Transition at FaithInvest - the resignation of Dr Lorna Gold
A message from Board Chair Dave Zellner on our plans for the future
The World Federation of Daoists takes a 'first step' onto the world stage
Faith & finance at the One Human Family conference
Registration is now open for the September FCI Quarterly Forum!
FaithInvest's 2023 Annual Report is now available
FaithInvest announces resignation of Dr Lorna Gold, pays tribute to her service & 'unwavering commitment'
FaithInvest was saddened in June to announce the departure of its interim CEO Dr Lorna Gold, who stepped down at the end of her period as CEO on 30 June 2024.
Dr Gold has served FaithInvest since 2020, first as Director of Movement Building, and for the last year as interim CEO in 2023, following the semi-retirement of founding CEO Martin Palmer who remains actively involved in FaithInvest as Founding President.
Dr Gold commented: 'It has been a huge honour for me to serve with FaithInvest over the last four years and to support the organisation in its development from a start-up to an established organisation with successful training programmes and advisory in the area of faith-consistent investing. FaithInvest has a bright future ahead and I sincerely wish the team every success.'
I'd like to tell you about the exciting new phase that FaithInvest is now entering. We have been thinking and reimagining! After five years of building deep relationships with a broad group of diverse faiths and working closely to enable them to align their investments with their values, we've learned a great deal about the challenges and obstacles they face.
This question is energising our staff, advisors and Trustees: How might FaithInvest smooth the friction that the faiths experience in their journey to align their assets with their faith values?
To that end, we have been designing solutions to enable faiths to move from aspiration to alignment of their faith-based assets with their faith values. We know that we will need philanthropic resources to build out these solutions and we are in the planning phase of a capital campaign, which we will share more about soon.
Building the solutions
To give you an idea of what we're planning, we intend to add two new services alongside our existing portfolio of services, which are mostly offered to our faith-based partners at no cost.
FaithInvest Consulting, which aims to promote, advance and facilitate FCI services for faith-based asset owners (FBAOs) and investment providers
FaithInvest Advisory Affiliates, which aims to facilitate a major expansion of services for FBAOs through FaithInvest-certified investment partners.
And we'll aggressively partner with the investment industry to strengthen and expand their faith-based offerings, enabling them to better serve FBAOs.
By providing faiths with what they tell us they need, we will catalyse faster change for the benefit of people and planet. Some of these services will be fee-based, helping to secure FaithInvest's long-term sustainability.
We're really excited about this new phase and we look forward to sharing the details of our plans with you very soon.
With all good wishes,
Dave Zellner,
Chair, FaithInvest
World Federation of Daoists takes a 'first step' onto the world stage
The World Federation of Daoists held its inaugural council meeting recently – and Martin Palmer was there to represent FaithInvest as Founding President, and also in his role as the WFD's newly appointed Special Advisor on UN Affairs.
Martin Palmer has worked with the Daoists for four decades, and the decision to found an international body to represent Daoism on the world stage is something he has long advocated
Master Li Guang Fu, President of the CDA and the new World Daoist Federation, and Martin Palmer
The event saw representatives from 28 countries and regions gather in Luyi for the WFD's first conference and council meeting, and also celebrate the 2,595th anniversary of the birth of Daoist philosopher and founder Lau Zi (sometimes spelled Lau Tzu).
Martin Palmer said: 'I have worked on the international scene for 40 years and have long felt that only when Daoism decides to go out to the wider, secular and religious world as an equal, can Daoism at last become acknowledged as a truly world faith.'
A wonderful panel on faith & finance at the One Human Family conference
FaithInvest took part in the Focolare Movement's wonderful One Human Family international interreligious conference in Italy, where we led a panel discussion on Faith, Values and Investments.
FaithInvest's Susie Weldon moderated the discussion, which was held in front of a very engaged and truly multi-faith and multinational audience of 480 people from 40 countries, speaking 12 languages. They included rabbis, imams, Catholic priests, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist monks, as well as Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Baha’i lay people, and believers of traditional African religions, of all generations.
The panel discussion explored how, by religions aligning their investments, faith communities could harness their potential as agents of systemic change, leading to a just and sustainable future for all.
Registration now open for the next FCI Quarterly Forum!
Registration is now open for the next FCI Interest Group Quarterly Forum on 5 September at 10.00 ET, 15.00 BST.
At this Forum we'll hear from Rabbi Jacob Siegel, the author of Put Your Money Where Your Soul Is: Jewish Wisdom to Transform Your Investments for Good, and others. More details on this Forum will be posted soon.
Discover the key issues that our community of faith-based asset owners is focused upon and keep up to date with weekly faith-consistent investing (FCI) research posts, our quarterly FCI Interest Group Forum and news about faith-based and faith-aligned investing.
To be added to the FCI Interest Group, reach out to us via email HERE.
Annual Report for 2023
Our Annual report for 2023 is now available. Click HERE to read.
Faithful Finance course to be offered again!
The response to our online, live-taught course Faithful Finance: An Introduction to Aligning Investments with Faith Values has been very positive.
The course enables faith-based investors to learn how they can incorporate their values into their financial decisions.
For those of you who would like to attend this insightful and practical four-week course, we will be offering it again later this year. For details click HERE
Help us develop tools & resources to support others
If you are able to, please consider supporting FaithInvest. By donating to FaithInvest, your gift helps us develop the free-to-access tools, programmes and resources needed to support faith groups across as wide a range of geographies and capacities as possible.
.jpg?upscale=true&width=520&upscale=true&name=Dave%20Zellner%20copy%20(1).jpg)
