We can help advance your organization's mission through responsible financial and social stewardship, through a diverse, sophisticated portfolio incorporating a responsive strategy that is aligned with your long-term objectives.

We have provided Responsive Investing solutions for more than 20 years. Our team has cultivated a deep understanding of the needs of institutional clients, and we provide this service for both consulting and OCIO clients and offer RI opportunities tailored to you.

FEG Value Add:

  • Discover your Starting Point

  • Implementation of RI

    • Faith Based Investing

    • ESG Investing

    • Impact Investing

  • RI OCIO Portfolios

Advance your mission while balancing financial responsibility and social stewardship.


We can help you identify how to begin, narrow down your options based on your needs, and guide your organization through the implementation of RI. Our team can tailor a diverse and sophisticated portfolio designed to help reach your long-term objectives that your organization and community can feel good about.

Both consulting and OCIO clients can take advantage of RI opportunities. This can be accomplished through a spectrum of investment opportunities from issue-specific screening to complete ESG criteria integrated across several asset classes.

 

What is Responsive Investing?

FEG uses Responsive Investing (RI) to encompass a range of environmental, social, governance, and impact investment strategies.

We believe RI is becoming increasingly prevalent, with a number of implementation options as investors continue to dedicate more assets.

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Source: U.S. SIF. "2020 Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends."

 

Some of the most common approaches to RI include:

  • Socially Responsible Investment: SRIs are considered socially responsible due to the nature of the business the company conducts. This includes negative exclusionary criteria (e.g., exclusion of "sin stocks").

  • Environmental, Social, Governance: ESG is a holistic screen for all aspects that can impact security value. ESG factors are a subset of non-financial performance indicators which include sustainable, ethical, and corporate governance issues.

  • Engagement: Leveraging the shareholder rights of public investments to express an organization's mission and values.

  • Mission-Related Investment: MRIs include public or private investments that support an organization’s mission by generating a positive social or environmental impact.

  • Program-Related Investment: PRIs are private, mission-aligned investments that serve as a component of an organization's grant-making.

  • Impact Investments: Investments made with the intention to generate positive and measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.

The true value of RI is in empowering your organization(s) to pair risk management with desired portfolio returns while also staying true to your values and mission. Through RI, your institution can scale its impact and manifest change, both locally and globally.

Growing Opportunity

Investors choose RI for several reasons: mission alignment, social benefit, fiduciary duty, returns, risk, and client demand.1 More institutions than ever are incorporating ESG criteria into their decision-making, indicating that RI is here to stay and is on pace to make a big impact.

Institutions are working hard to use RI to drive change in our world. Of the prevalent RI focus areas, climate change and carbon emissions have been one of the most important to institutions since 2012, with more than $2.6 trillion invested in solutions.2

 

Top Five ESG Criteria 2020

Data Source: Adapted from US SIF Foundations 2020 Trends Report.
1 US SIF Foundation 2018 Report. Note: Institutions cited multiple rationales, so affected number of institutions overlap.
2 US SIF Foundation 2020 Trends Report.

 

Intentionality and Types of Investments

Each investor’s RI approach depends on the desired level of intentionality, from exclusionary screens on one end of the spectrum to targeted impact investments on the other end.

Investments can range from low-risk opportunities, like local loan guarantees or microfinance, to higher-returning strategies such as a for-profit venture fund.

To learn more about impact investing and ways to utilize intentionality, read the FEG Insight, Investing with the Head and the Heart.

FEG's Commitment to RI

We are proud to support our clients’ desire to have their values reflected in their investment portfolios.

Our team of seasoned investment professionals is committed to understanding your unique needs and guiding you through the investing opportunities across the RI spectrum—from issue-specific screening to complete ESG criteria integrated across asset classes.

Gary Price

“We are excited to help our clients implement responsible investing opportunities that align with their mission and their portfolio objectives.”
—Gary R. Price, FEG Managing Director, Head of Responsive Investing

Our RI Committee works closely with advisors to evaluate and implement RI strategy to align with clients’ long-term objectives.

In addition, we also:

  1. Research, analyze, and share insights on RI trends and opportunities

  2. Develop educational materials and present at leading industry events

  3. Conduct ESG screening for client portfolios

We are proud to form alliances with leading partners, such as:

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Discover Your Starting Point for RI Today!

When the discussion arises about RI, there are a number of considerations. To help set your investment goals and expectations, FEG first starts with a discovery process to help ensure committee, board, and staff members are on the same page for your organization needs and objectives as they relate to RI.

RI Questionnaire

Source: FEG

Contact us to learn how to get results for your organization today!

Disclosures

Responsive Investing (RI) and all aspects of our services related to RI are done by FEG on a best-efforts basis. Because of various limitations due to the nature of various industry-related issues, FEG cannot guarantee that RI will align with or achieve the expected RI values or investment returns. Further, FEG relies on third-party service providers to determine whether various investments meet the applicable RI characterizations; thus, FEG's ability to correctly categorize the RI exposures of such investments will depend in large part on the accuracy of the third-party service providers. There can be no assurance that third-party service providers will correctly characterize the investments. Additionally, in many cases, FEG relies on representations from its investment managers and may not have the ability to verify the accuracy of the representations due to limited transparency.