Advancing Racial Equity and IMM: Lessons from Faith-Based Investors

This report, Advancing Racial Equity and IMM: Lessons from Faith-Based Investors, analyzes the strategies that faith-based investors are using to advance racial equity through impact measurement and management (IMM) practices. Faith-based institutional investors hold over $5 trillion USD.  Many have a strong history as pioneers in aligning their investing strategies with their values.

Throughout our work with the faith-based community in 2020, calls to advance racial equity in the U.S. and beyond increased in light of social unrest. In response, many faith-based institutions expressed a desire to use their capital to advance racial equity. To support this desire, the GIIN sought to explore lessons that could be shared with all investors from the way faith and values-based investors aim to advance racial equity in their IMM practice.The GIIN launched three successive cohorts of faith-based investors who expressed interest in advancing racial equity through their investments via the GIIN’s member network or through public comments by cohort participants. 

Drawing on the GIIN’s racial equity theme within IRIS+, developed initially with partners CapEQ, Policy Link, FSG and JUST Capital, this report summarizes the work of these cohorts in using industry tools to help translate their intentions into coherent strategies and actions that target measurable, positive and intentional real world impacts. The cohorts used IRIS+ to help investors select impact strategies and adopt recommended sets of metrics (core metric sets) that track performance toward advancing racial equity, through both their own policies and practices, and their investments. 

Key observations: 

• Participants seek to enact change in relation to their impact objectives by first engaging their financial managers, advisors and consultants.
• Faith-based cohort participants view IMM as a way to bring structure to their investing.
• Educating stakeholders in faith-based impact investing is a need and opportunity for racial equity and beyond.
• Faith-based institutions can be changemakers in advancing racial equity through their investments.  

Download the report, Advancing Racial Equity and IMM: Sharing Lessons from Faith-Based Investors and explore these observations in greater detail.