Grants / Projects we are funding

ShareAction – Core Funding

Grant details

Amount:£300,000

Awarded on:01/01/2021

Duration:3 years

Status:Live

Area of interest

Systems change

The power of the global financial sector to drive or to stymy sustainable human development is second-to-none. Yet although the financial system fuelling the real economy, it stands apart from it. Despite its many benefits, capitalism is also responsible for fuelling multiple challenges we now face, not least climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, exploitation at work, and poor health. Covid-19 has highlighted how fragile our systems to support our way of life are, and the Black Lives Matter Movement has demonstrated we cannot return to business as usual. Rather, the onus is on building back better; creating a new paradigm that operates within, and respects, the limits of our planet’s resources, is more equal, humane and inclusive. To deliver such a paradigm shift, the implied and necessary transformation for financial markets would be profound, reflecting an evolution from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism and into impact investing. The next decade is, quite simply, make or break.

What the grant aims to achieve
ShareAction will look to make significant progress in driving the finance system towards a sustainable approach to capital allocation and stewardship. The situation is urgent, however, they believe progress can be made. ShareAction will promote a new, ambitious set of responsible investment principles, capturing the need for institutional investors to track and take responsibility for their impacts on people and planet.

Secondly, ShareAction will continue to survey, rank and engage in depth with the largest banks, asset managers and insurance companies globally on their Responsible Investment performance.

Finally, they will continue to pursue thematic social and environmental programmes that produce positive change in the real economy and in people’s lives. For Environmental, they intend to propel two more major UK banks towards full alignment with the goals of the Paris Accord to limit global warming to well below 2°C and as near to 1.5°C as possible. On Social, and in the context of the covid19 pandemic, which has exposed and exacerbated health-related inequalities, they will look to build a global alliance of institutional investors focused on public health to tackle health inequalities.

Who might be interested in this project?
Investors, asset owners, asset managers, banks, media, NGOs, campaigning organisations, government officials, policy makers and the general public.