Corporate Social Responsibility

The United Church Foundation encourages corporate social responsibility (CSR) by engaging in three different forms of shareholder activism: 1) exclusionary screening, 2) shareholder resolutions, and 3) investor education.

1) The exclusion of certain securities from our portfolios is allowed by the UCF Investment Policy where revenue derived from alcohol, gambling, tobacco, conventional military and nuclear weapons exceed certain percentages.

2) Proactive shareholder advocacy efforts are undertaken with ecumenical partners at the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), including the Pension Boards-UCC. Together with these other faith-based institutional investors, our collective economic strength and influence is exerted through dialog with management at companies whose governance and management practices are at variance with the UCC's social, economic and environmental values. (Not all issues advocated by ICCR are joined by the Foundation or the Pension Boards-UCC.)

3) Investor education efforts are undertaken on a continuous basis through our website, our two quarterly newsletters (UCFocus and UCF Review), workshops and presentations. The Foundation and the Pension Boards-UCC share the cost of one full-time staff position to carry this work forward.

While striving to remain faithful to the social values of the United Church of Christ as expressed though resolutions adopted at General Synod metings, the Investment Committee of the United Church Foundation (UCF) also takes seriously its fiduciary duty to its participants to invest solely in their best interests. Consequently, only General Synod actions that fall within the constraints of the UCF Investment Policy are supported through the UCF's CSR activities. Decision making about what falls within and what falls outside those limits is determined by the UCF's Board level Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment Committees.