Charity Commission is gathering views on the subject of responsible investing by charities, Luke Fletcher spoke with Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) to provide his perspective on this topical issue.
Noting that questions concerning investment are often addressed by charities’ investment committees, Luke goes on to explain how matters such as this are referred to committee members “without a review of the investment policy itself or the terms of reference of the investment committee, sometimes for many years”.
Expanding on this point Luke goes on to say “this means there can be a disconnect between the grant-making activities of foundations – where impacts are evaluated – and the investment activity itself – where the impacts often receive relatively little scrutiny.”
Luke also proceeds to cover the duties of trustees in this area, pointing out that the legal obligations in this area are very different to the common perception “that the duty of trustees is simply to ‘maximise’ financial return from investments…”
If you would like to read the rest of IPE’s take on this issue, click here for more details.