Ethical investment of German non‐profit organizations – conceptual outline and empirical results

Schaefer, Henry

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8608.2004.00370.x

Cited by 18 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…They go on to say (p.356), 'Individuals and organisations may therefore feel a "responsibility" (Sinclair, 1995, p.221) to be accountable or "answerable" (Shearer, 2002, p.541-573) to themselves (Najam, 1996) in the form of their values, mission and culture' (Lewis and Madon, 2004 (Schaefer, 2004).…”

Section: 'The Relationship May Not Be -Nor Needs To Be -As Formal Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It would therefore seem that, charity ethical investment may be conceptualised in relation to a more overtly emotional and values based nature of the accountability relationship and may be particularly related to notions of 'consistency' (Schaefer, 2004) and 'alignment' (Anheier, 2004).…”

Section: 'The Relationship May Not Be -Nor Needs To Be -As Formal Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In North America some charities vote the company shares they own at company annual general meetings on ethical issues as part of the engagement (Guay, Doh and Sinclair, 2004). Schaefer's (2004) investigation of the investment behaviour of German non-profit organisations is based on 110 questionnaire responses. It was found that 59% of organisations considered environmental or social criteria in their investment decisions and religious organisations used ethical criteria more frequently than other charities.…”

Section: Charity Approaches To Ethical Investmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas companies have a profit motive, charities have a charitable motive which is often ethically driven due to the religious, social, or ecological purpose of the charity (Schaefer, 2004;Gray et al, 2006). Many charities are, however, concerned about financial matters as investments provide an important source of income, making them less dependent on (volatile) individual giving, government grants or any single source of funding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The way in which charity funds are invested is an important aspect of the accountability of charities towards their stakeholders (in particular, beneficiaries and donors 3 ) (Ebrahim, 2003a;Schaefer, 2004;Keating and Frumkin, 2003 Research Service (EIRiS)). 4 Without an explicit ethical investment policy, there is a risk of tension between the expectations of donors, investment managers and charity staff.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Putting our money where their mouth is: Alignment of charitable aims with charity investments – Tensions in policy and practice

Kreander

Beattie

McPhail

2009

The British Accounting Review

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AcknowledgementsWe gratefully acknowledge ACCA funding for this project and the helpful comments from participants at the EAA 2005 Conference in Gothenburg, the IPA 2006 conference in Cardiff and the BAA 2006 Conference in Portsmouth and from two anonymous reviewers. We also wish to thank the charity representatives who completed our questionnaire and who agreed to be interviewed. Putting Our Money Where Their Mouth Is: Alignment of Charitable Aims with Charity Investments -Tensions in Policy and Practice AbstractGiven the values-driven nature of the mission of most charities, it might be expected that investment behaviour would be similarly values-driven. This paper documents the ethical investment policies and practices of the largest UK charities and explores how these are aligned with the charitable aims, drawing upon accountability, behavioural and managerial perspectives as theoretical lenses. The study employs two distinct research methods: responses to a postal questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews with selected charities. The evidence indicates that a significant minority of large charities do not have a written ethical investment policy. Charities with larger investments, fundraising charities and religious charities were more likely to have a written ethical policy. We suggest that there is a pressing need for improved alignment between charities' aims and their investment practices and better monitoring of investment policies.

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Section: 'The Relationship May Not Be -Nor Needs To Be -As Formal Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 'The Relationship May Not Be -Nor Needs To Be -As Formal Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Charity Approaches To Ethical Investmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Putting our money where their mouth is: Alignment of charitable aims with charity investments – Tensions in policy and practice

Kreander

Beattie

McPhail

2009

The British Accounting Review

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From Preaching to Investing: Attitudes of Religious Organisations Towards Responsible Investment

2012

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International audienceReligious organisations are major investors with sometimes substantial investment volumes. An important question for them is how to make investments in, and to earn returns from, companies and activities that are consistent with their religious beliefs or that even support these beliefs. Religious organisations have pioneered responsible investment. Yet little is known about their investment attitudes. This article addresses this gap by studying faith consistent investing. Based on a survey complemented by interviews, we investigate religious organisations' attitudes towards responsible investment including opinions, practices and the impediments for implementing faith consistent investing. Although our results cannot be generalised because of the non-random character of our sample, six main characteristics of faith consistent investing are drawn: investing is not perceived as being in contradiction with religious values, religious values are important drivers, there is a strong community around faith consistent investing, religious investors are pioneering impact investing, implementing faith consistent investing is not without difficulties, and practices vary across regions. The survey also reveals that faith consistent investing has many commonalities with secular responsible investors

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A Credit Score System for Socially Responsible Lending

2014

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Ethical banking, microfinance institutions or certain credit cooperatives, among others, grant socially responsible loans. This paper presents a credit score system for them. The model evaluates both social and financial aspects of the borrower. The financial aspects are evaluated under the conventional banking framework, by analysing accounting statements and financial projections. The social aspects try to quantify the loan impact on the achievement of Millennium Development Goals such as employment, education, environment, health or community impact. The social credit score model should incorporate the lender's know-how and should also be coherent with its mission. This is done by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The paper illustrates a real case: a loan application by a social enterprise presented to a socially responsible lender. The decision support system not only produces a score, but also reveals strengths and weaknesses of the application. AbstractEthical banking, microfinance institutions or certain credit cooperatives, among others, grant socially responsible loans. This paper presents a credit score system for them. The model evaluates both social and financial aspects of the borrower. The financial aspects are evaluated under the conventional banking framework, by analysing accounting statements and financial projections. The social aspects try to quantify the loan impact on the achievement of Millennium Development Goals such as employment, education, environment, health or community impact. The social credit score model should incorporate the lender's know-how and should also be coherent with its mission. This is done by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. The paper illustrates a real case: a loan application by a social enterprise presented to a socially responsible lender. The decision support system not only produces a score, but also reveals strengths and weaknesses of the application.

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Ethical investment of German non‐profit organizations – conceptual outline and empirical results

Cited by 18 publications

References 16 publications

Putting our money where their mouth is: Alignment of charitable aims with charity investments – Tensions in policy and practice

Putting our money where their mouth is: Alignment of charitable aims with charity investments – Tensions in policy and practice

From Preaching to Investing: Attitudes of Religious Organisations Towards Responsible Investment

A Credit Score System for Socially Responsible Lending

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