Australia’s oldest and largest independent community foundation will entirely divest its $90 million corpus investment portfolio from fossil fuels and focus on investments with positive environmental outcomes.

This commitment is part of a global DivestInvest announcement at the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) in San Francisco. The global DivestInvest movement has combined commitments of $6.2 trillion of assets to stop investing in fossil-fuel companies.

“Australian Communities Foundation is proud to be part of this momentous commitment to invest our corpus into a healthy and sustainable world” said Maree Sidey, CEO of Australian Communities Foundation.

“Not only will the $9 million of grants we distributed last year improve our communities, now our $90 million corpus investment portfolio will multiply its positive impacts to the world” said Maree.

Australian Communities Foundation generates philanthropic resources to respond to social issues and community need to create a more equitable Australia. Moving its corpus to an environmentally sustainable investment portfolio bolsters its purpose to achieve positive social change and build healthy resilient communities.

Clara Vondrich, Global Director of DivestInvest Philanthropy welcomed the Australian Communities Foundation commitment, stating that “any mission-based philanthropy that pours grant dollars into programming while remaining invested in fossil fuels is treating symptoms while ignoring the cause. The global DivestInvest movement is accelerating the transition from old-guard energy of the past to a present and future powered by sun, wind and water.”

Australian Communities Foundation’s full divestment commitment means no new investments in the top 200 oil, gas, coal companies; selling any existing investments tied to these oil, gas, and coal investments within 5 years; and investing in climate solutions, such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, water efficiency and more.

“Our donors strongly support our ethical investment commitment. We are pleased with the strong returns we have already achieved since transitioning to an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) portfolio. We see this next step to full divestment as a prudent long-term strategy which will have an accumulative positive impact on our communities’ environment, society and economy.  We hope to inspire others to join this historically important movement” said Maree Sidey.

Media contact

Head of Marketing and Communications, Australian Communities Foundation

T: 03 9412 0412

E: comms@communityfoundation.org.au

About Australian Communities Foundation

Australian Communities Foundation is a not for profit organisation that enables everyday people to give to their communities and help create positive social change. For more than 20 years, the Foundation has provided $60 million of grants and is committed to social, economic, cultural and environmental justice.

Their purpose is to inspire and enable accessible philanthropy to achieve social change and build healthy resilient communities. They enable people to give to community causes they care about by enabling tax deductible giving, simplifying administrative requirements and providing grant making expertise.  ACF also empowers collective giving to increase social impact by coordinating donors and other organisations to pool funding and fostering a culture of philanthropic giving and understanding of social issues.

Its investment portfolio will move from an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework to a portfolio that is entirely divested in fossil fuels and focused on initiatives with a positive environmental funding impact.

To find out more: www.communityfoundation.org.au

About the global DivestInvest movement

DivestInvest is the commitment to sell investments in fossil-fuel companies and invest in those companies providing the solutions to climate change, such as sustainable energy, reforestation, zero carbon transport, the built environment and water management.

The global DivestInvest movement has commitments from almost 900 organisations and 60,000 individuals, with combined assets of $6.2 trillion to stop investing in fossil-fuel companies.

The Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS)

Wednesday 12 September to Friday 14 September 2018

The Global Climate Action Summit will bring leaders and people together from around the world to “Take Ambition to the Next Level”. It will be a moment to celebrate the extraordinary achievements of states, regions, cities, companies, investors and citizens with respect to climate action.

It will also be a launchpad for deeper worldwide commitments and accelerated action from countries – supported by all sectors of society – that can put the globe on track to prevent dangerous climate change and realise the historic Paris Agreement.

The decarbonisation of the global economy is in sight. Transformational changes are happening across the world and across all sectors as a result of technological innovation, new and creative policies and political will at all levels.