The first National Ethical Investment Week Action Guide for Charities, produced in association with the Charity Finance Directors’ Group, has been launched today.

The Action Guide offers practical tips to help charities ensure their savings and investments best support their mission.

It explores some of the latest thinking in the field, including the growth of social impact investing. It also gives ideas on how to help to spread the word about this and other trends in modern green and ethical investing.

Forward thinking charities have already begun to explore the potential benefits of social impact investing and it seems that the public may be interested in following their example.

YouGov research for National Ethical Investment Week (www.neiw.org) has found that 36% of GB adults with investments want to know more about ‘impact investing’ and this figure rose to 43% among 18-24 year olds.

Penny Shepherd, chief executive of UKSIF, the sustainable investment and finance association which is co-ordinating National Ethical Investment Week said: “The evolution of many different types of green and ethical financial products and approaches has a positive benefit for UK charities and the third sector.

"Financial service companies like the Co-operative are already using money deposited with them to support community and clean energy projects like the Westmill Wind Farm in Oxford.

“National Ethical Investment Week is a good time for charities to consider how they might deepen their own approach to green and ethical investing and finance. The field has developed rapidly in recent years and a range of strategies are now available.

"For example, the recently launched Worldwise Investor web site has identified 130 UK funds investing over £21 billion in assets for charities and others. The days are long gone when investing ethically implied sacrificing financial returns and our first ‘Action Guide for Charities’ will help charities to consider ways forward.

“In addition, our research suggests that if charities and charitable foundations develop the new area of social impact investing then British private investors are keen to explore following their lead.

“I urge all charities to download the Action Guide and see how they can participate in National Ethical Investment Week 2011”

Caron Bradshaw, CEO of the Charity Finance Directors’ Group, said: “Green, ethical and impact investing are positive forward looking strategies for charity investment, and ones that reap significant social, mission related, reputational and financial benefits.

"At a time when charities have stretched resources and the public expect more from them terms of accountability and transparency, these approaches make practical sense and are useful tools to support a charity’s work.”

Debbie Wheeler, head of the Charity and Social Enterprise team at The Co-operative Bank said: "The financial crisis has led to an increased awareness of how financial services providers use their customers' money, and we know this is increasingly important to the charity and voluntary sector, when their money could be used by their bank to finance activities that conflict with their and their donors' aims.

"During the last few years we've experienced a significant increase in the number of charity and social enterprise customers at the bank based, in part, on our reputation as a leading provider of ethical and sustainable finance."

The NEIW11 Action Guide for Charities, sponsored by the Barrow Cadbury Trust, is available here

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