How would God invest?
This was the question at the heart of a recent exploration led by the Anglican Church of Canada, which sought to understand how the Church and its agencies should be invested.
It’s an exploration that’s had significant ripple effects for the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWDRF), the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development and relief.
In 2019, PWDRF purchased Vancity Community Investment Bank’s Impact GIC, one of two impact investment products the agency purchased at the time — and part of their answer to the timely spiritual question.
Love of money versus money for the greater good
The roots of PWDRF’s impact investing journey can be traced to the fall of 2016, when the Anglican Church of Canada launched a Responsible Investing Task force.
The group’s mandate was spiritual and practical. They were asked to assess the Church’s existing investment policies and ensure alignment with Anglican beliefs. In 2018, the task force published Investing with a Mission, a report that made the spiritual case for ethical investing.
“While some worldviews might seek to reduce all human endeavour to economic concerns, where maximization of profit determines strategy, this cannot be the case for us as Christians,” the report reads. “Both [the] Old and New Testaments understand that love of money […] has a tendency to become a false god, leading us to value what we grasp for ourselves rather than pursuing God’s vision for us.”
The report pushed Anglican parishes and agencies to apply environmental, social and governance (ESG) screens to all existing investments, purchase new impact investments, become “active investors”, and to practice ethical divestment.
With this report in tow, PWDRF’s Board of Directors sprang into gear, deepening the agency’s commitment to ESG screens, developing a relationship with SHARE, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education, and exploring impact investing for the first time.
PWRDF: Reserve Funds & Mission Alignment
To begin their impact investing journey, the PWRDF Board of Directors took stock of their investable funds.
In 2000, PWRDF was incorporated as a non-profit organization with a mandate to accept donations from Anglican churches (and other donors) across Canada, and to redistribute funds to projects globally that improve health, food security and livelihoods for vulnerable people.
In the early going, PWRDF’s funds largely flowed straight from donors to recipient projects. In the last few years however, the charity decided that it needed to develop a reserve fund in the event of an unforeseen challenge.
“As we grew, we realized that we needed some safety funds,” explained Dan Waterston, Board Treasurer of PWRDF. “We work with a variety of funding partners around the world, and we decided that we needed to have some reserve funds in place, in the event that any of these partners ever needed to pull out, in order to provide a responsible wind down.”
At that time, the Board of Directors designated net assets of $4M for this purpose, and over the last few years the agency’s total investable assets have grown to approximately $7M.
Recognizing the power of their investments, the Board of Directors decided to orient toward impact, committing to investing a portion of the total funds into impact investments.
Partnering with VCIB to Drive Community Power
The Board learned of Vancity’s Impact GIC, a bank term deposit product that contributes exclusively to community development lending, and sought to learn more. They met with members of the VCIB team, who explained several aspects of the product that appealed to the PWRDF Board.
“VCIB is a schedule one bank. So first off, there’s credibility in that,” explained Waterston. “Banking is a heavily regulated industry, and it gave us confidence to know that VCIB was a reputable financial institution.”
The Board was also attracted to the GIC for its structure as a fixed income product.
“Public markets have taught us a lesson: they go up and down. As a responsible investor, you should have a portion of your portfolio that’s not equity. VCIB’s GIC is a great fixed income product that combines strong social impact with a competitive financial return.”
Investing with God in Mind
In October 2019, PWRDF made two impact investments — one with VCIB, and another with Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, a fund that invests in Indigenous-led social enterprises.
In this way, PWRDF is working to act in alignment with the spirit of the Anglican Church of Canada’s recommendations — and more broadly, in alignment with their spiritual beliefs.
The information provided herein is not intended to constitute investment, financial, legal, accounting, tax, or other advice and should not be relied upon for such purpose. Always consult a professional regarding your specific needs and circumstances.
The customer testimonials that appear on this page were solicited by VCIB.
