Finding hope in this age of significant disruption and interconnected global threats and challenges, is not straightforward. Hope can feel passive sometimes. Over the last few years though, I have noticed that hope is more than that. Hope is something that you have; it’s something you lose too. It requires attention and action – these actions range from the tried and true, to the experimental and uncertain. Hope acts as a life raft in volatile and uncertain times, and when the better times come along you know you couldn’t have got there with at least some hope to help you along.
John Ellerman Foundation has been an active contributor to the design and delivery of the Earth Funding Lab since it started a few years ago. The Lab is a values-led and partnership-based initiative that brings funders together to challenge themselves to think, act and deliver differently in pursuit of a North Star vision of economies that truly serve all life. The Lab works in ways that encourage philanthropic institutions and donors to grapple with the hard things, to think systemically, to work together in ways that we don’t tend to.
Through the Lab, I have had the privilege of working with Gower Street Charitable Trust and Friends Provident Foundation to consider better investing practices. Much of philanthropy relies on investment markets in order to make grants to the causes we care about. As a sector, the emphasis continues to be on finance first investing.
I’ve been in my current role as Director of John Ellerman Foundation for nearly six years, and it remains an anathema to me that philanthropy fails to prioritise responsible investing practices. Responsible investing is the recognition of the need to take a total impact approach that seeks financial returns to fund grantmaking and related operations, alongside non-financial outcomes. These outcomes relate to a desire to invest in sustainable ways that support long-term environmental and societal sustainability, and ensure that those that invest on our behalf take full account of the impacts of the impacts our underlying holdings have on people, society and the natural world. This is sometimes described as a stewardship approach that includes things like engagement to promote socially and environmentally responsible business practices, voting at shareholder meetings, the promotion/support of relevant motions, and seeking to drive change through systemic guardrails which protect society and the environment, not just on a company-by-company basis but on a sectoral or thematic basis.
By failing to take a responsible investing approach, we ignore the fact that making money in a way that does not serve all life is unsustainable. We can see that already – whether it is the planet getting warmer, or profits becoming more reliant on corporations using child labour or not paying a real Living Wage.
The enormity of reforming an entire economic system cannot be achieved alone. The Lab is a space in which we state our despair, exactly as it is, and then dare to hope. We organise ourselves and imagine the art of the possible, and then receive the support to make that happen.
There are so many steps that we could be pursuing – some will lead to progress, others might be wrong turns that show us something else. By coming together, we can compare notes and share learning. It is this that enables us to go further, faster.
Our small group of three, has explored a lot of ideas over the past 12 months. Our main goal now is to share our learning across as many avenues as possible, so that we can do our bit to make responsible investing the norm. In the future, we’ll be running a learning series on better and more responsible forms of investing. In the meantime, you can find out more about the Earth Funding Lab and how to join.
The Lab is also advocating for more transparency on investing practices amongst all relevant charitable funders. Gower Street Charitable Trust, Friends Provident Foundation, and John Ellerman Foundation have all shared through our websites our Investment Policies, our Investment Consultants and our fund managers. We share regularly about our responsible investing journeys too, through blogs and speaking engagements too. These might feel like small steps, but the more open we are about what we are all doing, the more we can shorten the learning curve for other philanthropic institutions and donors who are starting to think about investing in a way that goes beyond financial returns only.
Small steps add up to something significant. So get involved with the Earth Funding Lab. Enjoy feeling hopeful too, I know I have.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Sophia, if you have any questions about the Earth Funding Lab. The Earth Funding Lab is an EFN project delivered in partnership with the Bio-Leadership Project and the Teal Collective.