Socially Responsible Investing
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is ensuring that our investments are reasonably consistent with our values. The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) has been strongly committed to SRI for over forty years. Our commitment springs from our faith, and from our deep conviction in the dignity of all human beings.
The UUA is constantly engaged in SRI activity from shareholder resolutions, to community investing, to affordable housing and other justice initiatives.Congregations can get involved in SRI in a number of ways. The simplest way is to invest your funds in the UUA’s Endowment Fund, which Financial Services strives to invest according to UUA Socially Responsible Investing Guidelines.
Congregations can also invest on their own through an SRI firm or engage in other activities, such as microcredit or shareholder activism. If you are new to SRI, we recommend that you first read about the four aspects of SRI: positive and negative screening, shareholder activism, proxy voting, and community investment, before deciding how best to engage your congregation. Community investing is important for those of you who are interested in affordable housing and microcredit.
For more information on the four aspects of SRI, see Getting Started in SRI.
The UUA has put together some key resources to help congregations with their SRI programs. See Tools for Congregations. These include:
- Proxy guidelines
- Screening guidelines
- Shareholder advocacy you can get involved in
- Where is your congregation on the SRI spectrum?
- UUA Matching Fund (for community investing)
For more information contact responsibleinvesting @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
